YORKTON - Packaging does not a good game make, but it sure doesn’t hurt in terms of catching the gamer’s eye.
Yoxii, by designer Jeremy Partinico and publisher Cosmoludo, is one of those games.
It comes in a black box with red lettering which really pops, and everything fits so snugly inside that you can store on shelf like a book without the pieces falling all over inside.
While you could push it – and several sister games in similar boxes – like books, but on a shelve front in a room it would make a really nice game room accent.
Inside the sharp-looking box, we find nice wooden pieces, and a functional, if not outstanding board.
Component wise Yoxii is very nice, although the box is the best part which is a little unusual especially when we are talking about a game with wooden pieces which are always a favourite.
But how about game play?
Well the rules here are pretty straight forward. There is a ‘totem’ piece which starts in the centre of the board. A player must move the totem each turn, then place one of the pieces adjacent to it.
The mechanic is repeated until a player can’t move the totem.
Then the values of the pieces in the eight adjacent squares are added – they range form one-to-four – and the player with the most points wins.
Initially the game seems to flow from the starting position to the outer edge of the board, which feels a tad repetitious. As you explore the game placing the totem in alternate spots will likely be something you want to explore.
You can teach this one lickety-split so that’s generally a good thing although simple rules may mean a game is not particularly deep – which is the case with Yoxii.
If you seek a two-player abstract strategy game akin to Hive or Yinsh or Chess, then Yoxii is not it.
But, you can have fun with simpler games – think the vintage Teeko from 1945, or the more recent Wizard’s Garden.
As one of the Meeple Guild members noted this is a game which feels less like an abstract strategy game than most, and because of its simplicity to learn, is a game that non-abstract players are likely to be more interested in trying.
As a diehard abstract strategy fan Yoxii plays like a filler game before or after hardier game options.
Yoxii also is another of those games good for a coffee shop game, or two, or to take to the cabin, or when you and the better half have a hotel stay on the calendar.
Yoxii is not many things – again the depth is not there – but what it does offer makes it worth looking at, and it is going to look nice on the shelf.
Check this one out at ilo307.com
