Base price: $12.
1 players.
Play time: ~15 minutes.
BGG Link
Check it out on Kickstarter! (Will update link when Kickstarter is live.)
Logged plays: 3
Full disclosure: A preview copy of Aqua ROVE was provided by Button Shy. Some art, gameplay, or other aspects of the game may change between this preview and the fulfillment of the Kickstarter, should it fund, as this is a preview of a currently unreleased game.
Alright, friends! We’re back with another Button Shy preview as part of their Kickstarter for some ROVE sequels. I’m doing double time between this and catching up on the original X-Men Animated Series while working my way through X-Men ’97. Suffice it to say, it’s all rad and great. I’m a big fan so far, and I’m loving the camp of it all. But that’s neither here nor there, I suppose; we’re talking about ROVE. So let’s get to it!
In Aqua ROVE, the little guy has a new mission deep beneath the ocean! He’s still exploring, mind you, so you’ll need to get your pattern-matching skills in order and organize your modules to clear an all-new set of missions under the sea. There’s all-new adventures, new ways to move, and, I think, a whale that you can ride? That’s all kind of fun. What will you find in the water?
Contents
Setup
Not a ton here. You’re gonna shuffle up the Module Cards, first:
Place them in a two-column, three-row rectangle, active side up. Then shuffle the other cards together. They have a Mission Side:
And they have a Movement Side:
You’ll shuffle them Mission side up. Place one face-up above and to the left of the modules; you’ll be making a stack. Deal yourself five cards for a Standard Game, 4 for a Hard Game, and 3 for an Impossible Difficulty game. Cards in your hand are always Movement side up. You should be ready to start!
Gameplay
Actually, this plays pretty much the same as ROVE, the original. Each turn, your goal is to play Movement Cards to align the Module Cards with the pattern displayed on the Mission Cards. Cards to cards to cards. Very easy.
The challenge here is that you don’t get to draw back up at the end of a play! You only draw one card at a time, and that’s only after you complete a Mission! If you run out of cards or moves, you lose!
Each Module also has a bonus ability that can be used once per game. Use them to help complete Missions!
Player Count Differences
None! This is a solo game. That said, because it’s a solo game, you can play two-headed if you want help from another player or just to share in the delight of puzzles. Up to you! I usually like to play with a couple people collaboratively.
Strategy
- I tend to treat the Module Abilities as equivalent to playing a card (in that I consider them equal-cost). I just use that to make sure I’m not using the Module Abilities lightly. They’ve got big abilities that can often be the exact thing I need to push me over the edge for completing a Mission. If you can use one in lieu of playing a card, that can usually be pretty good; that way you’ll end up having more cards in your hand and more options.
- Similarly, I try to avoid spending more than two Movement Cards on a Mission if I can avoid it. If you’re spending upwards of two Movement Cards, the question deserves to be asked if you could have done the whole thing more efficiently. That’s a lot of movement, especially with some of the more free-form cards.
- You can see what the next Mission is going to be if you succeed, so plan accordingly (or try to change it!). Just do what you can to set yourself up so that you don’t need too many Movement Cards for the next Mission. Even though there are restrictions on what has to be where in order to complete the Mission, you can still position the other Modules such that you’re well-set for the next one.
- Plan ahead. You can try to move Modules so that even if you can’t complete the Mission, you can leverage their adjacency to get an extra Movement Point next turn. This is another useful trick. You know what cards are in your hand, so use them to your advantage to get your ducks in a row for next turn. You do get a pretty solid boost over the course of the game if you can successfully play every card with its movement bonus.
- As you near the end of the game, you can play a bit fast and loose with your cards. You shouldn’t blow your whole hand, granted, but if you have extra cards on the last Mission you can kind of just recklessly spend them as long as you win. There’s no bonus points for having extra cards in your hand (beyond it being useful at higher difficulties).
- Pushing modules around can be pretty useful; often, more bang for your buck. You can generally get a few cards to move at once, which can be pretty handy, especially when you need to get a lot of cards to one spot.
Pros, Mehs, and Cons
Pros
- Our little guy is going on an underwater adventure! Big fan. I just like that for him and like that thematically. It follows the same pattern as The Crew, which I appreciate.
- I actually enjoy the verticality of the game. It’s visually very nice, though for photography reasons it’s a bit all over the place.
- I think the movement system is pretty nice; it’s a bit easier to understand compared to the original game. Here, you don’t have the alternate movement conditions; you just get a straight +1 bonus across the board for any card with the two indicated icons adjacent to each other. I think it’s a bit more straightforward.
- The art remains impeccable. I really like the deep underwater vibe of the whole thing. It would be soothing if the deep ocean weren’t, by its very nature, extremely terrifying, but it’s still pretty soothing, all things considered.
- The difficulty feels comparable to ROVE, so that’s nice. Like I said, comparable, so if you’re not necessarily expecting a more challenging game, this is that. It’s sort of a side-quel, if that’s a word we can make up, Not entirely a retheme, but a different interpretation of the original game.
- As always, nicely portable. The Button Shy wallets are just … really nice for that sort of thing.
- Pretty easy to learn, too. There’s not a lot of complexity to it; the puzzle is the real thing that’ll engage your brain as you play.
Mehs
- There’s enough movement with the Modules that you are likely going to have to move the entire set around at once to accommodate the Mission Stack or the edge of the play area or something. I don’t remember this happening as much with ROVE, but maybe it’s just a perception thing since the Mission stack is on the left side, now.
- I do wish it were a bit clearer that you could move over cards using certain Movement Cards. I am not entirely sure how to do it visually, and this inherits its visual language from the original ROVE, but I definitely still forgot the first round I played.
Cons
- I find the BGG tagline for this game… unsettling. As of writing, it’s “ROVE is back and wetter than ever!” and I don’t like that.
Overall: 8.25 / 10
Overall, I think Aqua ROVE is great! Honestly, it made me feel like I didn’t give the original ROVE enough credit; playing both recently has been really nice and a lot of fun. Thematically, it still has the Wall-E vibes I’m going for, but the solemn aquatic thing that the Mission Cards have this time is also pretty nice. The art has been pretty great across the board and the series, so always glad to see more. Plus, this has all the classic hallmarks of a Button Shy game. It’s easy to learn, nice and puzzley, and imminently portable. You love to see it. I think that this is a nice sequel game, though I think I would have liked to see a bit more experimentation within the ROVE system. I think the game is pretty successful, but the core game is still pretty much the same as the original, just with a few changes to movement. Like I said, I don’t dislike that in the slightest, but I think a bit bolder could go a long way. Or it might have messed the whole thing up. Who knows? That’s half the fun of these kinds of things. ROVE still makes for a quick little puzzler, and I’m always down to play. If you’re interested in solo games, puzzle games, or just want to get dunked, there’s always more depths to explore with Aqua ROVE! I’ve really been enjoying the whole series.
If you enjoyed this review and would like to support What’s Eric Playing? in the future, please check out my Patreon. Thanks for reading!
What's Eric Playing? 