I is for (The) Isle of Cats

by The City of Games

Picked this one up from Phoenix Fire-- one of 11 games I bought during the sale back in... May? Anyway, I wanted a tile-laying game with a grid and I was looking online at a game called Cottage Garden because I thought I would enjoy the theme better, but I noticed the bgg rating for Isle of Cats was better and decided to support local and go with it instead.

Players: 1-4

Time: 60-90 minutes

Ages: 8+

Theme: Umm... Magical Cat Island?

Mechanics: Card Drafting, Tile Placement (Grid), Set Collection

You are rushing ahead to an island to save some magical cats before some evil dude can get there and do mean things to them. Each turn you explore the island (draft cards), save cats (place them on your grid), and find treasure (smaller pieces that can fill in holes on your grid), while also trying to meet goals (public/group or private/individual). Score extra points for keeping families (cats of the same color) together on your ship.

I love this game! I don't really have anything bad to say about it... I like the way it plays-- it's not too complicated and yet has a variety of mechanics. I like the quality of the pieces and how they fit together just so. I like the artwork-- I can totally see cats sprawling around in the shapes of these tiles. I also love that the excess tiles keep our littles busy while we play. Any cats that aren't rescued during the turn are discarded, so we discarded them straight into Vivi's eager hands. She was so excited to fit the funky pieces together. Soon she'll be old enough to play with us.

My Rating: 10/10 - I would always be up for playing this one.

Dustin's Rating: 8/10 - He enjoys playing it, but he thinks it's a bit on the simple side. He's also bummed that the expansion doesn't add any new mechanics.