Review: New York Zoo

Introduction & Overview

In New York Zoo, your task is to build a zoo: construct enclosures for wildlife, introduce new species, and help them breed. It is a straightforward, easy-to-learn game because on your turn you only have two options: place a new enclosure tile in your zoo or acquire new animals to populate your enclosures. However, you must make sure to time your actions well, as your goal is to breed as many animals in your zoo as possible!

This is the premise of New York Zoo, designed by Uwe Rosenberg (Agricola, Patchwork, Le Havre). The game was published in 2020 by Feuerland Spiele in a German edition. Felix Wermke (Tiny Epic Pirates) handled the artwork.

It is published in Spanish by Maldito Games (although the game is completely language-independent, except for the rulebook). It accommodates 1 to 5 players, with a suggested minimum age of 10, and a playing time of roughly 30 to 60 minutes. The retail price is €35. For this review, a review copy of the Spanish edition was 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.

Components

Inside a two-piece cardboard box (lid and bottom), measuring 31.5 × 22.5 × 5.5 cm (a rectangular box with dimensions similar to Dual Powers or Hansa Teutonica), we find the following components:

8 Double-Sided Zoo Boards (cardstock)
Action Board (cardboard)
45 Enclosure Tiles (cardboard):
- 8 Four-Space Tiles
- 15 Five-Space Tiles
- 15 Six-Space Tiles
- 7 Seven-Space Tiles
32 Attraction Tiles (cardboard)
10 Animal Multiplier Tiles (2 of each type) (cardboard)
Starting Tile (cardboard)
5 Range Markers (cardboard)
126 Animals (wooden):
- 28 Meerkats
- 26 Flamingos
- 24 Kangaroos
- 24 Penguins
- 24 Arctic Foxes
Elephant (wooden)
Rulebook

How to Play

New York Zoo is a tile-placement game featuring Tetris-like pieces (polyominos) that sets up a race where the winner is the first player to completely cover their personal board. To achieve this, there is a central rondel containing spaces with tiles alongside spaces with pairs of animals. On each turn, the active player chooses one of the available options on the main rondel. These options fall into two categories: acquiring an enclosure tile (which is placed on their board and must immediately have at least one animal placed on it) or taking two animals of different species (which can be placed in enclosures housing that animal type or in houses). Whenever all spaces on a tile are filled with animals of the same type, the player returns all these pieces to the supply (keeping up to one animal in a house) and claims one bonus attraction tile from a limited display. As the elephant pawn moves along the rondel, it will cross breeding lines—each tied to a specific species—granting offspring to all players who have at least one pair of that species in one or two enclosures.

Key Concepts

Let us begin with the Boards. Each player receives a board featuring a designated grid of spaces that they must fill before anyone else to claim victory. The size of this grid depends on the player count, as indicated in the bottom-left corner. Along the top banner, there is a turn-order summary. Meanwhile, the upper-left section contains the house, offering individual holding spaces for animals.

Next come the Animals. There are five species: penguins, kangaroos, meerkats, arctic foxes, and flamingos. These animals can be kept either in the houses or inside the enclosures built on the player’s personal board. Throughout the game, breeding phases will trigger for the different species; if a player has at least one pair of that species in one or two enclosures, they will receive one or two offspring, respectively, to add to those enclosures.

These Enclosures are represented by polyomino tiles ranging in size from 4 to 7 spaces (their shade of green varies depending on size). Players place these enclosures on their personal boards while adhering to two core rules. First, an enclosure may only ever contain animals of a single species. Second, except in one specific case, an enclosure can never be left completely empty. As a general rule, animals cannot be rearranged, although placing a new enclosure allows you to move animals from other enclosures into the newly placed one.

When a player manages to fill an enclosure with animals of the same species, they earn a bonus in the form of Attraction Tiles. These special tiles cover between 1 and 8 spaces and are placed directly onto the player’s board. No animals are placed on top of these attraction tiles.

To acquire enclosures and animals, players use the Main Board, which acts as a rondel alternating between animal spaces (always providing two distinct animals) and enclosure spaces. It also features breeding tracks that trigger reproduction for each of the five species.

The Elephant pawn moves clockwise along this track. On their turn, the active player may move the elephant up to a maximum number of spaces (determined by player count) and execute the action of the space on which it stops. The breeding lines are not spaces where the elephant can stop; instead, breeding is triggered simply by crossing them, resolving after the active player completes their turn.

