Going for a hike on Boxing Day

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas; we sure deserved it after such a strange year.

For Christmas this year, I pre-ordered "Parks" back in October as our family game gift that we typically do every year. I was very excited to get this one to the table, and after playing some rounds yesterday, I was not disappointed.

Hiking and visiting National Parks on Boxing Day

I won't go too in depth into the game itself, but the overall goal of the game is to hike along the trail through 4-seasons, while taking pictures, collecting resources and gear, and visiting National Parks. So cool! I'm a sucker for nature games, because I love nature.

From the moment I unboxed it everything was fantastic;

-The theme is prominent in every aspect of this game's components and gameplay

-It comes with inserts already, including bit trays in the shape of trees to keep your resources and photo tokens.

-The instruction booklet is that beautiful, "magic paper" material like Wingspan has

-The artwork is colourful, bold and beautiful

-The park cards (like you find in Wingspan) not only have great artwork, but also facts about the actual park itself

-The hiker meeples are awesome!

Hiker meeples are now my favourite kind of meeple

I had an idea of how to play through watching a GameNight video with the gang on YouTube. As usual though, I took my time unboxing and admiring the components, and as I read through the rulebook I played a 2-player game on my own to get the full idea of the game. I had the hiker movement slightly wrong at first, but remedied that quickly.

After a run through of that, I tried the solo variant which comes in the game (Yay!). Those Rangers make your hike a little more stressful let me tell you. LOL But it was a blast. Then just before dinner, my 12-yrs old and I played a game. That's when I really realized how this game will change with more people.

The Rangers in solo really make you think about what you need to gather in order to visit parks and get gear that can help you, before they get in your way or set you back. With multiplayer play and more hikers on the trail, it will force some thought in what actions you take when.

I'm so excited to have this game in our collection, and I can't wait to get it to the table again today!