Just in case anyone is familiar with the board game designer Uwe Rosenberg (designer of the lovely Cottage Garden), his next game, to be released soon, is called New York Zoo, a polyomino-style game about building enclosures and breeding animals New York Zoo
There's a new zoo-themed board game that has been made by Uwe Rosenberg, a famous name in the world of board games. The link below contains a whole bunch of videos (scroll to the bottom) that show viewers how to play the game, the rules, etc. New York Zoo | Capstone Games
I know this is an old thread, but I heard about this game recently, and was curious if anyone here has played it before? I haven’t, and am curious about it’s quality. It was created by a very famous designer, but from my reading online I have some issues with the game thematically. I don’t like how the main animals included are just foxes, penguins, flamingos, mongooses, and kangaroos. I wish there were some larger animals in the game. I also don’t like the emphasis of turning your zoo into a carnival park with rollercoasters and rides. But maybe if I actually tried the game out it would be more appealing.
I have played it, but not for a long while, so take this with a pinch of salt. The theme really is very, very light on top of what is basically a polyomino placement game. Each animal type behaves exactly the same, ie. there is no difference in gameplay between the foxes, penguins, meerkats etc. They're just animals that fill enclosures. As for adding rollercoasters etc, there isn't any emphasis on these, they're just useful shapes to help fill your board, they don't have any affect on the animals in your zoo. If you're looking for a game that does feel more like you're building a zoo, then Ark Nova is probably more suited (it covers breeding, in-situ and ex-situ conservation, animal houses etc); New York Zoo is a much more basic tile-laying game with some animal breeding (the animal meeples are very cute though!)
I've played it. It's basically just a tile-placing game, similar to a board game version of Tetris, with a bit of a zoo theme.
