Kids Say:

“There is no stopping me. I win every time I play.”

“What he said. We have never played against each other.”

Adults Say:

“Want to build a bear park? Start with a bear-bones empty lot and Gobi a bear park developer! It bears mentioning that your opponents are Koala bunch of Polar-izing figures, who will try to create Panda-monium by setting a bear trap for you. This may bear upon whether your plan bears fruit, but you’ll grin and bear it, bear down and cub up with a new plan that beats them maul.”

“On behalf of my family, I apologize that this review has had no useful information so far. Barenpark is about choosing Tetris-like tiles to fit as neatly as possible on your board. In this way, it is akin to other games we have reviewed, like Patchwork or Cottage Garden. It’s not as frustrating as those, because in Barenpark, you can always succeed eventually. Even when your opponents are more efficient or score more points, you’re not left feeling completely unsatisfied. The theme and artwork are very approachable. The game is quick, but the ratio of setup time to play time is a little too high for my tastes."

“If you flunked spatial relations growing up, like me, Barenpark is likely going to be a challenge for you.  There are a number of ways to win and different strategies to employ, not all of which rely on your relational talent.  And admittedly, you actually get better at spatial relations planning as you play.  Thus, this one gets points for being sneakily educational.  At this point I’ve played three times, tried three different strategies, and failed at each one.  That failure, at least, makes me hungry for future success with this game, and not ready to toss it out the window.  That has to count for something, right?