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Dog Park is a game of resource management, set collection and push your luck.
Leashes and treats at the ready! It’s time to take a stroll through the brand new release Dog Park!
Show Me The Treats
Each of the four rounds of Dog Park are split into 3 stages. At the beginning of each new round take a look at the random forecast card that has been flipped over as this will provide a bonus for all players. The first stage is all about attracting new dogs to your kennel. During this stage you stake your chosen amount of reputation points to bid for the dog that you want. This happens twice each round so that all players end up with two new dogs in their kennel at the end of this stage.
Choose Me, Choose Me
Next up you must choose which dogs you wish to place on the lead for this round. Each dog has a cost to walk them. This will be a certain amount of sticks/balls/treats or toys. If you don’t have the resources to walk a dog, then they must stay in the kennel this round.
Once on the lead, you can observe any associated bonuses for walking this dog which may come into play now, during the walk stage, or be an end game bonus.
Walkies
Finally it’s time to take your beloved pooches for a walk. Players take it in turns to move 1-4 spaces. You can travel as slow or as fast as you would like through the Dog Park but you do get reputation bonuses for leaving the park sooner and the last player left in the park has to take a minus to their reputation.
As you are strolling through the Dog Park you will collect more resources, reputation points and have the chance to swap your dogs for other ones if you choose. Here is where the push your luck element comes in. How long should you risk staying in the park? The more spaces you land on the more resources and points you can collect but you don’t want to be the last one left in the park!
Once done, all players gain reputation points for the dogs they have walked, loose reputation points for dogs that haven’t been walked yet and return all dogs to the kennel ready to start round 2.
Best In Show
At the end of a game of Dog Park, the player with the most reputation points wins and is crowned the best dog walker! Reputation points are gained from dogs with end game bonuses, completing your objective card (dealt at the beginning) and the Breed Expert awards. Each dog type – Utility, toy, working etc is placed at random at the beginning of the game to determine the points on offer for having the most of that breed of dog. The difference in points ranges from 8 to 2 so this will largely affect your dog choices throughout the game.
Dogs And Birds
Dog Park reminds me of Wingspan but it is a simpler, quicker version of it. Do I prefer Wingspan? Yes without a doubt. However, if you are looking for a Wingspan-ish feel to a game but aimed more at family gaming then this could be a very good choice. The abilities on the dog cards are a lot more straight forward and fewer in number than on the bird cards in Wingspan.
If you’re a dog lover you’ll probably love this game as each card you turn over produces more stunning artwork of gorgeous doggies. It’s interesting to see breeds I didn’t know about and read the little notes at the bottom of the card about each breed.
Oy With The Poodles
With the collectors edition of Dog Park you get the two expansions included inside ‘Famous Dogs’ and ‘European Dogs’. For me this was a must have for my personal favourite, the toy poodle in the European expansion. We shuffled these in after the first game because we wanted a little more variety in the abilities available on the dogs. This improved the game a lot, because in the first game the abilities were a little repetitive but, throwing in a few more options helped keep things interesting. Even with the expansions thrown in, I would have liked a little more variety in the pup abilities as lots of them are exactly the same.
The components for Dog Park are great. Lots of wooden pieces and great gamestray storage boxes shaped as dog bones! There is also a box insert designed to fit everything perfectly. This makes a big difference to me, because when set up and pack away of a game are a joy, it makes me want to reach for the game more often.
Overall
We will have lots of fun with this as a family and it’s a lovely game to look at. It was quite quick to play as well. As mentioned, the dog abilities are not overly complicated so there wasn’t much of a learning curve or the need to constantly check what an ability means.
Dog Park may feel too simple if you are a seasoned gamer, but I think the theme here sways most people to a very enjoyable gaming experience.
Perfect for family game nights with older children or for adult gamers looking for a light strategy game.
