#11: Zooloretto / Aquaretto (Mark's Top 100 2022)

Zooloretto / Aquaretto

BoardGameGeek & BoardGameGeek

• rank: 842 & 1,404
• rating: 6.8 & 7.0
• published: 2007 & 2008

Print Status

• in print? & out of print?

Why It's On The List

• Michael Schacht takes the central game mechanic from his card game Coloretto & develops it into a full-fledged board game with delightful artwork & theme. And then, if that wasn't enough, he keeps expanding that world (thanks to the SdJ win) in some very intriguing ways.

Tips & Tricks:

• I didn't like Zooloretto particularly the first time I played it... that, as you can see, has changed. (The theme drew me back in, btw.)
• Lots of people like Coloretto better than Zooloretto - they're wrong, of course, but I think that's more a function of "liking a clever mechanic" versus "liking a clever mechanic in the midst of a thematic & enjoyable game".
• Zooloretto spawned Aquaretto - which I've included in the family for purposes of this list. Aquaretto is the more gamer-friendly of the two - there's more potential for a new player to mess themselves over with bad tile placement.
• The plethora of large & small expansions can be confusing - but I like how you can tailor the game to your personal tastes.
• The game is best with 3 or 4 players... 5 has a little too much downtime (if you're using any expansions) and 2 is bland. 
• If you're going to play Zooloretto & Aquaretto together, you should only play with 3 players... or with Michael's 6-player partnership variant.

Extras

• I wrote an extensive post about Zooloretto & the various expansions entitled Renovating Your Zoo(loretto) for this blog.
• I translated the Big Boss variant from Michael Schacht's site - it's used w/the Zooloretto: Boss expansion.
• One of the proudest moments of my life - my son, Braeden (who was 7 at the time), created a really great variant idea for Aquaretto - and Michael Schacht published it on his website! Check out the Touch Pool...
• The picture above shows a game with all the expansions in (the white meeples are workers from Zooloretto: Boss).