That is enough to get started.

Preparación de la Partida

Place the supply board in the center of the table.
Sort the enclosure tiles by type (size) and place them onto the designated spaces in ascending order according to the icons (first the four-space tiles, then the five-space tiles, and so on). Once placed, each stack should contain three tiles.
Place the elephant on the animal space marked with a dot and set the starting tile aside.
Form a general supply with the animals and attraction tiles.
Randomly choose a starting player, who receives the board with starting enclosure number 1. The remaining players receive boards with incrementally higher numbers in clockwise order. Afterwards, each player takes the two animals shown in the upper corners of their board and places them into two spaces of their house.

We are ready to begin!

Game Flow

A game of New York Zoo plays out over an indeterminate number of turns, starting with the first player and continuing clockwise until someone triggers the end-game condition.

On each turn, the active player proceeds as follows:

Move the Elephant. Advance the elephant up to 3 spaces (in 3- or 5-player games) or up to 4 spaces (in 2- or 4-player games). If an enclosure space is depleted (no tiles remain), it is skipped and does not count toward the movement limit.
- The active player may test how a reachable tile fits on their board. To do so, place the question mark marker on the corresponding stack to remember where to return the tile if you decide not to take it.
Action. Execute the action corresponding to the space where the elephant landed:
- Enclosure: Take the top enclosure from the stack and place it anywhere on your board, ensuring it does not extend beyond the grid or overlap existing tiles. Additionally, you must place 1 or 2 animals of the same species onto it. These animals may come from your houses and/or from other enclosures (remembering that you cannot leave another enclosure empty).
- Animals: Take the two indicated animals from the general supply. These animals can be placed into empty enclosures, enclosures already containing the same species that have open spaces, or open spaces in your houses.
  - Important: Whenever you add an animal to an enclosure and you have animals of that same species in your houses, you may additionally move one matching animal from a house into that enclosure.
Breeding. If the elephant crossed a breeding line, all players (not just the active player) with 1 or 2 enclosures containing at least a pair of that species receive 1 or 2 offspring, respectively, adding them to those enclosures. If a player has more than 2 eligible enclosures, they must choose which two receive an offspring. Offspring cannot be placed in houses, although, once again, if you have matching animals in your houses, you may move one into the enclosure alongside the new offspring.
- Important: In 2- or 3-player games, if a player produced at least one offspring of the triggered species, they may also take an extra animal of any species present in a different enclosure (it cannot be an enclosure that just bred) and place it into that enclosure. This extra animal cannot be placed in a house. Once again, if you have matching animals in your houses, you may move one into that enclosure alongside the extra animal.

Play then passes to the player on the left.

When a player completely fills an enclosure (every space contains an animal of the matching species), they immediately claim an attraction tile and place it on their board. Afterward, all animals from the completed enclosure are returned to the supply, except for one, which is moved to an open space in the house (if all house spaces are occupied, that animal is also returned to the supply). If multiple players complete enclosures during a breeding phase, they choose attraction tiles in turn order, starting with the active player and proceeding clockwise.

Game End

The game ends immediately when, at the end of a turn, a player has completely covered their personal board. If multiple players complete their boards during the same turn (following a breeding phase), the player with the most animals remaining in their enclosures wins. If a tie persists, the tied players share the victory.

Variants

Short Variant for 2 Players: After setup, reduce the available enclosure supply by removing the top tile from each stack. Shuffle and distribute the 6 seven-space tiles and 6 six-space tiles equally between the players. Each player places these tiles onto their board however they see fit, without adding any animals to them.
Solo Mode: Take the 1-player board and set up the 2-player short variant, but return all unused enclosure tiles to the box. Place the five range markers face-up in ascending order. The game ends either when you fill your board or when the elephant completes 2 full laps around the rondel. On each turn, use one of the range markers to advance the elephant by the indicated number of spaces and flip that marker face-down. Once all markers are flipped, turn them all face-up again to refresh your options. Using the “0” marker keeps the elephant in place, allowing you to repeat the current space’s action. You may also advance the elephant to the next animal space without spending a marker. The extra breeding rule also applies in solo mode. You win if you complete your zoo before the elephant finishes its second lap; otherwise, you receive a negative score equal to the number of uncovered spaces remaining.

