Board Game Review: Blokus (everyone's favourite?)

“Hey let’s play Tetris.”
“I don’t have a Nintendo.”
“...seriously!?!”
“But I do have this game that is similarly different and counter-intuitive to Tetris.”
“That makes no sense.”
So Blokus has received some bad rap from hard-core gamers for being too easy or too complicated; yeah, I don’t get it either.
I find the game is complicated and forces you to think. Now with a game that takes (according to the box) +/-20 minutes, you’re not supposed to be placing pieces as if you were playing chess. I’ve won hour long games because the opponents were thinking too much and I’ve won and lost short games because we were just putting pieces in.

So Blokus is played with 2-4 players, aged 7+, as mentioned above, in about 20 minutes.

Lets’ see if Wingdings work here:
Each player has twenty-one pieces from a single 1x1 square  to twelve (12), five (5) square pieces:











and the like.

I guess Wingdings kind of work; the point is made, nonetheless.

Each player places their first piece so that one square of the piece is securely in the corner.
The following pieces must be place diagonally, corner to corner. This is what seems to get some people in a world of orthogonal-ness. I guess this is called an “abstract” game.

Play continues to the point where you are now placing pieces diagonally to your own, but orthogonally to your opponents.

The players intertwine their pieces, eventually passing with no moves, until no more pieces can be placed.

The winner is the player who has the least remaining squares.

So why play Blokus, even though you can buy it from Walmart? It’s not like Blokus is the newest game on the market. It’s not like Blokus is the most in depth game on the market. So why play?
Because if you like to think and have about 20-30 minutes in between games, it’s the end of the night, or a warmer-upper at the beginning of a long day of gaming, Blokus is fun, it’s quick to setup (15 seconds), quick to play (20-30 minutes), and really jump starts the analysis part of the brain required to play heavier, bigger, and longer games.

Don’t hate on Blokus just because a 7-year old beat you.

I feel bad this review is short, but most of the reviews are describing the game...this game is short, easy, and simple to describe.