Classic Strategy Board Game Blokus Review
Blokus is one of our favorite strategy games to play. We spend a lot of time playing games at our house. This is a great strategy game to for kids of all ages.
It’s simple to learn since there are only a few rules. Yet, for such a simple premise, there’s a significant amount of planning involved. Blokus is somewhere between checkers and chess in terms of complexity.
Checkers is too basic to allow for much strategy. It’s fun but can get repetitive quickly. Whereas chess is complex, allowing for advanced strategies. Blokus falls in between the two, landing on a good mix of simplicity and strategy.
How to Play
In the game 4 players take turns placing their different shaped pieces on the square board. The player to place the most pieces wins. Each player has 21 different shaped pieces and pieces can only be placed where the corners touch.
No flat edges of the same color are allowed to touch. However, flat edges of different colors can touch. In fact, this is how so many pieces are able to fit on the board or conversely block other players from placing pieces.
The shapes are simple but finding a corresponding shape on the board gets harder as the game progresses. The objective is to place as many pieces as possible while preventing other players from placing as many pieces as possible.
Once the board is full, the player with the fewest pieces left wins. It’s possible for games to end in a tie. In our experience, most games end when each player has 1 to 4 pieces leftover. It’s rare for one player to place all their pieces.
While the game is officially designed for 4 players, games with fewer players are possible. While testing the game we found you can play with fewer players. By either shrinking the playing board or playing as more than one color.
Our tests revealed shrinking the board size by blocking out the outer rows worked best for 2 or 3 players. Playing as more than one color worked best for 2 players. However, it was a bit more difficult to keep track of the pieces.
Why Blokus?
Anyone looking for a 10 minute game to play with 4 friends or family will enjoy this game. This is a good game for grandparents and grandkids. Or couples on a double date.
It’s easy for kids to learn but engaging enough to hold the interest of adults. The game really adjusts to the level of the players playing it. Whether players haphazardly lay down pieces or work out an advanced strategy to crisscross the board while blocking everyone else. It offers something for all ages.
Comparable Games
Blokus is a board game similar to dominos, checkers, or even connect four. These games are based on simple rules and arranging pieces.
Blokus is perhaps most like Dominos. The idea is to place the most pieces. In Dominos the pieces are random but in Blokus everyone has the same 21 different shaped pieces. If you like Dominos then you should give Blokus a try.
Checkers is much simpler compared to Blokus. Only instead of taking pieces in checkers, Blokus involves placing pieces.
I like checkers but it gets boring quickly. After a few rounds I’m ready to play something else. Whereas as Blokus gets more interesting after a few warm up rounds.
Connect four has some strategy but mostly turns out like tic tac toe for players of equal skill. Once you understand the pitfalls of connect four many games end in a stalemate or a forced loss.
Blokus offers more strategies than connect four. There are traps and pitfalls with Blokus. However, there are usually so many corners to build from recovering from a mistake isn’t too hard.
Advantages and Disadvantages
The main advantage of Blokus is it’s easy to learn. There are only a few rules to follow. It’s like checkers or dominos in that aspect. Anyone can pick it up.
It also appeals to players of any skill. Beginners can pick it up easy while pros still learn new strategies. seems more skill based than random chance. Games that come down to the roll of the dice don’t seem as rewarding as games requiring more skill.
The main disadvantage is it’s primarily for 4 players. There isn’t any way to play with more than 4. I found you can play with 2 or 3 by making alterations but its optimally for 4 players.
Summary
My Blokus review gives this game 9 out of 10 stars. It’s a great game we always enjoy during our gaming sessions. Having 4 players is best but it can accommodate fewer players.
We enjoyed playing connect four, checkers, and dominos. However, once we started playing Blokus we lost interest in those games. They aren’t as engaging as Blokus. Blokus should be a staple for any family game night.
Classic Strategy Board Game Blokus Review brought to you by David M.
I’m David M. I’ve been playing video games a long time, my pong game was fire. Now, my kids run circles around me but we always have a good time. We mostly play party and family games. Strategy and battle games are still among my favorites. I like writing about games almost as much as I do playing them. My favorite games are: Moving Out 2, Out of Space and Overcooked All You Can Eat.
