New messy kid games are cleaning up in the market

NEW YORK — Katie Cogliano has learned to keep the Toilet Trouble game her kids love on top of her fridge, out of their sight. Her 6-year-old and 8-year-old love to play with the potty-shaped toy — but for Cogliano, it can be a pain.

As part of the game, players take turns flushing a nearly 11-inch plastic toilet before water spits out, which is supposed to hit a player’s face. But Cogliano’s kids tend to dodge it, and water ends up on the floors or chairs. Cogliano likes that Toilet Trouble keeps her kids off their screens, so they’re allowed to play it as long as there’s a tablecloth over the dining room table. But when friends come over, it definitely does not come down from the fridge.

“They’re not going to clean it up,” says Cogliano, who works in corporate education and lives in New York. “That I can tell you.”

It’s not just Toilet Trouble. Games are getting messier as toy makers try to match the popularity of Pie Face, a game that flings whipped cream at faces. The latest entries, such as Toilet Trouble and Soggy Doggy, splash, spray or shake water onto players. Videos of players getting wet or hit with whipped cream are popular on YouTube, Facebook or Instagram, and fuel sales.

Some parents say they don’t mind wiping off whipped cream or water spills so much because the games are entertaining enough to pull kids away from their iPads or video games.

“It’s just pure, basic fun,” says Brandi Reimers, who plays Pie Face with her family of four. They can go through half a tub of Cool Whip in an hour, says the mom from Nebraska.

Made by Hasbro, Pie Face became a hit after it was released in 2015. There are now several versions, including one that’s 3 feet tall. Pie Face also helped launch a new category of games for Hasbro, says Jonathan Berkowitz, who oversees the company’s games.

Hasbro followed Pie Face with Toilet Trouble this year. Hasbro attributed a jump in revenue during the first three months of the year to Toilet Trouble.

The games can become viral sensations online, and kids who see videos then ask for the games.

Toy maker Spin Master, whose best-known brand is the egg-hatching Hatchimals, rushed to release Soggy Doggy in time for the holidays, says Francesco Lercari, a vice president of marketing at the company. Soggy Doggy features a dog in a bathtub that’s filled with water. Players turn a faucet and the dog shakes quickly at one point, splashing water everywhere.

Marilani Alt was happy the game was able to keep the attention of her 4-year-old son. Other games might seem dull in comparison, she says.

“I don’t know if I can play Candy Land with him at this point.”

RICHARD DREW/AP Soggy Doggy, a game in which a plastic dog shakes water on players, is one a new genre of messy games. Parents don’t mind a little water if kids unplug from their iPads.