Ubongo Pokémon

Today we’re going to be looking at Ubongo Pokémon, the first import game we’re covering as part of this year’s Summer Games Fest.

You start the game by shuffling all of the puzzle cards, which are round discs printed with Poké Balls and grids. The cards are double-sided — each one has an easier side and a harder side.

Each player gets a set of eight different Pokémon tiles, made up of the usual Tangram-style shapes, ready to get started.

All players draw a card and flip it to their chosen difficulty. Players then race to find the correct tiles to fill the grid — without overlaps or gaps. Tiles can be rotated or flipped, and the first player to complete their puzzle shouts “Ubongo!”, stops the timer, and takes the reward card.

You can either play through the whole stack of tiles or go with a ‘first to X points’ style of game — whatever you prefer.

Ubongo Pokémon is basically just regular Ubongo with a Pokémon makeover. You probably know how I feel about Ubongo in general — it’s kind of fun, but I never really feel the urge to play it again. To be fair, this is the third copy of Ubongo I own, and I think I’ve only played each version once.

Component-wise, it’s fine — if a little flimsy. The cards are all fairly thin, and the Pokémon tiles themselves could definitely be thicker.

I know this has probably come across as a bit negative but as far as Japanese imports go, this one’s actually quite a nice little package if you like Ubongo… a lot — and for a Pokémon fan, it could make a fun present. But honestly, there are better Pokémon games out there. I’m sure we’ll do a proper Pokémon game roundup once Summer Games Fest is over, but in the meantime, check out the website for reviews of games like Pokémon: Paper & Splendor or Pokémon Chips, which are probably a better shout if you’re after Japanese imports.

Component-wise, it’s fine — if a little flimsy. The cards are all fairly thin, and the Pokémon tiles themselves could definitely be thicker.

As always, my go-to recommendation for buying games like this and other Japanese imports is https://travel-games.co.uk/. Ben Davenward is a member of our community, but even if he wasn’t, I’d still happily endorse Travel Games it’s a great place to pick up stuff like this. Excellent customer service and a great request service if they don’t have the game in stock.