Calico (2020)

The reviewer highly praises Calico as an instant hit and a 'gold medal game,' noting its simple rules quickly evolve into a deep, brain-burning puzzle that is both frustrating and incredibly rewarding.

The reviewers highly recommend Calico, praising its elegant design as an accessible yet deeply satisfying tile-laying puzzle that offers longevity and replayability for various player types.

Rahdo highly recommends Calico, praising it as a wonderfully fun and deep tile-laying puzzle that excels with its multi-layered scoring possibilities. He highlights its adaptability to cater to both new players and seasoned gamers, despite his initial disinterest in the theme.

“As you can see, the intricacies of Calico do not come from a heavy rule set, the intricacies come from the puzzle that you are putting together each time you play. This is exactly the type of game that I love to play.”

“Calico is a delightful and visually captivating board game that successfully blends pattern-building, tile-laying, and cat-themed goodness into a truly immersive experience. With its engaging gameplay, charming artwork, and high replayability, Calico has cemented its place as a solid title in the board game world.”

“I know the production of the components, the art direction, and the deeper than expected gameplay will have my loved ones asking to set it up and play it again and again!”

The reviewer finds Calico to be a genius and phenomenal game, praising its ability to achieve depth with simple rules. They highlight it as a challenging but welcoming puzzle that can feel brutal yet remains a highly engaging experience.

“The board game Calico is very deceptive. If someone draws you in with a theme like sewing a nice quilt to attract cats then you’d absolutely be forgiven for imagining a chilled out and gentle game. However, it’s actually a really tricky tile-laying puzzle and exactly the kind of game that I love.”

“Calico is deceptively rewarding for a game about quilts and cats. While simple enough to dive into, mid- and late-game requires a large amount of planning to ensure that remaining sections of tableaus are filled out in the most advantageous ways.”

Reviewers generally praise Calico as a highly engaging and thoughtful tile-laying puzzle game with appealing aesthetics and high-quality components, offering a satisfying and sometimes challenging experience for players who enjoy intricate decision-making.

“Once you get into Calico, if you love a tile-laying game that, on the surface, is very simple, but which gives you very crunchy decisions and tight restrictions, then this is one for you. I certainly don’t regret purchasing Calico, and I’m happy to keep it in my collection.”

The reviewer highly enjoys Calico for its engaging puzzle, beautiful presentation, and the tense, satisfying decision-making involved in optimizing tile placement to meet various scoring objectives, which contributes to its strong replayability.

Zee Garcia found Calico to be a very thoughtful and puzzly tile-laying game, appreciating its fantastic production quality and replayability, despite its potential for analysis paralysis and a theme that didn't personally resonate with him. He noted that the game's depth was a pleasant surprise, contrasting with a potentially misleading 'fluffy' cover.

“Do not let the bright, cute and warm theme of Calico fool you – this is one of the most thoughtful and mentally taxing games that I’ve played in a long time, despite having an incredibly simple turn structure.”

“Calico boasts gorgeous artwork, challenging but approachable game play, and a purr-fectly wonderful theme that will immediately resonate with something like 40% of the world’s population.”

The reviewer considered Calico a well-produced, light, and easy-to-play game suitable for families and solo players, though he noted a limited replay value for larger groups. While not a game he would personally keep, he would happily play it if brought by others.

“Calico is a gorgeous game of cats and quilts. The puzzle to solve can be mind-bogglingly difficult and twist your brain like a ball of yarn. But I find its lack of interaction personally unsatisfying.”

“Experience the digital adaptation of Calico gameplay, while interacting with adorable cats and encountering quirky characters in its dedicated story mode.”