Ubongo is a board game popular in continental Europe, but its video game counterpart doesn't hit the target.
The mechanics of the game are simple: up to four players play simultaneously, each with their own "plate", which is a shape that must be completely covered with Tetromino-like objects; imagine Tetris Tangrams and you're on the way. Whoever completes their plate first then gets to move their 'pawn' on a board filled with gems, stealing the two gems directly above them. The other players follow suit after completing their plates, and so on until the requisite number of rounds has been filled.
The ultimate aim is to collect as many gems of one colour as possible — it doesn't matter which colour, they all have the same value. There's a small element of tactics involved, as players who complete their puzzle first can move more spaces on the board to grab the gems they want, but it's extremely shaky foundations on which to build a game with any longevity.
The single-player story mode chains increasingly difficult puzzles with bizarre cutscenes, detailing the story of an African tribesman on an epic journey to recover something or other that can only be taken by playing Ubongo, presumably.
As for multiplayer, you can tweak a few options — difficulty, the number of rounds to win to emerge victorious and so on — but there's no tournament option, no incentive to keep playing: win the match and it's back to the start screen. It's very thin stuff, and pales in comparison to other games on WiiWare, a service that's practically jam-packed with great and innovative puzzlers.
Conclusion
It may be termed a board game, but Ubongo is an unhappy mess of Tetris, tangrams and gem-grabbing, with no strategy required to win and subsequently no satisfaction. Die hard fans of the board game original may find this worth seeking out, but anyone else with Nintendo Points should check out any one of the superior WiiWare puzzle games before this one.
Comments 8
Ubongo is a board game? I thought it's a fruit juice drink.
This isn't surprising at all, it looks crap.
Sadly the game is not as fun as this commercial:
[youtube:wYj5o4kQsXs]
Way down deep in the middle of the Congo, a hippo took
an apricot, a guava and a mango. He stuck it with the
others, and he danced a dainty tango.
The rhino said, "I know, we'll call it Um Bongo", Um
Bongo, Um Bongo, They drink it in the Congo.
The python picked the passion fruit, the marmoset the
mandarin. The parrot painted packets, that the whole
caboodle landed in.
So when it comes to sun and fun and goodness in the
jungle, they all prefer the sunny funny one they call
UM BONGO!!!!
Tetris ripoff?
People will come up with anything these days and try to form it into a game
The board game is quite fun if you're a Tetris fan and dont mind quick thinking (or thinking at all).
Sounds to me like Ubongo's just a bad game to begin with; board, wii, DSi, or otherwise.
It's being removed from the EU Wii E-Shop in 2 days, just in case anybody's interested. Can't see there being a rush of people to download it somehow
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