![]() ![]() Playtime on the box says 15-25 minutes, but even with our entire family of 4 at the table, this is a 15-minute game, max. I taught this to my kids and got playing within 3 minutes of setup, and teardown is a snap. And all the rules are on a single double-sided sheet. The rest of the platform, including the jetties, just flips over to keep the turtles locked underneath. The box insert is perfect: the island comes off, and is inserted into the base of the game box. These turtles are a sturdy, chunky plastic and they don’t fall into the “ocean” as easily as one might think. The production is perfect for a family game. ![]() Turns are only 30-45 seconds each (even less early on), but each turn has real meaning as you dramatically watch a player add each turtle in the hopes of not knocking any off the island. Knizia nails this one by making things so easy. If a player ever adds 3 turtles of the same color, or 5 total between all colors, to their personal supply, the game ends and the player(s) with the least number of turtles wins the game. If a player does push a turtle into the ocean, they take it into their supply if the submerged turtle was yellow, that player takes another turn, which greatly increases the chances that someone will add more turtles to their collection quickly. By the time 12-15 turtles are on that island, it gets very difficult to add a new turtle and NOT knock off any others. Games of Turtle Mania start without any real drama, but the action heats up quickly. On a turn, players draw a new turtle from a bag-turtles are colored red, green, blue and yellow-and push it slowly into the island, ideally by not knocking any other turtles into the ocean during this action. The island is balanced over an ocean represented by the bottom of a large cardboard insert. Using a small cardboard island balanced between four light blue jetty pieces, a game of Turtle Mania begins with 8 plastic turtles placed on that island. Players have a simple goal: end the game with the least number of turtles that have been pushed off of an island and into the ocean. I’m surprised that it is rare to find games that check all these boxes, but Turtle Mania is officially on the list. I played this game a half-dozen times over the course of two days, and our family loves it.Īs I have said in countless other reviews, I love games that are easy to teach, offer lots of replayability, and are a blast to play. In the last few years, Knizia has designed a couple of renowned family games, such as L.L.A.M.A and My City add Turtle Mania (2022, Pegasus Spiele) to the list. With more than 600 games to his credit, and probably thousands of other ideas that never made it to the table, Knizia is the most prolific game designer alive. Reiner Knizia has designed so many games that there is an outside chance he designed another game in the hour it took me to write this review. But you have made the AI even weaker in this game, which I think a patch can fix.Tigris & Euphrates. In the first version, I use a house rule of not buying cards because that makes the game way too easy. ![]() Another feature that weakens the AI even more. It is way too easy to buy out an opponent. Is there ever a need for the iap in this game?ĩ. The air still buy vehicles when they shouldn't (this was one of the worse things in version 1).Ĩ. The AI does not build up properties early enough when they should.ħ. It seems to hurt the AI too much as I never bet.Ħ. Casino spaces are completely unnecessary and does not belong in a competitive strategy game. Factories are very unbalanced, never a reason to build anything else.ĥ. There is a glitch on parking spaces - it would say x lost a turn and the graphics will remain on the screen the rest of the game.Ĥ. I like that the AI is now buying cards but they buy the wrong ones.ģ. Bonus tasks are ridiculous and unbalanced in favor of the human player and should not be in a custom game.Ģ. Starting a custom game still brings up tasks like in a campaign. I think an update would be needed to make it a better game:ġ. However, this version feels 1step forward and 2 back. As a big fan of the first version, I welcome new cities and a more challenging AI. ![]()
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