Osprey | £12.99 | Tile laying | 1-2 players 10-20 minutes | Age: 12+ | ospreypublishing.com
Shahrazad is a beautiful game. From the finely-textured box to its 22 gorgeous oversized tiles, each featuring a different mythical or fairy tale reference, illustrated by artist Kotori Neiko, there’s no doubt that this revamped version of designer Yuo’s Tarot Storia more than looks the part. The problem is the beauty only goes skin deep. Shahrazad’s title refers to the 1001 Nights character who tells stories to a bloodthirsty king to spare her life. The game takes this setup and attempts to apply it to a simple tile-laying mechanic, where all of the squares must be arranged from left to right in ascending numerical order and placed adjacent to matching colours in order to gather points over two rounds.