New York Zoo

Do you remember Tetris? Lately, there have been loads of games that take influence from it, where players try to fit polyominos (think weirdly-shaped Tetris-y pieces) into a grid. One game designed who has had a field day with these polyominos is Uwe Rosenberg, a designer I gushed about in another review of mine. He’s designed some wonderfully streamlined ones such as Patchwork, and some big behemoths like A Feast For Odin. However, I’m here today to talk about a game that sits in between beginner and intermediate complexities.

In New York Zoo, 1-5 players are tasked with being the first to fill out their barren plot of land with quirkily shaped enclosures. However, New York Zoo throws in some gorgeous animal breeding as well – very Uwe. The game comes with 5 animals, artic foxes, kangaroos, meerkats, penguins, and flamingos. Players go around a rondel, with each spot either giving them a polyomino tile or two animals. When they take a tile, they simply slot it in somewhere in their zoo, and add up to two animals of the same type into it. If they take two animals, the animals go into existing enclosures, either empty ones or those with the same animal already there.

Every time the players pass by certain spots on the rondels, they trigger a breeding phase for a specific animal, and enclosures with that animal gain one new baby. Whenever these tiles are full of animals, the tile is emptied out and the player gets a bonus tile to fit into their zoo. These tiles not only help them fill their zoos faster, but also help plug tiny gaps that may form between the polyominos.

And it’s a wonderful mish-mash of tile placement and animal breeding. These two mechanics are intertwined neatly in the game – you can’t do one without the other. Although taking tiles is the fastest way to cover up space, animal tiles are needed to place new tiles.

Rounds of New York Zoo are satisfying. It is satisfying to slot tiles together perfectly. It is satisfying to pick up a bunch of animals just before they are due to breed. It is satisfying to simultaneously complete several exhibits to pick up multiple bonus tiles at once. The objective of the game is also extremely simple: finish your grid first. This means that players have something to work towards, without having to worry about complicated things like victory points.

The game is also a gorgeous production. Just look at all those animals! The gorgeous, multicoloured shaped meeples stand out very well against the polyominos, which are just plain shades of green. This makes the game not only a joy to fiddle with, but also very practical in terms of looking at the game state.

The only wrinkle in the game is its rules. Although the basic premise of the game is simple and streamlined, there are a few finicky rules thrown in. Rules such as bonus breeds, when you can place extra animals into enclosures, and order of breeds, can take a while to wrap your head around. Unfortunately, the rulebook doesn’t do us any favours. The rules themselves aren’t as concisely or clearly mapped out as I expected, which adds a mildly annoying barrier to entry for such a simple, “gateway” game. Although these wrinkles can be flattened out by a few minutes of searching on Boardgamegeek or YouTube, it feels weird that such a gorgeous, simple game – perfect to bring new players into the hobby – has this barrier for entry weighing it down.

For the longest time, there has been a massive consensus for which games are the best to introduce new players to the hobby – Ticket To Ride, Carcassonne, and Splendor to name a few. New York Zoo brings us a new contender to play with, and it definitely doesn’t pull any punches.