Sometimes, it is very much the simple games that bring pure quality to your tabletop. No tricks or frills. No elaborate plays and complex strategies with a multitude of rules that constantly require consideration. Oh no, not here, Blokus is brilliant.
Rules overview
A game for 2 to 4 people which actually plays best with 4 people. My suggestion if there are just 2 of you (pick up Blokus Duo instead) is to play with 2 sets of colours each as you won’t have a game with just 2 colours on the board.
Each player selects their colour and takes the 21 associated playing pieces with the colour. Your traditional game colours of yellow, blue, red and green on offer. The pieces are made up of squares, like tetris pieces, and from 1 square up to 5 squares for the shapes formed.
The objective is simple, play all your pieces to win.
Playing pieces is completed by taking turns and laying one piece at a time. Any piece you have remaining. However, you can only connect your pieces on a corner of a piece you have already played (the starting piece is placed in a board corner). You cannot lay your pieces edge to edge, it’s on the diagonal at a corner only.
That’s essentially it, get rid of your pieces first from here. Should you be unable to, then you are done and await other players to complete the game. If all players cannot complete, simply count the amount of squares within the remaining pieces you have, the player with the fewest squares in their pool is the winner.
Visually stunning
A simple board for laying the playing pieces on. Nothing complicated but as the game progresses the colours of the pieces as they merge and intertwine together actually becomes very satisfying to look at. If you do manage to play all your pieces it instantly looks incredible. That satisfaction of doing this is very pleasing, or at least that is what my wife tells me as she has managed to do this, whereas I have not. It is a challenging game.
Player interactions.
Games are meant to be social but this game offers plenty here. There is a constant back and forth purely because it plays out quickly. As the title in the game suggests, yes, you are trying to play all your tiles, but you also want to block your opponents in and I can assure you, they are trying to do just the same. This leads to plenty of interactions amongst the players and not always the most positive, but invariably always amusing.
Players will also be trying to influence opponents’ plays, more than likely to protect their own interests. The board gets busy so quickly and everyone wants more space so they can get their pieces out. So if you can do anything to influence your opposition and get them playing in another direction then that is significant.
The Puzzle.
You run out of room incredibly quickly in this one. You’ll wonder if there is even enough room to get all the pieces out on the board. I haven’t done it yet but I am tempted to see if I can get all 84 pieces on the board by myself just to see if it is possible. I’m sure it is possible but it would still be a challenge and that is when you are in full control.
To then try and work around what your opponents are doing is just frustrating. In the good sort of way. The space just evaporates and then it is a challenge to figure out how to best fit your pieces into the grid, keep your game going and shut your opponents down. The great thing though, if it all goes horribly wrong, the game only lasts about half an hour and so you can take all the tiles back and go again straight away, try and set things right next time round.
It’s a firm family favourite and I can comfortably recommend this one for kids in early primary school. It offers plenty of problem solving skill development and strategy required.
Final Thoughts
I’m very easily pleased and Blokus ticks so many boxes, it is just fantastic. We love it in our home and will enjoy many years of this wonderful game.
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