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New York Zoo Review: Polyomino Masterpiece!

Intent: Inspire you to try playing New York Zoo

Did you ever want to be a zookeeper? Do you have an unrivaled passion for taking care of animals? Rather than going to the zoo, play New York Zoo instead! New York Zoo designed by Uwe Rosenberg, illustrated by Felix Wermke published by Capstone Games is competitive polyomino tile placement game for 1-5 players in which you compete to be the first to fill your zoo board. Will you solve the puzzle and build your zoo the fastest? Owl wait.

Overview

This game is a polyomino puzzle tile placement game in which you compete to be the first player to fill their zoo board! You will start with a zoo board and two animals, which will be placed in the houses on the left. You’ll begin by moving the elephant on the centre board by one to four (or three based on your player count) spaces to either grab an enclosure tile or two animals for your zoo.

If you choose to grab an enclosure tile, you will have to place it in your zoo and add an animal either from a house or other enclosure tiles in your zoo. If you grab animals, you may put them in one of your houses or one of the tiles on the board. It’s important to note that each tile may only carry one type of animal.

As the elephant travels around the centre board, it will pass breeding spaces, which allow your animals to multiply but only if you have two of the same on in an enclosure tile and only up to two times. Now, as soon as one of your enclosure tiles gets filled with animals, you will move them off your board, save one for one of your houses and get an attraction tile to help build up your zoo faster. The game ends when the first player fills their zoo with their enclosure and attraction tiles, they are the winner.

First Game Impression

I’m going to tell you about a bias I have right off the bat, I adore animeeples and polyominoes. This game has been a dream come true.

This game was actually our introduction to Uwe’s polyomino games. We haven’t had the pleasure to experience Patchwork, Cottage Garden, or many other great games but are more excited than ever to give all of them a shot after a lovely first experience with New York Zoo.

I have to say, this is one of the most beautifully illustrated game I’ve ever played. The box just brings me an immense amount of joy and the contents do not disappoint. The animeeples are wonderful, the boards are incredibly well designed for not only functionality but aesthetics and nostalgia. The set up did take a while for the first game but with proper storage of the enclosure we knew it wouldn’t be a concern. It was great to have a large box to store all the animals and the once the game started the table presence was just wonderful.

The game itself exceeded our expectations. The goal being so simple, we expected quite a light game but the depth in this game is incredible. Within the first few moves we saw all sorts of strategies and routes we could take, we were drawn in from the first few minutes! Tylor ended up beating me in the first game, but we immediately wanted to play again. The only downside we noticed was the clarity within the rulebook, with iconography present and rules stated there were a few elements we were slightly confused about, primarily when you could move animals between enclosures and the “exactly one"" rule for placing animals. We did play this game fairly late, so it was not a concern moving forward, just tired brains.

Thoughts After Five Games

This is a game that we love and can see drawing more people into playing games. We’ve had the pleasure to introduce this game to a few folks and everyone was blown away by not only the gameplay but the presentation and the illustrations as well. Let’s face it, who doesn’t love animals? The meerkat (which Tylor has house ruled an otter, as otters are his favorite animal), the flamingo, penguin, arctic fox and kangaroo! They’re such a delight!

The animals are just the icing on top though, the heart of the game is the incredible mechanics. The tug and pull effect of deciding between larger tiles to fill up your board or smaller tiles so that you can get more attractions is riveting. The timing of when you take animals or enclosure tiles is the key to your success and as that decision is heavily influenced by the choices of your opponents you find yourself immersed until the very last second. What I love to is how close each game has been for us, every game we’ve played has come down to the wire.

The game is easy to explain and to jump into, it’s inviting, warm and each playthrough is an absolute pleasure. I can see us introducing many individuals who aren’t big into board games with this game, and I bet they will fall in love with it as much as we have. The fast variant for two player is an incredible addition, as you get the entire feel of a game in a shorter time-frame making this a perfect morning game to start off the weekend.

I always worry about replayability when I get this excited about games, but with the variability Uwe has built into the game I’m not worried one bit.

MERIT Report Card

Overall Letter Grade: A-

Strengths: This game has a little bit of everything, a inviting puzzle, simple and fun mechanics, gorgeous artwork and beautiful animeeples! It’s an incredible game to introduce individuals to the hobby as it provides a joyful and memorable experience.

Areas of Improvement: A slightly better theme integration, understanding why we’re racing to build our zoos or why animals filling tiles produces attractions would have pushed this game over the top for me.

Memorability: A-

How often do I think about the game? Well since I do love animeeples and polyominoes, I definitely think about this game more than an average board game enthusiast. I also have been wondering what other animals could have been included in this game, lions, bears or even giraffe? How legendary would a giraffe animeeple be?

How often is the game brought up by the individuals I play with? The individuals we have introduced this game to want to keep playing it, it’s an immersive and exciting experience and it usually comes down to the wire, which certainly keeps folks coming back for more.

