Villa Paletti preview

I bought Villa Paletti, the 2002 Spiel des Jahres winner for few reasons. Biggest one is probably that I happened to see it at a department store when I was looking for a birthday gift for my girlfriend. I didn't buy it right away, but went back the next day...

Also, as it won the Spiel des Jahres, I'm curious to know why. Third, I don't have any dexterity games and I wanted to have a game I could play with pretty much anyone. 6 Nimmt is one of these entry-level games, but I wanted something else, too. It shouldn't be difficult to get anybody to play this one, as most people know Jenga or some similar game.

I haven't played it yet. I just got it today, opened it up and built a tower - and what a mighty tower it became. I got it very high, all levels and even some blocks on top of other blocks before it finally came tumbling down. This far it seems like a funny game. So, it's about wooden sticks and levels, which you try to make a tower of. What's most interesting in the wooden sticks, is that there's three different sizes, each have different scores. The best-scoring, heavier pieces are the shortest, too, so pulling them off the lower levels can be surprisingly easy - and it also makes the tower deliciously unstable.

There's a scoring system - you add up the points of the pieces on the highest level and who has the most, has a seal. Who holds the seal in the end, wins. Unless, of course, he or she made the tower fall, in which case the person who had it before them wins. So there's a bit of a strategic twist in it, too.

The game looks nice. The bits are all wood. They're quite light. Someone said that was a bad thing, I don't know... They're good enough, and when the tower falls down, it doesn't make dents on your floor. There's a nice little hook included, which you can use to remove the sticks that are deeper inside the building.

So, looks like fun, we'll see how it turns out.