Blokus - Review

Over 2,500 years ago, someone in China developed Go. 250 years ago, William
Payne wrote Treatise on the Game of Draughts and brought Checkers into the
modern era from it's humble beginnings in ancient Egypt. Backgammon, the
king of all racing games, dates back some 5,000 years. Chess is over 1400
years old after someone invented the game in India in 600 A.D.

So what's up with the history lesson? Every so often a game comes along
that is destined to survive well into the future. As our examples from
antiquity demonstrate, these timeless games all share common ingredients:
basic pieces, simple goals and game play, and ease of learning with mastery
a challenge. In 2001, another simple yet challenging game came onto the
scene and it is destined to be played well into the future: Blokus.

Blokus is a simple game of territory control similar to Go or Pente. The
difference is that rather than small stones to mark your territory, you use
various shaped colored pieces of plastic. Each of these piece resemble the
falling blocks in the computer game Tetris. The object is to simply get
your 21 pieces on the board while blocking your opponents who are trying to
do the same thing. On each players turn, they place one of their pieces on
the game board.

The trick is that after the first piece is played in your corner of the
square game board, you may only play a piece if it touches another piece of
your color. To further challenge you, you can only play that piece so it
touches on the corner of the piece you've already played. Game play
continues until you either place all your pieces on the board or cannot play
a piece due to space constraints. Each piece has a point value and players
receive points based on what pieces are left. The player with the lowest
total wins.

The simplicity is what makes this game so appealing. The box says that kids
as young as five can play and based on staff experience, that holds true.
The very youngest might need a little direction, but those who can play
chess or checkers should find this game easy to play. But as a customer so
suciently put it, “The levels of strategy are so deep that it makes it an
incredible game to play over and over again.” Truly this is a game that
appeals to young and old alike because it is as complicated as you wish to
make it.

And while you may think that I'm just making this all up, you can look at
their multitude of awards including the coveted Spiel des Jahres award for
German game of the year along with a place on the Games Magazine top 100 of
2002 and 2003. Mensa, Dr. Toy, Family Fun and many others have all given
this great game their stamp of approval. This puts Blokus in some elite
company among contemporary games and solidifies it among the all time
greats.

Although the game is 100% plastic, it does not detract from the quality of
the game. The colorful molded plastic pieces are sturdy and will hold up to
heavy play. The board is solid plastic and sturdy enough to survive a
person leaning on the board with all their weight (don't ask). Storage is a
breeze with a divided plastic storage bin with areas for each color.
Assuming you put each color in it's place and don't do the shake and bake
with the box while putting away, you should have no problem simply opening
the box and playing the next game.

So why the history lesson again? As I said last year, in 100 years people
will still play chess, checkers, go, and backgammon. I can't say that in
100 years that people will play some of my other favorites from 2003. But I
think I can safely say that in 100 years people will still play Blokus.
With all the ingredients of a timeless classic, Blokus is poised to remain
playable and approachable many years to come.