Shortly before the 2023 game, the Swiss publisher announced Game factory with Rainforest the German version of the game by Johannes Goupy, which was published in 2022 (Orichalcum, Rauha). The placement game comes with a selection mechanism reminiscent of Cascadia or lush green and bright colors. You can find out in this review whether Rainforest can also convince.
Familiar mechanics
The goal in Rainforest is to collect jungle tiles, fill them with animal markers and then cleverly arrange them in your 3×3 jungle in order to get as many bonus tiles as possible for additional points. To do this, you first choose an open jungle tile from the display and take animal markers of the same color or animal species underneath. The selected tile is placed in the area below the game board. There is space for a maximum of 3 tiles, which can now be filled with the animal markers you received. Two animal tokens can also be saved on the game board at any time for future rounds.
Jungle tiles have certain requirements that must be met before they can be placed in the jungle above the game board. For example, some only need one red jungle marker and others need three jungle markers with two different types of animals. The more difficult the tile is to complete, the more points it scores at the end.
Populating & building a jungle
Once a jungle tile is filled, it moves up into the 3x3-space jungle. This is arranged from bottom left to top right. Once the first row of three is filled, the second is also filled from left to right. Last but not least, the third row. Care should be taken to complete the bonus tiles as quickly as possible, because first come, first served. The bonus tiles determine how many jungle tiles of one color must be connected to each other in order to receive this. If we fulfill the requirement, bonus tiles give us double or triple the number of points for a selected tile of the tiles that have just been connected.
In addition to the standard bonus tiles, there is also a diversity bonus. As soon as we have all 5 colors at least once in our jungle, we will now receive two more victory points per completed tile.
The game ends as soon as the first player has completed their 3×3 jungle. The round is played to the end and the points are added up. Every tile in the jungle, all bonus tiles and animal markers with the same symbol as that on our game board are scored. Whoever then has the most points wins.
Information about Rainforest
| Number of players: 2 – 4 Age: from 8 years Playing time: 20 - 30 minutes Difficulty: Family game Long-term motivation: low Classification: placement game Author: Johannes Goupy Illustrations: Alain Boyer Publisher: Game Factory, Funnyfox Official Website: Link Year of publication: 2023 Language: German Cost: 32,99 Euro |
Conclusion
Rainforest plays relaxed and fast. Thanks to the easy rules, even beginners can get in easily and get the full potential out of the game. Younger children will also quickly find their way into the game with the language-neutral game material. In addition, a round lasts around 30 minutes - sometimes less if there are 2 or 3 players who know the game well. This means that the game can also be played several rounds in a row.
But all of this results in the game lacking depth. Which tiles are displayed is a matter of chance and great tactics are hardly possible. The ultimate feeling is saving animal tokens that can be used to complete tiles later. Here, whoever can collect matching tiles and animal markers earlier wins. Accordingly, the game will probably be less convincing to those who play a lot. However, the game doesn't want this either. Rainforest takes proven principles and breaks them down to the bare minimum. It is clearly aimed at families and casual gamers who, for example, want to play a short, relaxed game after work, and Rainforest is ideal for this.
| Preview | Product | Rating | Price | |
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Game Factory 646320 Rainforest, colorful placement game for 2-4... * |
25,77 EUR |
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