Cardboard Corner: Review of Takenoko

Wind in the bamboo. A gently gurgling spring. Lotus flowers. The zen garden experience… with a hungry panda looking to eat the bamboo… and a haughty gardener looking to repair the damage. Welcome to Takenoko (2011).

Takenoko is a 2-4 player family game that sees players criss-crossing an ever-growing bamboo garden, trying to collect points in a variety of ways. The player with the most points at the end, wins. A mix of luck and determinism, players have different ways of manipulating the game state to bring about three different types of points: 1) patterns of bamboo plots, 2) quantities and types of bamboo, or 3) feeding the panda specific types of bamboo. With players trying to find the most efficient use of their turns to achieve these goals, Takenoko is a relaxed, meditative game.

It should be clear that Takenoko is not an action-packed, take-that type of dice-roller. Laid back, like the panda munching on bamboo, players ease their way through the game, trying to solve their own little puzzles in their own little way with what’s available on the board. There is one die to control the weather, but the choices players make remain the primary driver of results, something which the quality pieces and components help make more satisfying. The tokens wooden and chunky, the tiles thick and solid, the box insert highly effective, and the overall art and aesthetics appropriately colorful, it’s a good package.

For the right mind/personality, however, it’s possible Takenoko comes off as dry and boring. And I understand why. The interaction indirect, players affect each others’ possibilities but in isolated fashion; everybody waits their turn to see what’s available. Thus, the game will likely not interest players looking for “thematic games”, rather players looking for a simple, family Euro that employs quiet, lateral thinking with a cute theme. For many families, that is just what the doctor ordered.

I think that last paragraph can be taken as the recommendation for Takenoko. Looking for something that you and your kids (6+) can play together for 30-40 minutes that gets the brain gears turning a little (just a little), Takenoko could hit the spot, and would be very cute doing it. Looking for something more action/story oriented, Takenoko won’t scratch that itch. All I can say is that my six-year old son loves trying to achieve the goals on his cards in the bamboo garden—and he’s quiet while doing it. If you have a 6-year old, you know this is magic unto itself.