Azul (2017)

“In fact, I like Azul Duel so much that unless I’ve got more than two-players, I can’t see a future in which I’ll ever pull Azul off my shelf ever again. It’s just that good.”

The reviewer and their child enthusiastically praise Azul as a great family game, highlighting its fun tile-placing mechanics, strategic depth, and replayability.

The reviewer praises Azul as a beautiful and colorful modern classic that serves as a great gateway game, offering a satisfying puzzle experience where players draft tiles to create mosaics while strategically denying opponents their desired pieces.

The reviewer enthusiastically praises Azul as a terrific and perfectly designed abstract game, highlighting its beautiful aesthetics and precise, engaging strategy that even allows for surprisingly cutthroat plays. He considers it one of his favorite games of the year.

The reviewers expressed immense love for Azul, calling it one of their all-time favorite board games, praising its beautiful components, ease of learning, and strategic depth.

“Azul is renowned for its simple rules, strategic depth, and stunning visual appeal. It serves as an excellent gateway game, attracting both casual players and dedicated hobbyists alike.”

The reviewer finds Azul to be a fantastic and attractive tile-drafting and pattern-building game that is both strategic and highly accessible, making it a great fit for hobby gamers.

“The result is a game that is deeply absorbing, intensely challenging, and thoroughly rewarding to play. I have no hesitation in recommending it to your consideration.”

The reviewer expresses a deep affection for the original Azul, calling it an iconic and instrumental game that provided a significant level of enjoyment and depth to their board gaming experience, despite acknowledging that later iterations might offer different appeals.

The reviewer is highly enthusiastic about Azul Duel, praising it as one of the best two-player games and recommending it as the definitive choice for two-player Azul experiences, despite minor critiques regarding some component quality.

“The game is puzzle-y, spatial, and tactical, filled with set-collecting goodness, pretty bits, and the kind of gameplay that welcomes everyone to the table.”

Azul is highlighted as a beautiful, intuitive, and elegant abstract strategy game, perfect for both beginners and families, offering tough choices and excellent replay value due to its two different play modes.

“Azul is a fantastic game. It's simple and accessible for all kinds of players, and it's also got some surprising strategic depth when you play with more experienced folks.”

The reviewer highly recommends the Azul: Crystal Mosaic expansion for experienced players seeking new challenges, praising its value, the new double-sided player boards for changing up the puzzle, and the added plastic trays. The only minor critique is the absence of a dedicated tile container.

The reviewer highlights Azul's deceptive simplicity, noting that its high level of player interaction and calculated drafting create intense tension and strategic depth, despite some players potentially finding its abstract nature and competitive pressure unappealing.

The reviewer praises Azul as a popular and intrinsically rewarding game that balances drafting and tile placement with strategic depth and elegant components, making it a great choice for various player counts and a staple for game nights, despite minor issues with the score tracker.

The reviewer highly praises Azul as a game night staple, noting its engaging blend of tile placement and drafting, attractive components, and accessibility for new players, despite some minor "hate drafting" interactions.

The reviewer enthusiastically recommends Azul as an excellent light abstract game, praising its accessibility, strategic depth with player interaction, and overall compelling gameplay that makes it a must-have for any collection, despite some minor criticisms regarding potential randomness and anticlimactic endings.

The reviewers expressed strong enjoyment for Azul, highlighting its strategic depth with many challenging choices, engaging player interaction, and opportunities for defensive gameplay.

The reviewer highly recommends Azul, praising its engaging pool drafting mechanics and satisfying scoring system, despite noting a somewhat lacking theme and limited variability in the variant board.

“It’s the rare abstract game that grows with you; gentle for newcomers, sharp enough for veterans, and endlessly replayable in between.”

The reviewer highly recommends Azul, praising it as a beautiful, fast-playing abstract game that offers satisfying strategic depth despite its simplicity, making it a very enjoyable experience.

“Absorbing Azul is a fantastic game. The simple drafting and placement rules create a battle for the right number of tiles with the other players.”

“Azul is a go-to recommendation as a good first modern board game for many in the tabletop gaming community. It’s a joy to play, even after dozens of playthroughs.”

The reviewer highly recommends Azul, especially as a two-player abstract game, praising its cutthroat and competitive nature; however, he finds it loses much of its charm and strategic interaction with three or four players.

“The original Azul game is very straightforward with players mainly focusing on which colors to draft and which row to place them in. If we’re on the other end and want to play a quicker game but still enjoy some fun drafting choices, we’ll go with the original Azul game.”

“The original is perfectly simple. With straightforward and easily understood rules, this is the least overwhelming in the series. If you enjoy straightforward abstract games Azul is a great choice for you.”

The reviewer found "Azul" to be a solid and highly enjoyable abstract game, particularly excelling with two players due to its tension, despite minor concerns about longer playtime with four players and some of the game's artistic choices for plain tiles.

“Between its beautiful presentation, simplicity and depth there’s little doubt that Azul has earned its place as a modern classic.”

The reviewer highlights Azul: Stained Glass of Sintra as a beautifully produced game with fantastic components and more straightforward scoring than the original, making it a great family game. However, they felt it lacked significant innovation and offered less strategic depth or 'gaminess' compared to the first Azul, suggesting it feels more like a variation or expansion.

“As a final comment – while I wouldn’t pick Azul for my game of the year, I would pick it for family game of the year, and I hope it does win the Spiel des Jahres and goes on to enjoy evergreen success as a modern staple.”

Azul offers a satisfying tile-laying experience with accessible rules and emergent gameplay, though it may lack long-term replayability for some and can lead to early player dominance.

The reviewer found Azul to be a colorful and strategic tile-drafting game with good replayability and nice components, but noted its potentially cutthroat nature might not be for everyone. While appreciating the game itself, the reviewer felt the MSRP was too high for the content and suggested trying a free printable version before purchasing.

“Because of this, Azul is definitely a good game, maybe even excellent, that brings the joy of solid tactical decisions to a short playtime and an accessible rules set. That said, it misses out on joining the ranks of the truly great or exceptional because it fails to provide a memorable experience beyond the game as it is played.”

Azul is a simple and visually appealing abstract game that, while enjoyable for a few plays and suitable for casual gaming with family, ultimately lacks the compelling 'X factor' and long-term replayability to make it a standout or strong gateway experience for the reviewer.

The reviewer gave Azul a 6 out of 10, finding it somewhat simplistic compared to other strategic games like Sagrada, though they acknowledged its appeal and replayability.