Designed by: Rob Newton
Sonora takes the simple mechanics of roll-and-write games (dice are rolled and the values assigned to individual player sheets) and dispenses with the dice, instead bringing in a flicking mechanic on a shared board.
Everyone has their own score sheet, divided into quarters. The board itself is divided similarly, and players take turns flicking their five discs (values 1-5) across the board and potentially into/off each other. The area of the board your discs rest in when the flicking is done is where the values will be assigned on your personal board. One quarter is simply a matter of filling spaces – if an area is full, you’ll score the points. Another allows you to draw in tetronimo shapes, covering as you do so three different plant types – the more plants covered, the more points scored at the end of the game. A third allows you to travel along various lines, scoring at the place you ‘stop’ on – the further you go, the higher the numbers get. The last quarter is made up of a grid of triangles with icons inside them – icons score when surrounded, and are surrounded by marking off the corners, which each have a numerical cost.
That’s pretty much the basic game, except nuggeted inside each quarter are bonuses that can be triggered, and the game is engineered in such a way that as the game progresses more and more of these bonuses activate, potentially triggering more bonuses in turn, giving the game a sense of escalation. Also worth noting too that the shared flicking board has various bonus spots as well, which you can aim for with a deft flick – and be shunted out of!
After six rounds of flicking, everyone’s individual boards are totalled and the player with the most points is the winner.
It's not drowning in Take That, but certainly the more players there are, the more combative the flicking will become.
Low. The flicking is quick, and everyone assigns scores at the same time.
Low to moderate. The rules are very simple - most are above - but thinking time will increase as your options expand on your personal board.
It's always the same puzzle - or set of puzzles - but they can be tackled in different ways, and the flicking ensures that each play is distinct.
1-4
Players
8+
Years
30-60
Mins
Sam says
A fun, family friendly flicker - for the family who don't mind the slightly combative nature of the shared board and the slightly puzzly nature of the personal one, where simple decisions at the start later develop into a multitude of cascading options. I enjoyed it. For me the marriage of two different types of game felt more interesting than fascinating, and more a one-off experience than one I'd be desperate to return to over and over; I always feel roll-and-write/flip-and-write/flick-and-write games are best when they're simple, and crafting on additional mechanics, no matter how lovingly done, can feel a bit - well, unnecessary. But that said, many will love the flicking.