I went to my local board game cafe recently, and tried three new games.
These are not sponsored, I receive no affiliate links or any compensation for these comments.
Tsuro
A beautiful and beautifully simple game of laying a tile before your own token to continue its path on each turn. The goal is to keep your token on the board longer than anyone else’s, but as the board fills up this becomes harder because there are fewer empty spaces left… and another player’s tile may also extend your own path in a direction you’d rather not go.
This was a fun and super simple game. You choose a starting point, and your goal is to stay on the path longer than your opponent. You draw a hand of tiles, each with paths that connect the 8 points, 2 on each edge, and play them. The paths are random, and create a really fun flow to them.
This is easily a game I could play with a kindergartener and both of us would have fun. There is strategy, but you can play your tiles on vibes alone, and you might not win, but you’ll have a good time. I would recommend this to a family with small children, great for family get togethers like holidays.
Cat Lady
In Cat Lady, players are cat ladies, part of an elite group of people including Marie Antoinette and Ernest Hemingway. During the game, you and your fellow cat ladies will draft cards three at a time, collecting toys, food, catnip, costumes, and of course lovable cats. But watch out! Make sure you have enough food for all of your feline friends or your hungry cats will subtract points from your score. The player with the highest total victory points wins!
This game was a bit of a miss. The core of the game is to have a large amount of cats that have all of their needs met. Unfortunately there were a lot of meta currencies, and the central focus was fuzzy. The game was low on decision making, and felt like we were just collecting cards for the sake of collecting.
If you want a cat-themed game, I would actually recommend Boop, which maybe I’ll write about some other time.
Takenoko
A long time ago at the Japanese Imperial court, the Chinese Emperor offered a giant panda bear as a symbol of peace to the Japanese Emperor. Since then, the Japanese Emperor has entrusted his court members (the players) with the difficult task of caring for the animal by tending to his bamboo garden.
This was a very cute game. You are building a bamboo garden, growing the bamboo, and feeding a giant panda with said bamboo. You get random mini objectives, like have a three pink tiles in a triangle, that really just helps with minor decision making. A very chill game that is family friendly, and quick to pick up.
The Nerdd 