Tile-laying games are some of our family’s favorite board games.

There’s something satisfying about watching a colorful puzzle slowly come together over the course of a game. And when a game adds an interesting twist to the formula, we’re even more eager to give it a try.

So, when we saw the colorful tiles and unique drafting mechanism in Tulikko by Pandasaurus Games, we were excited to give it a go.

Tulikko takes a familiar tile-laying formula and adds a unique tile-drafting mechanism that makes every turn feel interesting.

Combined with gorgeous artwork, quick gameplay, easy-to-learn rules, and variable goals, it creates a fun game experience.

 

How to play Tulikko

At its heart, Tulikko is a tile-placement puzzle.

Players are building their own magical forest by collecting and placing tiles onto their personal boards.

The twist is how you acquire and place those tiles.

In the center of the table is a unique sliding tile mechanism with a cross-shaped pattern. On your turn, you’ll take the top tile from your personal face down tile stack and slide it into one side of the display face up. This pushes another tile out of the opposite side, and that’s the tile you’ll get to place on your board.

When placing the ejected tile on your board, you must place it on a space that matches the symbol of the side of the center display you took it from. For example, if the tile you take came from the side with the Cloud symbol, you must place the tile on a Cloud symbol space on your board.

This is where Tulikko gets really interesting. You aren’t simply taking a tile you want. The side you take it from determines where it can be placed on your board, and the tile you slide into the center becomes available to your opponents. So every turn is a balancing act between helping yourself and setting up the next player.

If you place the tile adjacent to another tile on your board, you may place one of your animal tokens (round disk) or river token.

• If the colors of the two tiles match, you may place 1 animal token.
• If the colors differ, you may place a river token.

In addition to placing tokens between tiles on your personal board, you may be able to place tokens on the bonus cards in the display.

At the start of the game, 3 random Landscape cards are displayed which show patterns you may complete to place extra tokens.

• Color tile pattern: If you place tiles on your board to match the color pattern, you place 2 of your animal tokens on that Landscape card.
• Layout tile pattern: If you place tiles on your board to match the layout pattern, you place 2 of your animal tokens on that Landscape card.
• River pattern: If you place river tokens on your board that match the river pattern, you place 2 of your animal tokens on that Landscape card.

In addition, if you cover all five instances of a specific symbol on your personal board, you place 2 of your animal tokens on that Symbol card.

You can also take special actions by using Aurora tokens. The first player to place 3 tiles of a particular color on their board gains the matching Aurora token. When a another player later places 4 tiles of that color on their board, they gain the other matching Aurora token.

Each of these token grant a special action that the player may use once during the game. These include moving a tile, placing a tile on a non-matching symbol, using the slide mechanism twice, and placing 2 animal tokens on a landscape tile of their choice.

The first player to place all their tokens wins the game. If nobody finishes before the end of the game (12 turns), the player with the fewest remaining tokens wins.

 

Can the whole family enjoy Tulikko?

Absolutely.

The rules of Tulikko are simple to learn and easy to remember. And the game is nice and colorful.

It’s also a game that’s very quick to play. Player turns are short and simply consist of choosing where to slide in their tile and taking the tile from the other side to place on their board. And the game lasts, at most, 12 turns.

Tulikko presents players with lots of opportunities, but not enough turns to accomplish everything. So families will constantly face fun tradeoffs about which patterns to pursue and which goals to abandon.

Even with the simplicity of the rules, there are still enough choices to keep experienced players interested.

And that’s mainly due to the unique center tile sliding mechanism that makes the game so great for families.

On your turn, you’ll have the choice of 4 tiles to take from the center. But each will be paired up with a certain symbol next to it. So while you may want that color tile, the symbol may not be the best for placement on your board (since you have to play the tile taken on a matching symbol). In addition, the color tile you slide in to the opposite side will be available for the next player to take. So choosing which tile to take and place and what you’re setting up for others makes for interesting decisions for the whole game.

Plus, the whole point of selecting certain tiles is so that you can create patterns on your board that match the Landscape patterns and let you place more tokens.

Then there are the bonus tokens to consider. Getting the bonus tokens can help you alter standard play in your favor. So you won’t want to forget about getting multiple tiles of one color so you can claim those bonus actions.

And you have to do all this in 12 turns or less!

We also really like the variable set up each game. The pattern objectives change from game to game to create new challenges on how to best fill your board.

Another element to point out is that while there isn’t any direct conflict in the game (people aren’t messing with each other’s tiles or boards), players will influence what their opponents have to choose from in the center. Which also means if you’re playing with older players, this grants another layer of strategy. Because those players are more apt to see how their center placement can mess up their opponents.

As such, the nature of the game will change slightly based on who you’re playing with. It can be a nice and light game to pass a bit of time or a bit more competitive. You’ll get to choose.

While the box says ages 8 and up, we’d recommend Tulikko for families with kids around 10 and older. Younger players can certainly enjoy it, but older kids and adults will appreciate the puzzle of balancing tile placement with the ever-changing choices.

 

How does Tulikko score on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter?

Tulikko scores high on our “Let’s Play Again” game meter.

The central tile-drafting mechanism creates interesting decisions every turn. Games move quickly, usually finishing in under 30 minutes, and the changing pattern cards make each play feel fresh. The colorful components are inviting, and there’s a nice balance between strategy and luck.

Most importantly, Tulikko is approachable. Families can enjoy it as a relaxing puzzle game, while more experienced players can dive deeper into the strategy. That’s the kind of flexibility we love seeing in family games.

If your family enjoys games like Carcassonne, Azul, or Cascadia, Tulikko deserves a spot on your shelf.

The Board Game Family would like to thank Pandasaurus Games for the review copy of Tulikko.

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