YORKTON - Continuing with a Canadian theme for September we take a look at Pacific Ocean from Timashov Publishing, a Canadian board game company based in British Columbia.
This is a tiny game, and therein lies much of its charm.
It comes in a package roughly the size of a deck of cards, not in a typical box, but a tin, which is really cool, if an example of over producing something.
Inside are a small deck of cards which are again very nice. The artist trio of Tati Bordiu, Lana Elanor, and Ksenia Smakova have excelled in capturing Pacific Ocean aquatic life such as dolphins, whales and manta rays.
Each card also has a brief factoid that is again cool, such as ‘the sea turtle can weigh up to 500 kgs. That a game played for fun is even a little educational is a bonus.
From there the game has simple enough mechanics. Designers Oleg Meleshin, and Yury Yamshchikov have kept it pretty easy to learn – well past a few icons to learn.
Cards can be played either for their varying resources, or for a game-end scoring condition – so there are decisions in game there.
Those decisions are made more important because the game lasts a mere six rounds. That makes this a quick game which is good, but is also the biggest drawback. There are so few ‘plays’ within a game the ability to plan a strategy for the cards – where you place them either resources or scoring having less impact because you can’t really build on what you do.
The designers have given players one more decision.
From a three-card hand you select two, offering those to your opponent – one face up, the other down. They select one and use it, and you then place the other. It’s an element of bluff, although typically you assume the face down is the card to take (smile).
After six turns both players score all the points by satisfying scoring conditions in their sanctuaries. The player who has scored the most points wins.
There are ‘Bot Cards’ for a solo game, but it wouldn’t be my first choice for a solitaire afternoon.
There is also a tropical fish (13 card) expansion which adds new fish and the possibility to play with three players to the Pacific Ocean game. The third player option does expand when the game may hit your table.
This is, in the end a difficult game to ‘classify’ if you will. The fine art, education snippets, tin packaging and fast play are all a cut above the average.
But, it feels like a few extra turns would help here – in part because quick filler games abound. It’s a crowded field to shine in, although the $25 price tag at does lend itself to a seasonal stocking stuff to consider.
