ISLE OF CATS, THE (2019)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
1-4	60-90 mins	Frank West	The City of Games

Your goal is simple. Rescue as many cats from the island before the evil Lord Vesh arrives, and organise them on your boat in the most efficient way.

Players start the round by drafting two cards from their hand, then passing them, SUSHI GO! style. These cards have a whole mix of abilities from extra baskets to catch cats, to treasure, to end of game rewards.

This draft isn’t so straight forward. You have to purchase them with your limited supply of fish, so you can’t always do everything. Planning is key.

Players then take it in turns to rescue cats. This too is nice and thinky. There are two sides of the island, and one side costs more to rescue from. Again it’s all about the planning. And that’s before another player takes that one cat you needed that fits perfectly on your boat.

Because when you take a cat, you need to place it adjacent to one all ready on your boat board.

And here too comes another level of planning. Your boat has rooms that must be filed to negate negative points, and Rats that must be covered up for the same reason.

The perfect round doesn’t come along often. From not getting all the cards you want in the draft, to that perfect polyomino cat being snatched by an opponent, there is always something there to make you have to pivot.

But that’s what is so good about THE ISLE OF CATS. And when it does go right, it feels so good.

On top of that, the game is beautiful. Each tile has a cat filling its polyomino tile shape. The boat boards are filled with little details (and each has a different layout). And the little wooden cat tokens are so cute.

And if the whole thing sounds too complicated for bringing the kids in, they even have a Family Mode to make it easier and friendlier.

THE ISLE OF CATS is one of the best polyomino games. You’ll constantly be scratching your head as you try to save as many cats as you can.