Holi: Festival of Colors

Board Game Geek Reviews

1. 7.5 out of 10

   Kweevnidny

   A nice idea that works excellently, there are not many successful 3D games on the market however this is one of them. The game is fairly simple in mechanics and teaching is easy (rules taught earlier today in 5 mins) . There are 3 actions you can do and on your turn you may do one of each in any order, there is only one compulsory action the others are optional. You may throw coloured tokens as dictated by the card you choose (from 3) to play (compulsory). You may move anywhere on your level (optional). You may climb to a higher level (optional). The plan is to score the most points which are gained from paint (the higher the level the more points), collecting more sweets than opponents, hitting opponents with paint. The rules are cleverly designed so that although you have effective free movement the paint spreading does create restrictions so you have to look at the board carefully to get the best result, the cards are also nicely done so that climbing to higher levels (to gain more points) is not straightforward you do have to plan it and lastly the mechanism controlling falling paint creates some interesting situations. I have read other comments that seem to indicate that they have misunderstood some of the rules and that is likely as although they are not particularly long they are not an easy read for instance all the examples show a long arrow of movement in straight lines (one diagonal and one orthogonal) which seems to contradict the rule that you can move anywhere, if just one of the examples showed a free/offset movement this would have been immediately clear, lots of extra footnotes to each section. Missing any of the footnotes and extras will unbalance the game, however once you have someone who knows the rules correctly this is an easy teach with simple scoring, it is a bit abstract but the theme fits nicely, played 2 player it was okay but I want to play it multi-player to get a real feel for splattering paint over the other players and where I think it will be at its best.

2. 7 out of 10

   JSMullins87

   Positives: Really interesting abstract play on multiple levels. Verticality of the play space may be gimmicky but it also feels fresh and lends to terrific table presence. I love that you add 3 different ways to score (along with the standard) each game. It works great at 2 players. Plenty of strategy with a small rule set. Negatives: While it has good strategy some of the moves did feel obvious. I also worry about replayability. Overall: I much prefer Holi to some of the other big hitter abstracts on the market (looking at you Azul). It has some amazing table presence and the game play is easy to explain but provides enough strategy to keep me interested.

3. 7 out of 10

   GamerBMW

   After 1 play I am definitely interested, but it feels lacking at 2 players. The quick play time is good, and ghe multi level board is unique and adds some wow factor to the table. I'm not sure yet how it holds up to other abstracts, but I am hopeful that repeated plays are as positive as the initial.