As soon as I saw what this game was about and how it was made "It had to be mine". Now at least the madagascar starter IS MINE

Components

The Madagascar starter set (that is the only one I own) comes with 3 rulebooks (general rules and 2 players gameplay sample), a play mat, 2 sets of 25 cards (1 for each player) and a cute box that looks like a book.


First let's talk about the rulebooks. They are 3 and they serve their purpose pretty well.


There is 1 rulebook per player that follows the dynamic of the first game. This game is so well created that even the cards in the starter are arranged in a way you can start playing with the rulebooks on your side a predefined game, more of a lesson game were players read out loud several text to fix the concepts each time they play a card. Also there is a generic rulebook in the case you want to get deeper with the names and elements. They are made of recycled paper with 10% of post consumer waste.


The play mat follows the tutorial idea, it is made of 30% post consumer waste, have fast lessons on the sides and certainly looks great. Once you are done you can use it as a poster since on the other side there is a cool giant card.


The cards are great. To start with they are made of 100% recycled paper with 50% post consumer waste printed with soy based inks. They have a cooper like border that makes the card look like some deluxe edition. The drawings are great and they serve not only as game elements but as educational material. They represent species of several hotspots (in my case madagascar), explorers diary's like, events that act like bonuses, all very colorful and carefully created.


The box is attractively done, made of 100% recycled stock. The quality of the impression is fantastic, makes you wonder why aren't other companies doing the same thing.

Gameplay


The game is very simple yet interesting. You place a hotspot that is a card with the region you are playing in (in my case madagascar) and then you start playing species on the table in a way you create an environment were species live. This is made by following easy rules.

The cards have 4 sides and on each side there is a color (or 2 colors). Everytime you play a creature you have to be sure that the sides of the other cards it touches match the sides of your card. If your card coincides on more than one side with other species you receive bonus.

This game is not a game where you kill or defeat enemies, instead you simply try to win victory points by driving your opponent out of cards. So everytime you place a species matching one or more of your opponent species you have what it is called a "turf war". In a turf far species compite through the use of energy points that each creature have. Those energy points can be boosted by extra cards to provide more advantage. The winner of a "turf war" makes the other player to discard the difference on the energy points from his/her draw deck.

There are also other cards... "xeko" cards for example provide valuable strategic and tactical advantages that tend to also speed the game up.

Once a player is out of cards the game ends and the winner is defined by summing all the victory points from each player's creatures that were played on the table. The number is boosted by the remaining cards that a player still have. But do not think that for the simple fact of having extra cards that makes some difference. If your opponent played well it is possible for him/her to win even if he/she was out of cards.


Conclusion


I have to confess that I hate collectives mainly because I love them. Yes I know it sounds weird but I hate to be force to buy every new expansion a game has yet this game is definitely something worth trying. The gameplay reminded me the feeling of playing magic the gathering somehow. There is a cool strategic factor (and I only have one starter), and the artwork and materials are top notch.

I love to have a game that is finally made of recycled paper, even the booster's wrapping is made of recycled material and they encourage on their website the collectors to send the wrapping materials so they recycle them again giving points to access to online goodies.

This is a truly environmental friendly game that teaches about the species on several ecosystems that might face extinction, and they even donate money to those hotspots in order to save those animals.

It is a pity this game is so hard to find for somebody outside USA. I would love to have extra cards to play with so if you know of somebody willing to sell the unused give me a geekcall


I give it a 10 of 10 because this game is so much more than a game. For a vegan like me its a great way to let other people know there is people that is working to make money by taking care of the future. I do not think is a game for kids only but be sure it will improve his/her knowledge of the world certainly encouraging him/her to learn more.