Review: It’s a Wonderful World

Introduction & Overview

Dear citizens of the 5 Empires! Today is a great day to rejoice, as we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the end of the Great Wars. What a joy to live in a world where every decision made by our wise and charismatic leaders is aimed at the happiness of the entire population! We know it is so! And so we want it to be!

This is how It’s a Wonderful World is presented to us, a design by Frédéric Guérard (Ilôs, GrandBois, Clash of Rage). The game was published in 2019 by La Boîte de Jeu in a French and English edition (the latter co-published with Lucky Duck Games). The illustrations are handled by Anthony Wolff (King of Tokyo, Zombie 15′, Top Fantasy).

In our country, it is published by Tranjis Games in a Spanish version (although the game is language-independent, except for the rulebook and the title of the cards). It supports games for 1 to 5 players, with a suggested minimum age of 14 and an approximate duration of 30 to 60 minutes. The MSRP is €39.95. For this review, a copy of the Spanish version by Tranjis Games was used, kindly provided by the publisher.

Important: if you already know the game and/or are only interested in my opinion about it, you can go directly to the Opinion section. The Content and Mechanics sections are especially intended for those who do not know the game and prefer to get a general idea of how it works.

Go to Personal Opinion

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 29.7×29.7×7.2 cm (standard square box like Ticket to Ride), we find the following components:

• Production Board (composed of 5 parts) (cardboard)
• 155 Cards (65×100 mm):
• 5 Empire Cards
• 150 Development Cards
• 170 Resource Cubes (plastic):
  • 35 Grey Materials Cubes
  • 30 Black Energy Cubes
  • 30 Green Science Cubes
  • 30 Yellow Gold Cubes
  • 30 Blue Exploration Cubes
  • 15 Red Krystallium Cubes
• 80 Character Tokens (cardboard):
  • 40 Generals
  • 40 Financiers
• Round Marker (cardboard)
• Score Pad (paper)
• Rulebook

How to Play

It’s a Wonderful World is a game with a core card drafting mechanism in which, over four rounds, players pass around an initial hand of 7 cards (10 in two-player games) until everyone has chosen 7. In a second phase, players decide which cards they want to construct and which ones they will recycle to receive the indicated resource printed on them (there are five basic resource types). These resources are used to complete cards under construction. When a card is completed, it is placed into the completed cards column, activating its production effect. The production phase is the last step in a round, generating each resource type in a specific order and awarding a bonus to the player who produces the most resources of each type. Produced resources can be placed on cards under construction or on the player’s starting empire card; accumulating five basic resources of any type generates a wild resource that can be used at any time on any card under construction. At the end of the fourth round, completed cards along with scoring tokens are evaluated to determine the winner.

Key Concepts

Let’s start with the Cards, the central pillar of the game. Each card displays its construction cost in its upper left area, with a series of square spaces associated with a symbol and a color corresponding to a resource type. The bottom band shows the production and/or end-game scoring benefit activated once the card is completed. The bottom right area displays the resource granted if the card is recycled. Finally, and optionally, above the production band, the card may offer additional bonuses obtained immediately upon completing the card. These cards are dealt to players, who draft them to determine which cards they will proceed with in the subsequent phases of the round.

To complete cards, Resources are required. In the game, five types of resources can be produced, represented by colored cubes: materials (grey cubes), energy (black cubes), science (green cubes), gold (yellow cubes), and exploration (blue cubes). These resources can be obtained in two different ways: by recycling cards or by generating them during the production phase. There is a sixth resource type, Krystallium (red cubes), which acts as a wild resource, but cannot be produced normally; instead, it is exchanged for resources that are not used to complete cards.

This production phase proceeds sequentially as indicated on the Main Board, which serves as a supply for the resources with five circular spaces in the center. Associated with each resource is a financier symbol (blue) and/or military symbol (red). Additionally, the upper area features a round track with a double-sided circular marker that indicates the drafting direction.

Financier and General Tokens represent direct victory points that players can earn by being the top producer of each resource type in each round. Each token provides one victory point, although certain cards will increase this yield.

Finally, each player has an Empire Card providing starting production and, on one of its sides, a scoring bonus for a specific token type (financiers or generals). Additionally, each card symbolically indicates that whenever a player accumulates five basic resource cubes of any type, they immediately exchange them for a Krystallium cube.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

1. Set up the main board in the center of the table by assembling the corresponding pieces and placing the round marker on the first space with the appropriate side facing up.
2. Shuffle the card deck and place it face down in the draw pile area.
3. Place the resources on their corresponding spaces, along with the financier and general tokens.
4. Each player receives an empire card, and a choice is made as to which side to use (all players must play with the same side).

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of It’s a Wonderful World plays over four rounds. Each round is structured into three phases.

Phase I: Draft

Each player receives 7 cards from the deck to form an initial hand for the round. Now, simultaneously and secretly, all players choose one card from their hand and place it face down in their draft area.

