Blokus Puzzle

• Designer: uncredited   (Blokus was designed by Bernard Tavitian)
• Publisher: Mattel
• Players: 1
• Age: 7+
• Time: as long as it takes 😊
• Affiliate link: https://amzn.to/2Y5jR71
• Times played: 4 separate sessions, having completed about 80% of the puzzles

Blokus Puzzle is a new release to me from Mattel – the company which owns the rights to Blokus, the colorful and popular family friendly abstract game.  This solo activity is not a game per se – it is a collection of 48 brainteaser puzzles which is set in the Blokus universe.

The player is given a cardholder with a plastic grid on the front of it.  Twenty one blue plastic Blokus pieces are also provided.  There is a deck of 48 puzzle cards, 16 each of three different types (more on this later)…  You choose a puzzle card and slide it into the holder.  The bottom of the card has outlines of a number of puzzle pieces; grab these shown pieces and then use those specific pieces to solve the puzzle.  There are plenty of black shapes on the puzzle cards.  These represent pieces played by your “opponents” and your pieces cannot overlap those black areas.  Additionally, on each card, there will be at least one blue piece printed on the card.  At least one of your playing pieces must touch a corner of this piece.  And, as in Blokus, you may not have any pieces of your color directly adjacent along a side – all your pieces can only touch at the corners.  You can lie adjacent to the black pieces.

There are three different puzzle types, each color coded.

Blue – two blue pieces are printed on each card.  You must use all the pictured pieces to connect the two starting pieces

Yellow – There is one blue piece printed on the card.  Starting from this point, you must use all the pictured pieces to cover all of the yellow stars printed on the card

Red – The is one blue piece and a bunch of red X’s.  Starting from the blue piece, you must legally place all the pictured pieces without covering up any of the Red X’s.

A solution is provided on the back of the card if you get stuck.  On at least a couple of the puzzles so far, we have found alternate solutions to the one printed on the card.

The puzzles seem to get harder as you work your way through the three colored decks.  That being said, it’s funny how particular puzzles will stump different people.  One card, which was fairly low numbered – probably a 6 or 7 – had me working for about fifteen minutes to solve it; and when my son tried it last night, he solved it without any problems, in probably less than a minute.

The components are sturdy, and my only wish is that this entire thing was handheld and portable (like some of the ThinkFun puzzles).  As it is now, the holder only holds one card, and the pieces are stored in a baggie.  But, there’s nothing wrong with the components as is, and I’ve still been able to play this while riding in the car. It is a bit cumbersome to pick out the required pieces out of the baggie when they’re all the same color, but I’ve managed it without too much issue, and it definitely made the trip go by quicker.  And, the raised plastic grid on the cardholder meant that the pieces fit snugly in place so nothing got lost.

I’ve spent about 3 hours with the puzzles so far, and I think I’m about 80% complete at this point.  It’s been an enjoyable way to pass the time, and I will hopefully polish off the final cards of each color on my next session with it.  I am guessing that the puzzles will be replayable as I highly doubt that my brain is going to remember the specific layout of pieces needed to solve the puzzles after a few months have passed.

This is more of a puzzle than a game, so I don’t really know if it should get a rating.  But I like it, and I plan to complete it.  It’s a nice diversion, and it would make a good gift for someone who needs a solitaire activity or maybe one taking a long trip.  It’s available at big box stores and online here

Until your next appointment

The Gaming Doctor