Gorinto Review - with Tom Vasel 

I've only tried this solo but the solo ai presents an interesting puzzle like challenge to defeat because it essentially takes the max number of tiles possible with each movement. This forces you to balance getting tiles for your own scoring purposes and trying to keep the ai from getting tiles that helps them score.

Dang that was a rough final conclusion. I decided not to back the Kickstarter as I had concerns about the game.

Great review Tom

8:00 I'm reminded of Upwords here. Upwords is "optimized" for 3-4 players, but we play it with 5, so we ended up buying a 2nd set and adding the tiles to extend the game. There's a bit more variance. but games are more satisfying.

I can understand Tom not feeling like its his game, but in that case : why didn't they review it in the "4 squares" format ? My 10 cents below (my 5 cents are free - Eminem Dixit): The tiles sticking together is not the end of the world, they'll eventually give and separate easier. They are quite thick and resistant and so far I've been very happy on how they feel. Gamewise I found that the game ramps up in power but also in intensity, very depending on the objective set of the rounds. You have to be extra careful not to ruin your score, or to hinder your opponent(s). The last round feels quite different because the choices can be easier (if you want to pick few tiles) or harder (if you need more tiles to score). As for the KS version, they included multi language cards and instructions, which makes teaching this game a breeze and was a very nice touch. With variants (for scoring rotating round objectives a la "cartographers", the wildcards, and the variety of round objectives) I think this has quite a bit of life on my shelves. As a non-native, this was much appreciated.

Sorry to hear you didn’t like this, Tom. I have only played it as a two-player game with my mom, but we really like it a lot. I normally don’t like games which require a third dummy mechanism (when playing with only two players), but found this one worked just fine. We play with the added dragon (wild) tiles, and find the endings of the game can be quite tense, based on the goal cards. We like this game a lot, but then again, that’s why Baskin Robbins makes 31 flavors of ice cream. 😊

Look like the same tiles used in older versions of Upwards.

you need to play the game with the "Seasons of Change" rules variant. It came on a small card with the goal cards. This changes it so that you draw 4 goal cards, and each round the 2 goals that you are working on are different. By the end of the game, you have played using 4 different unique goal combos. Our first game we played with the basic rules for goals, and I was disappointed like you mentioned. but then subsequent games, we have played the advanced rules with the rotating goals, and it made the game much, much better. I would never play with the same 2 goals for the entire game ever again. In fact, I wish they had not even included that simpler rule as I think it really ruins the game some and makes it more boring as you stated.

My problem with it is you got to get lucky and get the good plays. One of the players went for more diversified and could get more combos in later rounds and it looked like it may have a shot at working but doubtful. He ended up low on the score board because he couldn't keep up with the players fighting for the two 2 point tiles.

Just because Tom didnt like the game doesnt mean the game is bad. Seeing a lot of people getting angry at someone's opinion.

Wow, couldn’t disagree more with Tom’s final verdict. The strategy definitely ramps up the more you play. Tiles sticking together is a bummer but not enough to hate the game by far.

Just by watching this overview, I noticed lots of resemblances to "Mandala Stones", game play wise. first you move a piece to a spot and collect adjacent pieces according to a specific rule determined by the piece you just moved. then you put the collected pieces in the five spots of your personal board. then there are these scoring conditions based on the heights of stacks. in my opinion if Mandala Stones was a math problem, then Gorinto is the same problem with the numbers changed...and according to Tom here, not even in a clever way apparently. just to be clear, I'm not calling Gorinto a rip off! it was just a simple observation.

EXCELLENT REVIEW. I’m so glad you were honest about this game - I was super close to getting it because I LOVE abstract games and thought this was original in its mechanics. It certainly has a nice table presence to it, but I’ve noticed a lot of new abstract games fall short because they’re simple to learn, which is desirable, but offer no deepness when it comes to strategy. They’re simple - and shallow. Thanks for saving me some hard earn cash...

I agree with your final thoughts. I can see this getting boring really fast. Very samey.

Isn't this the game with the problematic design diary about the "far off land of Indonesia"?

We all know that Tom has a negative bias toward abstract games. So I won't consider this review as fair, this is not a review with Tom but the review of Tom.

I usually like your reviews Tom, but this is not a good one. Sorry, but you clearly have not played the game enough times to justify putting out such a review. The part about the final turns being lackluster is totally not true. (Although I suppose it could depend on the scoring cards that are out there for that game.) It can be become quite cuthroat and tense at the end as players realize that the tiles they must take are actually going to hurt their score. I will say though that the thing with the tiles sticking together when pulling them out the bag bothers me more than you. lol