Link: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/162886/spirit-island
Playing Time: 90-120 Minutes
Weight: Heavy
Genre: Cooperative Territory Control
Designer: R. Eric Reuss
Players: 1-4
There is a legitimate criticism that most territorial control games are about colonization. I’ve never particularly cared about that line of criticism – I LIKE filling out a clean map in a Civilization-like game, take my social justice warrior card away – but the designers of Spirit Island sought to reverse that experience, and make a game about DECOLONIZATION and there’s no doubt that the result is a completely novel and interesting game experience.
Spirit Island is a cooperative board game that scales smoothly between player counts (the island grows and shrinks based on player count). You play as elemental spirits of the island, which has been discovered by filthy colonizing explorers and soldiers, who threaten the simple lives of the mushroom-hut-dwelling natives. The job of the players is to work together to drive them back into the sea.
Most cooperative games are somewhat simple, as they tend to be popular things to put on the table when someone brings their non-gaming friend or partner to game night. Spirit Island isn’t that – it’s definitely a meatier experience for a heavier crowd, but if you have a table full of people who are heavier gamers who would still rather not beat up on each other, this game is going to be squarely in the strike zone.
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