Express Blog! Nekojima: Tension, watch out!

💡 Electricity, cats

⚙ Dexterity

Whoa! It's been a while since I've tested a dexterity game. My old JENGA is worn out, and I've often had a good laugh with my kids playing Men at Work (they beat me, but I give them back the Croquignole. One day, I will tell you about my unconditional passion for Croquignole.) In short, without knowing it, I needed something new on this side. And poof, Nekojima popped up on my table like an electricity pylon in a cornfield.

How does it work?

In Nekojima , players take turns placing pairs of utility poles connected by a wire on a circular board representing a city divided into four districts.

In turn, we roll the dice, which tell us which districts must be connected. A little competitive twist: if a die ends up on its "dagger" side, it is our opponent on the right who imposes a district of his choice on us (obviously, he will take the most complicated one).

Once the neighborhoods to be connected have been identified, we reach into the bag to pick a cube, which tells us the color of the Denchuu (pair of posts) to place. These come in three different colors, depending on the length of the wire that connects them (short, medium or long). We must then place our Denchuu while respecting a few simple rules:

-You can't touch the wires! You can only handle the wooden poles;

-The wires must not touch each other or touch the ground!

-Posts and wires cannot extend beyond the edges of the game board!

Afterwards, we can place our posts directly on the ground, or stack them on posts already placed. And you will have understood, after a few turns, we quickly end up with an inextricable mess of wires and posts everywhere; all it takes is a tiny false maneuver for everything to collapse.

And as, in life, when things are too simple, our cats are always there to complicate things, in Nekojima , they are no exception to this rule. If a black cube is drawn, the next player to place a pair of posts will also have to place a kitty on the wire of his Denchuu (or on a Denchuu already placed of the same color).

If, during our turn, we knock over one of the kitties perched everywhere, we must pick it up and put it back in its place. And if we knock over one (or more) posts: BOOM! WE LOSE!

Nekojima also offers different game modes: cooperative, competitive, expert… there is something for all tastes and all ages.

So… what do we think?

Nekojima is a very pretty game and the wooden posts are excellent quality, very straight and pleasant to handle. Overall, if you only use the basic rules, I would say that the game is on the easier side of the dexterity game spectrum. Since you can stack the posts on top of each other, you are rarely short of placement options, and even the kitties are not too difficult to place (we are far from the worker from Men at Work balancing on a crooked beam with two bricks in his hands…) This is not a bad thing, especially when playing with younger children, who will feel more like they have a chance of succeeding. There were, however, several games where we almost ran out of posts, which leads me to recommend that if you are skilled, you integrate one of the variants that add difficulty (for example the Birds' Nests, which prevent you from stacking more than two posts high) from your first games.

In a nutshell: Nekojima is an excellent family dexterity game that appeals to a wide audience of all ages. Quick to get out, quick to put away, it has a very nice presence on the table (with all those poles and wires that pile up and intertwine!) that will certainly pique the curiosity of passers-by!

Nekojima (French version here )

A game by David Carmona and Karen Nguyen

Illustrated by Gilles Warmoes

Unfriendly Games

1-5 players

15-30 minutes

7 years and over