Happy Hoppers was a surprise hit among the games we brought back from Spiel Essen. It's essentially a 2-4 player children's game published by Hobby World that children as young as 4 or 5 can play but it's captivating enough that adults will happily play it with their children as a family game and many will want to sneak further plays of the game even after the children have gone to bed.
Designed by Rob Fisher and Adam Porter, Happy Hoppers is a simple roll & move game where players have a team of three different-size cuboid 'hopper' pieces (notionally frogs, seals, crabs or octopii). You roll the three custom six-sided dice to determine which of your hoppers move and how far around the circuit of 16 islands. By landing on particular islands you can pick up pearls and treasure to earn you points but the fun of the game is in the way the hopper pieces stack: land on another hopper and your hopper (and all those hoppers on top of it) will move with the hopper you land on. Think of it as Camel Up (Eggertspiele) without the gambling, or a simplified version of Wandering Towers (AbacusSpiele/Capstone).
Happy Hoppers is scaleable too: in addition to the basic game you can play Happy Hoppers in 'adventure mode' with additional ways of scoring and a little more complication over the stacking. You'll want to stick with the basic game when playing with younger children but it's good to have the option of stepping up the challenge when you're playing with older children.
The artwork from Iraida Fokina and Valentina Churbakova certainly adds to the game's appeal but, like us, you may find it worthwhile glueing the hopper cubes rather than relying on the folded & tucked cardboard holding in place.