Gentrification for thrill-seekers
TENPENNY PARKS
Designer: Nate Linhart | Publisher: Thunderworks Games
Tenpenny Parks sees players competing to construct the best theme park within the apparently humble town of Fairview.
The (clearly unhinged) mayor has set a timeframe of five months for players’ teams of builders, bankers, realtors, and contractors to erect a dizzying spread of attractions – from inexplicable mammoth rides to gargantuan unicorn-led rollercoasters – alongside all the hotdog stands and balloon vendors in-between. Whoever has amassed the most visitors (victory points) through rides, advertising, and personal goal cards will be awarded Fairview’s Golden Key and be forever held responsible for prioritising capital over sensible housing.
The mechanics guiding this maniacal enterprise are a blend of workerplacement and tile-laying, perhaps akin to a diluted take on Uwe Rosenberg’s A Feast for Odin. In fact, at first glance, Tenpenny Parks seems to also share that game’s overwhelming aesthetic busyness – albeit in a prettier manner. It quickly becomes clear that Vincent Dutrait’s beautifully dense illustrative work hides an easy to grasp, near family-weight game with a few mechanical oddities to entice long-time gamers.
The first of these innovations concerns Tenpenny Parks’ approach to tile-laying. In a manner that goes against the convention of every other tile-laying game over the years, tiles cannot be placed adjacent to others. With this simple constriction, Thunderworks Games have blown apart the familiar and satisfying preconceptions of the genre and morphed it into something notably trickier. With tiles only being able to touch diagonally, additional care must be taken when choosing how best to develop your park. This is further wrinkled by decisions on tree removal, land expansions, and the central rotating carousel determining the fluctuating prices of each attraction.
All of these decisions are handled through worker-placement spots; four static roles representing the banker, realtor, contractor, and arborist, and six attraction spaces surrounding the carousel. Any number of workers can visit the static spots whilst the attractions are first come first serve with each attraction card taken revealing a new one for the next round. The attraction cards come in six colours and themes and range from small two-block rectangles to larger, more awkward (but more valuable) shapes. Each depicts their end-game value and, crucially, the symbols used for moving up the ‘emotion track’.
Occupying the lower third of the board are three tracks representing Thrill, Awe, and Joy. Good progress along a track will reward players with points, but their main function is during a Bonuses step, where players leading in each gain useful benefits for the next round. Trying to get the edge on your opponent’s here adds a decent amount of competitive interaction and the game is tight enough to maintain this back and forth power struggle admirably.
The next mechanical oddity is the Advertising step. Here players may spend cash to essentially buy victory points. Whilst powerful from a gaming perspective, this is not a decision to be made rashly, as errors in calculations can result in the complete collapse of purchasing plans in following rounds.
But, with some clever early plays, advertising can be the key to victory.
With this in mind, it’s worth mentioning that the game suffers from a predictable success strategy, which depends on purchasing income-generating tiles early at the expense of everything else. This inflexibility when choosing how to fill out your park is simply not as fun, and will inevitably leave some players unfairly trailing behind. Overall though, this is a colourful and engaging merging of mechanics, with some neat twists sweetening the deal.
CHAD WILKINSON
WE SAY
An attractive and nicely themed worker-placement game with a surprising take on tile-laying mechanics.
WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
◗ Game board
◗ Carousel
◗ Carousel ring
◗4 Property boards
◗12 Expansion boards
◗54 Cards
◗13 Workers
◗35 Attractions tiles
◗40 Concession tiles
◗70 Victory point tokens
◗12 Emotions discs
◗56 Money tokens
◗50 Tree markers
◗ Month marker
◗ Shovel token
TRY THIS IF YOU LIKED BÄRENPARK...
The tile-laying may be more restrictive, but figuring out the puzzle is arguably just as much fun as securing a snug fit.