How many memories can be built from this game? A few for sure! It’s always such a joy when you can obtain the perfect piece or when your zoo growth just works out. There’s many opportunities for that to happen and I find that even though it may not be me who gets that piece, it’s always an exciting experience to see someone fit a piece just right.

The race for the attractions is exciting as well, it’s silly to hoard up on kangaroos but sometimes you just have to! There’s certainly many laughs and as I mentioned before, because the games are so close each time they’re sure to be memorable as well.

Education : A-

At first glance the main educational element is certainly the puzzle behind polyominoes, you certainly have to work the spatial awareness aspect of your brain to ensure that you plan, adapt and fit your pieces in the most conducive way possible. However, there is so much more to this game!

The most interesting element is the decision between taking the larger tiles that fill up more spaces but are tougher to fill up with animals or the smaller tiles, which you certainly can fill up with animals faster to get attraction tiles. The planning and adapting here is just incredibly interesting and it’s not a completely obvious relationship. Not only that, all the shapes are different so there’s just so many factors to influence your decision, it’s super interesting to keep playing and see your strategic thinking grow within this game.

Managing your animals is certainly interesting as well, knowing when to take one rather than two to move animals in a smoother manner, and accounting for the breeding spaces is an intricate race. There’s a lot of responding to what your opponents do and simply thinking ahead. You may see a piece you want and you have to take strategic action, account for the moves of everyone else in order to play just right to get the opportunity to snag that piece. Blocking your opponents from getting what they want is also important.

The biggest element I’ve found extremely interesting is the complexity that’s hidden behind a fairly simple mechanic. It’s an education element that we often take for granted and has got me looking into “simple” tasks with a much more appreciated lens. Sure it’s easy for me to open the fridge and make myself a delicious sandwich, but the fridge is an incredibly complex machine, the ingredients have come from all over and have been made through various processes. Definitely makes that sandwich taste that much better knowing all the hard work that went into making it happen. New York Zoo is precisely that, it may seem simple but there’s so much complexity in each decision you make, makes you really appreciate the design process and thought that went into every little element.

Replayability: A-

The replayability is wonderful, but then again I do love puzzles. As the tile setup shifts, each game creates a different puzzle. Reminds me slightly of a game of Tetris, I can just continue playing and the competitive aspect makes it even more fun.

The fact that the game heavily relies on what your opponents do is what makes it extremely replayable, you’re essentially guaranteed that you wont play the same game twice. You also have the option to primarily focus on yourself or focus heavily on your opponents to take the game to the next level. I foresee myself playing this game many many times in the future.

Imagination: B+

I can’t stop raving about games with beautiful illustrations and artwork, this game certainly fits that category. The artwork is just so pleasant, it’s so friendly and inviting. The animeeples are wonderful and it’s so neat to see animals not often found in games. The game board in itself is just wonderful, you really feel like you’re building a zoo in the heart of New York.

I do love the potential for story telling. Having one meerkat at the edge of the board, well you know there’s a story there! Also love the aspect of once enclosures are filled up the animals are all discarded, certainly motivates you to have an empty zoo, which I’m definitely all about.

I would have loved to see a bit of a further theme integration. The game is a puzzle but even adding language such as that once the enclosure tiles are filled with animals, they’re set free and you receive an attraction tile as a reward. Providing a backstory on why we’re building a zoo and what motivates that would have elevated this game from great to excellent.

Target: A

This game has excellent presentation. It’s the type of game I can see many people picking up off the shelf and taking a look at. I am the intended consumer for this game so again my bias is likely showing here but I can see my family or my younger sister seeing this game and wanting it.

The complexity, ease of play and replayability make this game ideal for inspiring folks to play board games. If this game was my first experience in the board game world I know I would get drawn in instantly and want to discover the likes of Agricola, Patchwork and Feast of Odin. Uwe Rosenberg has propelled this industry forward and continues to create fantastic games that draw more people into our wonderful hobby.

Great addition to the Capstone Games line up, thrilled to see what people think of this game and the stories and memories they make from it.

Tylor’s Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐½

Well this game is just stunning! I love puzzles and I especially love puzzles that involve racing to finish it faster than everyone else. For reference, I use to love playing battle Tetris, and I get a similar feeling while playing New York Zoo (slightly less stressful). Couple that with animals and I think you have yourself an absolutely great game!

I am a particularly big fan of the strategy of thinking ahead to force your opponents into taking certain tiles or to secure yourself a tile. Depending on player count, the movement is varying but all the same. This does get more difficult the more players that are involved so that is one thing I like about this game. It almost feels like a different game with 2 players versus 4 players.

I don’t have much experience with polyomino games but this game definitely makes me want to play more!

Final Thoughts: This game continues to provide an incredible experience. It’ll certainly be a game we use to introduce many individuals to the hobby and I would recommend this to anyone. There’s just something about animals, puzzles and great art that soothes my soul.

MERIT Report Card Letter Grade: A-

Click here to learn how I review games and the rubric for my letter grades!

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