Second Look - Boardgame reviews in depth. Check out that cat.Niya – a game by Bruno Cathala, is a beautiful little abstract strategy game with a pattern matching mechanic. Players shuffle the tiles and place them on the table in a 4 x 4 grid. Each player then takes turns placing their tokens down until they make a row, make a 2×2 grid, or make it so the opponent can’t place a title. The trick here is that you can only place a token on a tile that shares at least one attribute  the previous player’s placement.

The game is light, quick, and great for families. I’ve had a great time playing this with 4-year-old, as well as my 7 and 9-year-olds. It’s simple enough to teach and play while really rewarding planning and forethought. It’s also pretty inexpensive, which makes it a great holiday gift. It retails for $14, and there’s great value there.

NiyaThere’s really not much more I can say about Niya except that it’s a purchase anyone with kids should make without a second thought. It fills a nice need for a quick family game, and even though it’s only for 2 players, you can easily play several games with each family member without the others having to wait too long.

A copy of Niya was provided free for review by Blue Orange Games