Personal Opinion

It is curious how time puts everything into perspective. I miss the days when Uwe Rosenberg was my go-to designer, responsible for two masterpieces in Agricola and Le Havre. After establishing himself as one of the premier authors of the late 2000s, something seemed to shift in his development process: he moved away from pursuing true innovation and turned into a generator of remixes.

Much like EA Sports, every so often a new Rosenberg design would arrive, only to turn out to be another spin on an earlier concept with a few tweaks applied. Sometimes it worked for the better (Fields of Arle, A Feast for Odin, Nusfjord), and other times not so much (Reykholt, Le Havre: The Inland Port). We could pinpoint 2014 as the last time Uwe hit upon something genuinely distinct. As many of you have probably guessed, I am talking about Patchwork (read its tocho-review here).

In 2020 comes New York Zoo, a new iteration on the core concept of stitching together fabric scraps and managing buttons. Let us see what new spin he puts on the formula, but not before thanking Maldito Games (whose very first Spanish release was, funny enough, Patchwork) for providing the review copy that makes this tocho-review possible.

In New York Zoo, we find ourselves in a race to be the first to completely fill our personal grid with polyominos of various sizes (from one to seven spaces). Right off the bat, Uwe “surprises” us with the most significant change: victory points are thrown out the window in favor of a straight race to cover your last square before anyone else.

What remains unchanged is the core mechanism: a rondel where a marker dictates your available range of choices. The active player selects an option within reach of the marker, advances it, and executes the action of the chosen space.

Here lies the second major difference from Patchwork: we now have two distinct types of elements to choose from. On one hand, there are the enclosures (polyominos), organized into stacks on the supply board. The tiles within each stack are arranged in descending size—meaning the top tile has one more space than the one directly beneath it, which in turn has one more space than the bottom tile of the three-piece stack.

The other element is the animals. What would a zoo be without diverse species? Here we find five species: penguins, flamingos, meerkats, arctic foxes, and kangaroos. It is an eclectic mix. One might expect more “traditional” zoo staples like lions, tigers, monkeys, or giraffes. I suspect this roster was chosen for functional rather than thematic reasons, since these animals need to physically fit inside the enclosure tiles.

When landing on an animal space, a player takes two animals of different species and places them on their board—either into an enclosure that already houses that species (you cannot mix species in a single enclosure) or into the houses, a restricted holding area that lets you feed animals into new enclosures or join matching species placed on later turns.

Why do this? First, because the rules forbid placing an empty enclosure, forcing players to keep acquiring animals so they have stock ready to populate new tiles. Second, because animals are the engine that provides an edge over opponents. How? Through the game’s third mechanical addition: breeding (borrowed straight from his crowning achievement, Agricola).

Along the track where the elephant advances, you will find breeding lines for each of the five species. Whenever crossed, any player who has one or two enclosures containing at least a pair of that species gains one or two offspring for those pens. The ultimate goal? To fill enclosures as quickly as possible, triggering bonus attraction tiles that cover extra spaces on the board.

This setup explains why enclosure stacks are arranged in descending size. The early enclosures players take are larger and harder to fill, whereas smaller enclosures require fewer animals to complete, even though they cover less territory on your board.

And that is pretty much all there is to it. Pick animals or enclosures, place them on your board, and optimize breeding cycles to complete pens rapidly and hoard the best attraction tiles.

The first thing I must acknowledge is that, among all the spin-offs in Rosenberg’s polyomino branch, New York Zoo feels like the most decent effort. For starters, it takes a slightly different approach than Patchwork and is visually striking on the table thanks to the animeeples.

Yet, despite providing entertaining games, its decelerating pacing grates from the very first play. If you try it, you will notice that players start with tremendous energy, rushing to grab large tiles and accumulate animals while focusing on specific species to be the first to clear an enclosure—since the 8- and 6-space bonus tiles are pure gold, followed closely by the 4-space ones.

Once those major prizes are gone, the game downshifts and turns into a tedious animal-management puzzle. As available space on your board shrinks, you will need smaller bonus tiles, spending multiple turns just gathering the specific animals required to secure 1- or 2-space patches.

Naturally, whichever player laid out their enclosures cleanly without leaving isolated gaps will hold a massive advantage entering the final stretch. Needing two 2-space bonus tiles means completing only two enclosures, whereas leaving 3 isolated spaces scattered across your board—even though it represents fewer total empty squares—forces you to fill three separate enclosures to claim three 1-space tiles.

