We acquired Calico this fall. It was advertised as cat-themed and when it comes to resisting animal-themed games, we are weak. The box cover was too adorable to resist—so adorable I thought it must be a game for kids. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it was challenging enough to be rated for ages 14 and up. It looked puzzly as well, and I’m always game for a good puzzle.
We’ve now had the opportunity to play Calico (2-players) three times and evaluate its strengths. Is it the game for you? Maybe! Let’s check out Calico’s art, components, fun factor, play length, and other attributes of note.
Quick Description: Fast-playing, medium-weight quilt-themed tile-laying game. (With cats—bonus!)
Objective
To construct a “quilt” out of tiles of varying colors and patterns. Meeting certain criteria during the “quilting” process earns points. For example, placing 3 same-colored tiles contiguously in any configuration will earn a player buttons that can be “sewn” onto the quilt. Each button scores 3 points at the game’s end. Obtaining a specified number and configuration of tiles in one of three “scoring” cats’ preferred pattern or configuration will earn the approval of said cat, and the granting of its representative token, along with its associated point allotment. Meeting additional goals, which will change out randomly, will also add points.
Win Condition: Play continues until each player’s quilt is full of tiles. At the end of the game, the player with the most points wins.
Setup: Unboxing this game the first time was a lot of fun. There was a smorgasbord of punch-outs—literally hundreds of tiles and tokens. However, on subsequent plays, setup was time-consuming because of the difficulty separating components from one another. A few small baggies were included for holding tokens, but the game needed about twice as many baggies to allow for more efficient game setup. We still have to separate out cats from one another since some cats have to “room together” in the same baggies.
Components: Nice quality. Player mats, tiles, and tokens are very thick. The large tile draw-bag appears durable, with well-constructed draw strings. Box storage is good, except for the aforementioned paucity of baggies for separation of the myriad tokens.
Rule Book: The rule book was very nicely designed, with full-color examples and clear directions. A nice touch: the rule book features photos and bios of the actual cats who inspired the “scoring” cats in the game. We enjoyed reading their bios and associating them with the “scoring” cats. My personal fave is Tecolote, who looks a lot like an old tabby friend of ours.
Theme: The theme is cute and compelling, although the theme stops short of where it could have gone. One might think that the game was primarily about cats, given the box art and the game title, but it is primarily a puzzly tile-laying game to which cats are merely accessories. Don’t get me wrong—the cats are welcome and appreciated, it’s just that extending the cat theme throughout the whole game would make the game feel more semantically complete and cohesive. Had the cat theme been more integrated, we’d have gotten that extra psychological kick of thematic escapism many of us are looking for when we play a game. For example, the cats could become a necessary component of the theme rather than an add-on if the six quilt tile colors were cat-coat colors like the eponymous multi-colored “calico,” or orange, gray, black, white, or brown. Cat-coat patterns in place of the patterns used would be conceivable as well. Similarly, instead of blueberries and flowers and leaves and rainbows for color tokens/buttons, cans of tuna or cat toys or catnip or other things cats like would have been more theme-appropriate to attract cats to the quilt, which is supposedly why we’re building the quilts to begin with.
Art: As previously mentioned,, the art on the cover of the box is what initially pulled me in to give this game a closer look. So. Cute. Calico illustrations are by Beth Sobel, an illustrator of Wingspan, another excellent (and animal-themed) staple in our game library. The cover art, rule book, cat tokens, and cat scoring tiles are wonderfully composed. I wasn’t a huge fan of the quilt tile and button colors, which are saturated and brightly colored. The quilting tiles and buttons, as I mentioned in regard to the theme, don’t mesh well with the realistic natural illustrations of the cats. I can see that this choice may have been made to help the cat tokens contrast with and stand out against the quilt tiles, but there are other ways to do this such as adding a subtle border color around the cat tokens.
Complexity/Strategy: I find this to be a medium-weight game. It’s easy to learn and relatively quick to play (about 40 minutes for us on the second and third plays), but keeping one’s attention on the many possible point-earning methods when choosing where to place a tile on the quilt is a challenge. Should I place my green token next to two other green tokens for a button, which is worth three points, or should I hold space for a pattern tile that may or may not emerge and become available to me during tile drafting that could earn seven points by attracting the elusive Tecolote to my quilt? But if I get the tile that attracts Tecolote, then maybe that precludes me from meeting the goal on my goal tile, which might be surrounding my goal tile with one tile of each pattern. What if my opponents drafts the quilt tile I really want on my next turn? There is a lot of strategy, and yet it feels a little more luck-based than I would personally prefer. At any given time, a player’s hand only consists of two tiles, and there are but three available tiles to communally draft from during a turn. It doesn’t give a player a whole lot of control over their destiny and becomes more a game of risk. I would like to try the game with a hand of three tiles instead of two, or make the drafting selection four or five instead of three—or both. While some players may experience more choice paralysis under those conditions, these types of things often come down to personal preference, and I happen to find greater choice to be more enjoyable. If this small change adds five minutes to the play time but also adds 10% more fun, seems worth the cost.
Hostility Factor: Mild. There will be times someone drafts the quilt tile you wanted, but it’s typically not out of malice—there isn’t much incentive to take a tile someone else wants as opposed to taking one you want.
Interactivity Level: Low. Because each player has their own player mat, the extent of interactivity is pretty much confined to conversation about the various cats in the game or aloud-observations about the state of your own and other players’ quilts. The only commonly shared components over which there could be any competition are the quilt tiles.
Replayability: I can’t see getting bored with this game anytime soon. There is so much variability with changing out the “scoring” cats, the cats’ preferred pattern tiles, and the random goal tiles each game. In writing this review, I even had the urge to play again. In fact, why am I writing this review instead of playing Calico???
Recommendation: Hell yes. We both give this game a “two paws up.” (Tippi the Cat concurs—we don’t always ask her opinion, but she actually might have some expertise on this one.) We’d recommend this game to anyone who enjoys a fast-playing, medium-weight tile-laying game that is light and happy in theme.