In this charming game by designer Uwe Rosenberg, players build their own zoo in New York. The goal is to fill your player board with animal enclosures and attractions while taking care of animal breeding. The game features five types of animals: meerkats, flamingos, tree kangaroos, penguins, and arctic foxes.
New York Zoo is a strategic polyomino tile-laying game (similar to Patchwork or Tetris) that can be played by 1–5 players.
Key mechanisms include:
- Moving the elephant along an action track, which determines whether you gain animals or enclosure tiles.
- Placing tiles of various shapes onto your board to fill available building spaces.
- Animal breeding, triggered at certain points on the track—if you have enough animals of the same species in an enclosure, you may gain offspring.
- Exchanging full enclosures for attractions, which help you fill your board more efficiently.
- The winner is the player who first completely fills their board with enclosures and attractions.
A cute animal theme appeals to both families and fans of lighter euro-style games. The experience is relaxing and avoids player conflict, instead encouraging optimization and planning. 🦓🌿
