ShipShape Review |
In our review of ShipShape, what can we say about the abstract board game Stacking Tile Strategy. Try to fill your hold on three trips and score the most points. This is done through a round of tile selection against your opponent and then against yourself with your personal board. ShipShape is a light and airy title, but a good one with a lot of depth.
We looked at fun, replayability, player interaction, quality, and graphics and style to create an overall score for our evaluation of ShipShape. See the breakdown by category below.
TO FIND OUT MORE: How to play ShipShape | Buy ShipShape on Amazon
– BREAKDOWN BY CATEGORY
Funny (8 of 10)
We give a perfect score of 8 out of 10 points for the ShipShape test item. There are two sides to the game, and both are fantastic at what they do. You end up with a tile of nine squares, some as empty holes and some as one of three different score symbols. You have to stack them in your personal space to display the right combination of symbols to get big points. To get these tiles, there is a trick in the draw mechanism where each player can play cards 1 to 10 to determine the order. Tiles are moved in order from top to bottom, and when the cards are used up, they disappear for a while. You can see what’s going on with all the titles, so that’s a big advantage. The ability to work and draw in a competitive environment is just as important as what you do with the final product.
The game is partly an abstract strategy game that makes intelligent use of 3D space and partly a mathematical showdown between players. For such a simple title, there is so much to play in a box. There’s a lot going on there, everything interacts, and everything is well done. It’s all great fun, it’s a well-oiled machine and a race you can do quickly.
Repeatability (8 out of 10)
For the Reproducibility part of the ShipShape test, we give a fantastic 8 out of 10 points. There aren’t many details or specific things in this game, everything changes and there is always so much going on. A whole round consists of only three tiles, so everything happens quickly and a lot can go wrong or crooked. They are busy from start to finish with almost no effort.
Half the game is played with the opponent, the trick is a level of choice, and this thing never gets old before your opponents do. It all makes for an exciting game, but the second half looks like a whole new game every time. You get points for the final arrangement of the tiles, but there are 54 of these squares that can be placed in countless combinations. The combination of fast paced play, enjoyable interaction and constant freshness allows you to play again and again.
Player interaction (8 out of 10)
For the player interaction portion of the ShipShape test, we give it a high score of 8 out of 10. When you get a tile in placement, it’s a subtle change that has enough power to turn the game completely in your favor. Initially, you will choose from a limited number of numbers to try to strategically place yourself in 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc. to get the chip that best helps your stack. The top tile is clearly visible, but you can only see what’s below that tile, let alone any tiles below it. They don’t know everything, which creates this extra layer of imperfect information processing. There’s also a cool connection system at this point that allows you to throw another bad guy into everything. There’s a lot of flavor here.
Then there’s the personal part of building a message board. It’s always a matter of player vs. player, not player vs. player, but because the point scoring rounds come so quickly, you’re constantly outscoring your opponents who are higher in the standings, and you always want more. There is a lot of interactivity and as a bonus you can pretend to be a pirate and it won’t be funny.
Quality (9 out of 10)
For the quality of ShipShape review, we give a rare score of 9 out of 10. They’ve made it simple so you don’t think too much, but the makers of this game have really managed to make it look like an entertaining stacking game. There’s no such thing. No one has ever mastered 3D stacking on an existing puzzle like this. It’s not the intense three hour game with tons of tiles, it’s very light, but it’s at the top of its class.
The components and the production as a whole are of the highest quality. The tiles, as you can imagine, have a lot of nooks and crannies that can easily fall off, but they are thick and well made. The parts that serve as the point system are as solid as they are beautiful. They certainly think they are of high quality.
Art and style (6 of 10)
For the art and style section, we give an excellent score of 6 out of 10 in ShipShape magazine. Before we talk about anything else, it’s important to mention that this title may have the most beautiful cardboard treasure markers of any game. They have a nice color and design. Beasts that everything else is just solid. The wood tones, the characters, the accents all proved to be excellent. The art of boxing is slightly better than average.
There was no mention of the game having a pirate theme. That’s because it doesn’t really matter. It’s not like the game needs much history, well enough to make it something uniformly meaningful (you fill your ship with war trophies and you care about the space in your hull, hence the title). It’s not like you’re going to tell someone because they’re looking for a pirate game, but it’s a nice touch.
– AT CLOSURE –
Examination of the ship’s form |
ShipShape is a first-class title. It’s on the lighter side of the intensity spectrum, but it’s part of what it is. This game is both a gimmick and an abstract puzzle strategy that takes advantage of 3D space like no other. The game is very simple, but in its simplicity lies much genius. ShipShape has something for everyone and is very affordable, I highly recommend it to everyone. Here is our ShipShape magazine, we hope you enjoyed it!
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A full explanation of the evaluation criteria can be found here.
What would you write in your ShipShape magazine? Let us know in the comments below or on our BGH Facebook page.
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