Any time a board game features an animal front and center on the game box, I know I'm going to have to try it out. Who am I to deny the big grizzly bear on the cover of Bärenpark? This light strategy game tasks the players with building the best possible bear park by laying tiles of different shapes onto grids. The animals themselves can only be seen in the cute little illustrations on the tiles, but the satisfying decision making in this puzzle-y game would have me picking it up regardless of the theme.
The rules of Bärenpark are pretty easy to learn, but they leave a lot of room for decision making. On each turn, you will lay one tile in your park. If you cover up a certain icon with that tile, you will get to take a tile from the market to use on a future turn. Some of the tiles are worth extra points - these are the ones that add fun new exhibits to your park such as a panda house or an ocean for your polar bears to swim in. These tiles are also much larger and more strangely shaped, so it may be easier to fit that one-square, no-point Porta Potty on your park instead! And beware - points decrease each time a tile is taken, so you need to get to the high-scoring tiles you want before your opponent does. Earn extra points by filling your grids all the way, with no gaps. Once somebody fills all four grids in their park, the game ends.
I love that Bärenpark is easy to pick up and play with a group of inexperienced gamers, but also full of meaningful decisions and different strategic options. You can also modify the difficulty of the game by using the optional achievements that provide extra point-scoring opportunities. Fans of Tetris and other pentomino games will enjoy finding the most efficient way to fill their grids, and the cute bear park theme should appeal to gamers of all ages.
If you'd like to learn and play games like Bärenpark, join us at an upcoming Tabletop Games event! Details and dates here.