Review of Ubongo

Ubongo, a board game designed by Grzegorz Rejchtman(my pronunciation is Grègorsh Reightman), is a challenging and quick two-to-four player game. The instructions are simple, the game set up is basic, but the challenge may frustrate you. It’s also a lot of fun.

The premise is fairly simple; build a puzzle in a time crunch the quickest.

Everyone receives a bag of Tetris-inspired blocks, a puzzle board, and a peon. There are gems placed randomly in the gaps on the game board, everywhere on the board. A dice with tribal symbols decides which pieces you will have to use to build which puzzle. Everyone is dealt a different puzzle board each round. No one has the same puzzle. If you finish your puzzle the quickest, you yell ‘UbOnGo!!’(my favourite part), and you place your peon where you want it then grab two gems. As long as the timer is not done, everyone has an attempt at two gems.

The game ends once all puzzles have been played. The player with the most gems in a single color wins the game. If two or more players have the same number of jewels in their “best” color, the player with the most jewels in their second best color wins.

The game sounds pretty simple, but those puzzle pieces don’t like to fit the way you want them to. I find myself wanting to just finish the puzzle even if I don’t get gems and the time’s up. Just to know that I can do it, lol.

This game may not sell in your typical toy store, so you’ll have to find specialty game shops, which exist in most cities, you just have to find them.

Enjoy!

~Darleya~