Let’s take a trip under the sea to explore the beautiful creatures that await! Coral reefs teeming with life are the setting we are headed to today where we will see all that the ocean has to offer. We are off to explore in the newest game Aqua!
Aqua is published by The OP and Sidekick Games. It is designed by Dan Halstad and Tristan Halstad. Illustration by Vincent Dutrait. The game plays 2-4 players in approximately 45 mins.
Overview:
In Aqua, players explore the oceans and create diverse coral reefs through the placement of animal tiles. Building up their own reef with small animals can attract larger animal tiles as well helping players score more points at the end of the game. The player with the best growth, small and large creatures will score the most points and win the game!
Gameplay:
Players will each start with one of the Hot Spot tiles which contain 6 sides, one of each type of coral. On any player’s turn they will pick one of the face up coral tiles and place it on their Hot Spot starting tile. When placing the tile players may line it up to an edge so that at least one of the edges matches up to a similar color of coral.
Once the tile is placed the player may create a reef or habitat based on how the colors match up. Habitats form when three colors form a hexagon and you immediately place a small animal of that type of color on top of the newly formed habitat. Reefs are formed by 4 or more groups of the same color coral that are connected to each other.
The habitats will set you up to attract large animals to your reef. Once you have a matching shape of small animals built to a large animal you may claim it and place it on top of the small animals. But be prepared for biodiversity-if any of the small animals are the same they cannot attract a large animal. You do not have to take a large animal but you may place one at the end of turn with one of the small animals you placed that turn.
Once everyone claims a coral tile the round ends. The new player rotates and new coral is added to the market. After 17 rounds the game ends and you can use the scorepad provided to score everyone’s points. The large animals, small animals and reefs all score along with the ecosystems set at the start of the game for each small animal type. This can be changed each game to really add some variety. The player with the most points wins!
Impressions:
Aqua gives me one of my favorite type of gameplay aspects: tile placement. But it brings it in a more unique way in that the shapes of these tiles are not your normal gaming picks-they make lining up and picking the right angles a lot more challenging and I really enjoyed that.
I found the design and style of the tiles to be the best part of this game. The art is gorgeous and I love everything ocean/fish related so this was an immediate yes for me even before it hit my table. My family also enjoys this style of game so I was very excited to get it out for them.
One of the benefits of a game like this is that you don’t need to read anything on cards or tiles so it plays well with any age that can work through the gameplay. The puzzle aspect of the game fits well for multiple levels of gameplay from different aged gamers, and we found this worked well even with players who might not have a strong competitive streak in them.
Another aspect we really enjoyed here is the time on this game. This is a perfect after dinner game or quiet night play, with most of our games going around 30-45 mins. The turns do not take too long so there is little downtime for players in-between their turns. This is always a plus for us in our house.
Overall Aqua is a solid tile game with multi-level play that really makes you think through the way you play out the pieces. It’s been a favorite in our home and one I hope you get a chance to try as well!
Be the first to comment