Coral Review

It’s time for your day in the sun. Or at least, that’s until someone decides to grow on top of you like an unwanted underwater parasol. Coral sees each player take a bunch of L-shaped wooden pieces (like three connected cubes) and build up their own little reef. You want to have as many pieces facing up, so as to get points at the end. Players will also be moving their little coral pawn around to give them better placements – as you can only place your block to a cube next to the piece you’re on. At the same time, this pawn can’t be placed on your own coloured coral.

All of this makes a tricky little puzzle with that classic ‘Sunday afternoon game’ vibe mixed with a good excuse for swearing at one another. Much of what you’ll be doing is making a balance between blocking your opponents’ good moves and upward facing pieces, and also manoeuvring so you get some good placements too.

The wooden pieces are lovely, and making a nice colourful pile of them with your friends is always a nice way to spend an afternoon. But the movement and placement rules end up being a bit fiddly, with some excessive rulebook checking for what is a very simple game at its heart.

While Coral is a nice thing to have at the table, it’s not one we feel we need to save.

Christopher John Eggett

PLAY IT? MAYBE

Designer: Tangi Tabuteau

Publisher: 2Tomatoes games

Time: 10-20 minutes

Players: 1-4

Ages: 8+

Price: £23

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