Once all players have chosen a card, it is revealed and announced to the other players, and the remaining hand is passed to the neighboring player according to the round marker (to the left in odd rounds, to the right in even rounds).

This continues until all players have seven cards in their draft area and no cards remain in hand.

Phase II: Planning

Now, simultaneously, each player must decide what to do with each card in their draft area. For each card, there are two options:

• Construct it. In this case, the player moves the card to their construction area.
• Recycle it. The player discards the card (placing it into the general discard pile) and receives the indicated resource from the supply, placing it on one of their cards under construction or, if unavailable, onto their empire card.

Keep the following cases in mind:

• If a card under construction is completed, its accumulated resources are returned to the supply, the card is moved to the completed cards column, and if applicable, its immediate bonus is claimed.
• It is possible to recycle cards under construction started in previous rounds, though any resources placed on them will be lost and the recycled resource goes directly to the empire card.
• Whenever five basic resources are accumulated on the empire card, they are immediately exchanged for a Krystallium cube, which can be placed on a card under construction at any time.
• If any card requires a general or financier token or a Krystallium cube, these can be placed at any time from the empire card.

The phase ends when all players have decided what to do with their cards and none remain in their planning area.

Phase III: Production

In this phase, the five basic resource types are produced in the order indicated on the board. For each cube type, proceed as follows:

1. Each player announces out loud how many units they produce of the active resource.
2. The player who produces the most resources earns the supremacy bonus for that resource type indicated on the main board (financier or general). In case of a tie, no one receives the bonus.
3. Each player takes as many cubes from the general supply as announced and places them on their cards under construction and/or empire card (again, collecting 5 basic resources on the empire card immediately exchanges them for a Krystallium cube). If a card is completed at this time, it is immediately moved to the completed cards column (returning resources to the supply), contributing to the production of the remaining resource types in this phase.

Once production of the final resource type is complete, advance and flip the round marker, and begin a new round.

Game End

The game ends at the conclusion of the fourth round. Proceed to final scoring. Each player tallies:

• Direct victory points from completed cards.
• Victory points from multiplier effects on completed cards.
• Victory points for general tokens (1 point per general plus multiplier cards).
• Victory points for financier tokens (1 point per financier plus multiplier cards).

The player with the most victory points wins. In case of a tie, the following criteria apply:

• The player who completed the most cards.
• The player with the most combined financier and general tokens.

If the tie remains, players share the victory.

Variants

• 2-Player Variant: in two-player games, each player receives 10 cards (instead of 7) and, once 7 cards have been drafted in the first phase, the remaining 3 are discarded. The rest of the gameplay remains unchanged.
• Solo Mode:
  • During setup, prepare 8 piles of 5 cards each. There is no planning phase. In each draft phase, the player takes 2 of the 8 prepared piles. For each pile, take all 5 cards and choose to:
    • Discard 2 cards from hand to draw 1 card from the deck (this can be done as long as the player holds at least 2 cards in hand).
    • Place chosen cards into their draft area.
    • Recycle chosen cards to gain their resources.
  • In the production phase, the supremacy reward is gained if at least five cubes of the corresponding type are produced.
  • During scoring, if playing with Side A of the empire card, subtract 15 points at the end of the game. Based on the score, achieve a rating:
    • Novice (0-59)
    • Dictator (60-79)
    • Emperor (80-99)
    • Supreme Leader (100+).

Personal Opinion

Today we review one of those titles that seems to hit the ground running in the board gaming world. A game that arrives without making much noise, but gradually wins people over until it ends up nominated for various awards like the Golden Geek or the As d’Or. And naturally, any title achieving global traction soon finds its way onto domestic shelves—this time with Tranjis Games picking up the local license, whom we thank for providing the review copy that makes this tocho-review possible.

I’ll jump right to the point without beating around the bush (who am I kidding?). It’s a Wonderful World is a game driven primarily by card drafting. Across the four rounds that make up a game, players draft hands of cards to determine which ones to develop for the rest of the round. These cards can be constructed to gain their ongoing or immediate benefits, or recycled to gain immediate resources needed to complete the cards you actually decide to build.

And that’s really all there is to it. On the surface, it’s very easy to draw comparisons with an absolute board game classic—and specifically from the French school—7 Wonders (here’s its tocho-review). In both games, drafting hand-passed cards serves as the main engine, and in both games your goal is to play these cards turn by turn to secure various assets—primarily resources to build increasingly powerful cards in search of a winning combination.

In fact, I’d dare say the game’s title is almost a double homage to Antoine Bauza’s design. Double because one of the promo leader cards released back in the day for the first 7 Wonders expansion was Louis Armstrong and his—fittingly named—iconic track What a Wonderful World. The references are clear and offer a great initial filter to decide whether this game is for you. If you don’t enjoy 7 Wonders, chances are It’s a Wonderful World will evoke similar feelings, and nothing I say in the following paragraphs will change that. But if that’s not an issue, let’s keep going.

