Twinkle Twinkle

• Designer: Ammon Anderson
• Publisher: Allplay
• Players: 1-4
• Age: 10+
• Time: 30 minutes
• Amazon affiliate link:  https://amzn.to/4nkxsQ8
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

In the tile-laying game Twinkle Twinkle, you’ll fill your star chart with clear plastic tiles, trying to connect constellations, build belts of asteroids, collect comets, pick up planets, and study them with satellites. Take care with those pesky black holes – unless you have a perfect spot for them, of course. Constellations, asteroids, comets, planets, and black holes all score differently! With 10 modular scoring conditions in the box, you can mix and match for 32 different setups. Whoever finds their highest score in the stars wins.  The game features an optional scoring app that allows you to point your phone at the board and watch it magically tally up your points!

To start, each player is given their own observation board which has a 5×4 grid on it.  Make sure you are using the scoring reminders that correspond with the type of game you are playing (i.e. with or without expansions).  Further, for each scoring criteria, the group should agree on whether to play with the standard (green) side or the advanced (blue) side.  Put all the star chart tiles into the bag, and then fill in all the spaces in the Current Round and Next Round row, going left to right in each.  One exception, any time you draw a Slow tile, which has a clock icon on it, that tile is placed in the rightmost empty space.  Turn order is randomized on the central board (just above the Current Round tiles)

On a turn, players choose tiles from the Current Round row, placing their standee above the tile that they take.   The chosen tile is placed immediately in any empty space on your board.  Once all players have chosen, the player standees are moved back into the turn order row, keeping their left to right orientation.  Thus, if you chose the right-most tile in the Current Round line, you’ll be guaranteed to pick last in the next round.

Now, slide the unchosen tile from the current round to the very left, and then scoot all the Next Round tiles directly upward.  Refill the Next Round spaces with new tiles from the bag, again placing Slow tiles to the very right. The next round happens with the turn order as determined by tile choice in the previous round.

Continue this for 20 rounds and then score based on the rules chosen at the start of the game.  You can also use the Allplay app to score the game.

There is also a How I Wonder expansion which provides you with five new objects and ten new ways to score. If you choose to play with this, you’ll have to curate your bag of tiles before starting.  Simply place the 50 tiles with only stars in the bag, and then add to that all the tiles for the five selected objects in the game.  Distribute the appropriate scoring reminders to players and again agree on which side to use.  You can generally mix and match the objects, though there are a few that require other certain objects to be in play – you will be reminded of this on the scoring reference for those.

My thoughts on the game

Twinkle Twinkle is a pleasing little puzzle of a game that also happens to look extremely luxe on your game table.  The game play uses a nice and easy Draft to choose tiles and then each player has to work out their own personal puzzle of where to place their chosen tile on their board.

The decision of where to place the tile is not as easy as it seems. Players will likely need to refer to their reference to remind them of all the different scoring rules in play for the particular game.  The upside of all these choices is that there is usually a decent place to place any tile – so beginners will feel like they are able to make a positive play.  The key to advanced play is figuring out where the best place is – likely a placement that will work towards multiple scoring objectives at once.

The turn order bit feels very familiar as it has been used in a number of recent drafting games – Kingdomino is the example that quickly comes to mind for me. This method forces players to not only look at the benefits of the current tile selection but also to consider how this choice will affect their turn order for the next round. 

As the game progresses, each player board will grow in complexity, and it really does look good on the table.  The clear tiles stand out from the background of the board in a very pleasing way.   The game has a decent amount of replay value as there are plenty of scoring modules to swap in and out – as well as an expansion or two!

For a light to medium weight game, Twinkle Twinkle delivers a great game in a small box.  This one has more of an easy-going feel to it, but there are plenty of situations that want something on the smoother/lighter side while still giving you a puzzle to work through.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it. Dale Y
• Neutral.
• Not for me…

Amazon affiliate link: https://amzn.to/4nkxsQ8