By the time the endgame arrives, players almost always finish their boards using these small bonus tiles. The number of turns needed for the leader to complete their remaining enclosures is fairly predictable well in advance. Consequently, unless two players are neck-and-neck, the finish tends to feel anticlimactic, with opponents going through the motions just waiting for the leader to close it out.

While this might not happen every single session, a player who gains an early lead by snagging a couple of large attraction tiles is notoriously difficult to dethrone.

On top of that, the game does not play nearly as briskly as Patchwork. Factoring in animal upkeep and manipulation, it easily runs about 10 minutes longer per player. This extra time allows a sense of repetition to creep into those closing turns, often leaving a slightly bittersweet taste once a winner is declared. In a race game, feeling like you are slowing down during the final sprint rather than accelerating is never a good sign.

The third issue I have with the game is that handling the animals can be quite fiddly. The animeeples crowd together on the tiles, making it very easy for anyone without surgeon-like precision to accidentally bump adjacent pieces and cause a domino effect across the board. This explains the species selection: four of the five animals (excluding the fox) stand upright on two legs, allowing you to pinch and lift them cleanly. Even so, they are packed so tightly that minor zoo catastrophes are common (it reminds me of Peter Molyneux’s classic video game Black & White, which evolved the ideas of Populous by casting the player as a deity managing a growing civilization, represented on screen as a giant hand picking up villagers and dropping them across the landscape).

As stated earlier, I do not consider New York Zoo a bad game; in fact, among Uwe’s polyomino designs, I prefer it by far over the blandness of Cottage Garden (read its tocho-review here), which completely killed my desire to try Indian Summer or Spring Meadow (feel free, dear readers, to share in the comments if you spot common ground with New York Zoo or areas where those two titles might actually surpass it).

The broader realization is that we hit the same takeaway as with Agricola and Le Havre: Uwe Rosenberg nails the core concept on his first attempt and, at best, manages not to worsen the formula with subsequent iterations. We are still waiting for a polyomino design that genuinely tops Patchwork, keeping in mind the weight and target audience of the quilt-building original.

Furthermore, New York Zoo targets the exact same audience with nearly identical mechanisms, again featuring time management (subtly handled here via breeding lines) and a pure race to cover a grid, which is dialed up to become the sole victory condition.

The one clear area where New York Zoo beats Patchwork is scalability. It plays smoothly at every player count, since player interaction boils down to racing for the best attraction tiles and drafting from the rondel. If two players is not your regular group size and you want an accessible polyomino game for higher counts, New York Zoo is a solid contender. Downtime does increase with more players, but overall it remains well-balanced.

Some might weigh this title against The Isle of Cats, but the feline design sits a couple of notches higher in both mechanical weight and decision space. I would not consider them direct competitors, and both can easily coexist in the same collection.

Turning to production quality, the components are decent, highlighted by custom animal meeples featuring unique shapes and fitting colors. The cardboard pieces have good thickness, though the die-cutting is slightly soft and can feel a bit flexible when punching out (though it should not cause major problems). The player boards are printed on cardstock. Given that eight double-sided boards are included to support all player configurations, upgrading them to thick cardboard would have driven up a price point that remains quite competitive for what is in the box. The rulebook, while functional, has a somewhat disjointed layout. The writer seemed aware of this, repeatedly restating specific rules—such as pulling a matching animal from your house whenever you place one during an action or breeding phase—just to ensure nothing was missed.

Visually, the game does not offer anything particularly jaw-dropping. A closer look reveals charming touches, such as small decorative elements on enclosure tiles or the bronze-statue finish on each player’s starting spaces. Even so, the artwork takes a backseat to the vibrant animeeples. The box cover is eye-catching, largely thanks to the expressive gaze of the animals set against the New York skyline. Why meerkats were excluded from the front cover—despite appearing on the box sides—remains a mystery.

And let’s wrap this up. New York Zoo is another polyomino-drafting iteration from Uwe Rosenberg. It introduces interesting wrinkles, like animal breeding and a strict race objective (no victory points). Its greatest strength is how well it scales, making it a viable alternative for groups larger than two. On the downside, the pacing grinds down as you near the finish line, which can feel anticlimactic in a race game. Handling the crowded animal pieces can also get rather fiddly. For all these reasons, I give it a…