Mechanically, It’s a Wonderful World is undeniably accessible, requiring less than ten minutes to teach and rarely exceeding an hour of playtime thanks to simultaneous execution—even with an extremely analytical player at the table. Put another way, it inherits the single greatest virtue of 7 Wonders.

So, the immediate question becomes: how does It’s a Wonderful World improve upon its predecessor? Essentially, in two areas eurogames have emphasized heavily in recent years: scalability and replayability.

Let’s address replayability first. As mentioned, we are dealing with a massive 150-card deck where, despite duplicates of certain cards (especially those producing materials and energy), the variety is wide enough to force players to adapt every game to squeeze out maximum efficiency. Unlike 7 Wonders, there are no structured era decks ensuring steady progression. Here, in the very first round, you might draft the most valuable card you’ll see all game, leaving it up to you to decide whether to hold and build it.

In this regard, it brings to mind another massive hit from recent years: Terraforming Mars (here’s its tocho-review), inheriting to an extent that open drafting freedom. The player alone bears responsibility for shaping their path. Certain cards in round one will look impossible to finish while your empire’s production is still in its infancy. Yet that’s where the design shines: knowing which cards to pick and what to do with them. To me, this is the true differentiator from 7 Wonders and what keeps it hitting the table repeatedly without feeling stale.

Furthermore, you aren’t just drafting based on what you want to build, but also what you intend to recycle. This adds another layer of interest: a card whose effect seems unappealing (perhaps because you already produce plenty of that resource) might still yield a crucial cube needed to finish another card before the production phase—especially cards generating materials.

I emphasize that point because the combo potential is another key element making the game stand out. Resolving production sequentially by resource type is a brilliant design choice: finishing a card before its resource type is produced allows that brand-new card to generate in that very same round. Of course, this isn’t possible with material-producing cards since materials are produced first.

I really want to highlight that combo-driven nature. You are constantly planning which cards to hold onto in order to accelerate other cards that will feed your production, making your engine snowball larger and larger.

The snowball factor is worth mentioning since some players dislike games where turn-by-turn momentum heavily dictates the outcome—especially with the minor majority mechanic adding extra interaction to the draft by directly rewarding top producers of each resource. If a player runs away with materials and energy early, finishing cards becomes much easier without recycling as much, making a comeback feel daunting.

However, in my experience, efficiently pairing scoring cards carries more weight than simply hoarding the most financier or general tokens (the two direct point sources). Just run the numbers: only 20 points are awarded via majority bonuses across the entire game (5 per round), and it’s virtually impossible for one player to claim them all. So yes, there is a snowball effect, but it doesn’t have time to grow out of control because the game wraps up in a flash.

If I had to point out a main drawback, it would be the simultaneous planning phase. While entertaining, it presents challenges with casual players who need guidance (at least during early turns). In those cases, it’s wise to structure initial rounds sequentially to monitor moves and answer questions. While this extends game length, it beats leaving novice players to make errors requiring mid-game retractions.

Regarding scalability, 7 Wonders was known for accommodating wide player counts, though it struggled below four. At three it’s acceptable, but you lose the tension of having non-neighboring players whose resources fall out of reach. And its two-player variant was a mess. It’s a Wonderful World wins convincingly here: without era decks, drafting functions smoothly even at two players with a minor tweak. It even includes a dedicated solo mode! At lower counts, leaving a large portion of cards out of the pool adds a welcome layer of uncertainty to draft decisions.

Unless supporting six or seven players is a strict requirement, It’s a Wonderful World fits modern gaming preferences much better. It doesn’t radically reinvent the wheel, but it features less fluff, cleaner iconography, and a more direct feel while offering superior replayability and scaling.

Moving on to component quality, production is quite solid overall, highlighted by the translucent resource cubes—except for materials. What would it have cost to make those translucent too? An odd choice. The cards have good thickness, a smooth finish, and decent snap. Even though the deck is only shuffled at setup, I recommend sleeving (the card size matches 7 Wonders, yet another nod). The cardboard for tokens is thick and sturdy, though the main board is slightly thinner and prone to slight warping. The rulebook is structured well and leaves no ambiguity.

Visually, it’s a striking game on the table, largely thanks to Anthony Wolff’s magnificent card art. It’s so impressive it might actually mislead: the cover implies a much more thematic game than it turns out to be, which some might consider a flaw, even though most card abilities align logically with their thematic titles.

And let’s wrap this up. It’s a Wonderful World is a card-drafting game where players compete to build the most efficient scoring engine. It offers more depth than expected from a familiar concept that is exceptionally well integrated. Its greatest strength lies in its replayability—driven by a huge deck—and the added interactive layer of production majorities. On the flip side, beyond its lack of pure originality, simultaneous planning can feel chaotic for casual players, and turning it into turn-based play slows things down unnecessarily. Minor complaints aside, it’s a highly recommended design. For all these reasons, I give it a…