Best Play Recommends: Santorini
TL;DR
What is it? A more dynamic and pretty version of the old Connect 4, Tic Tac Toe style of games
How many people? 2–4 (best with 2)
How long does it take? 20 minutes
Who is it for? Lovers. Friends. Siblings. As long as there are two of you.
Buy it: Support Best Play and get yourself a copy from Amazon here.
The Gist
Why we recommend it
Look at this city, the city of my victory.
It might tot look like it but Santorini is a game a lot like a childhood favourite Connect 4.
You have to build a tower 3 bits high and stand on top of it. That’s it. Then you win. It’s a simple game.
Get glennw’s stories in your inbox
Join Medium for free to get updates from this writer.
Obviously that isn’t all of it.
On your turn you move one of your 2 people and build. Slowly climbing until you win.
Obviously though that isn’t all of it, because people can block you. They pop a blue dome on top of your building and that’s it, aesthetically pleasing, but now useless. It will no longer be your victory tower.
So it’s at times cat and mouse as you chase each other around the board, building, waiting for your moment. Constantly having to balance going for the win with blocking them. Unlike connect 4 though, there are no coloured pieces here, everything your opponent builds could be used by you, but everything you build could be used by them.
There is one final twist though and that is these.
God powers. Each time you play you get a different ability. Like letting you push others out of the way, build more in a turn or block a building at any height. These add much needed variety to this type of game, meaning you can’t “solve” Santorini like you can Tic Tac Toe. What worked for you last game might not in the next.
So really it is a game as simple to learn as Connect 4, but with a lot more depth. It also helps that it looks so pretty.
You’ll even find those same satisfying clinks like Conenct 4 every time you drop down the next floor of your building.
We think Santorini works best as a 2 player game, but we appreciate that the game comes with additional pieces letting you go up to 4 players.
