Whale Riders Review - with Mike DiLisio

Mike DiLisio takes a look at Whale Riders, a game where you ride your whale to buy and sell goods along the Ice Coast.
0:00 Intro
0:49 Overview
9:38 Review
9:52 Art & Components
12:10 Overall Game Experience
20:22 Final Score
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BGG Link: boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/3...

[@kuchenjaeger2164]

Always love to see videos with Mike. He has that perfect energy mix of Cool Grandpa, Cool Uncle, and "mom's new boyfriend who is actually a pretty standup guy"!

[@mengie87]

i loled @ mom's new boyfriend

[@jasondunham5780]

Why is your Mom dating your cool uncle? Oh I know..because it is MIke 'National Treasure' Dilisio

[@esayzgy]

Great review Mike! Keeps getting better for us with each play.

[@MisterAbysmul]

We backed it and got the card game as well, and wow we really like them both. Good stuff and Mike, you are spot on with this review. Well done!

[@boardgameknight2791]

Great review, Mike! Thanks!

[@Manny-M]

I didn't think the wooden meeples were replacements for the standees, but more were for players to keep on front of them so there was no confusion as to which standee belonged to who during the game.

[@jameswoodard4304]

Hey, I haven't seen a Mike review in a while!

[@tubefrog213]

Great review Mike. I hadn't heard of this until 'Jeremy Reviews it' posted his vid. I love Ra at 3/4 players, so I'm kinda tempted by WR. Would've liked to see a mention of Knizia's Sumatra, and possibly some comparison points... IF you've played it of course.

[@michaeldilisio557]

I have played Sumatra. There are definitely some similarities in the designs. I think Whale Riders is slightly more elegant, but they both have the element of player driven pacing. Sumatra is more focused on straight set collection, whereas WR has the contract fulfillment tied into the set collection. I rate Whale Riders a bit higher than Sumatra.

[@ShawnH78]

Dr. Knizia called and would like the score raised to at least an 8.5!

[@ClaudeAndTaylor]

Great callback!!

[@Lingvar]

Common sense called, asked to tell Knizia, if it wasn't for his name, this game would get an even lower score.

[@michaeldilisio557]

@@Lingvar since it was my score, I can tell you that’s not true for me. I admire Knizia as a designer, however I also recognize that someone that publishes as many games as he does is bound to have some games I think are weak. There are many Knizia games that I don’t rate highly. There are many I think are fantastic. There are many I think are in between. This is one of those.

[@Lingvar]

@@michaeldilisio557 From what I've seen in your review, I've made an opinion that the game is not necessarily weak - it has comprehensive rules and clear structure mechanics-wise, and systems seem to complement each other. This is surely a well-produced piece, unfortunately it leaves a strong impression that it has been recycled. It lacks novelty, and the only exciting idea here - killer whale riders - is purely an attention-grabbing gimmick. Are these whales utilized in any way in this game to justify their presence, or would a simple boat or even a piece of ice suffice? This game could easily be about pirates sailing down the coast, collecting treasures, but wait a minute, that's already been done before a gazillion times. It is clear as day that this is a very safe product that is here only to help meet the publisher's set annual/quarterly revenue numbers - family-friendly, old-but-trusty set collection, familiar and relatable activity in the form of getting richer, simple, yet bright and cheerful art and design. Any good publisher will try to avoid risks associated with releasing a generic product of an overly-saturated genre without at least some competitive feature, hence the theme of this game, covering mediocrity with a flare. And a well-known name on the box only helps. You have to agree, if it wasn't made by an established designer, a constant stream of new games would swipe this one into oblivion in no time. But since it's Knizia we are talking about, it gets some undeserved attention and a certain level of lee-way, maybe not by you, but definitely by the general public. And it's a shame really, because this could be oh-so-much better. Either Knizia himself is already dry on ideas, or he needs to change a publisher for the one that will untie his hands and let him be creative once again. Or maybe he's just tired, who knows. I can only hope that we are yet to see some unique and exciting games from him.

[@VinegarAndSaltedFries]

Sounds like a wonderful 3 player game. Thanks Mike great review.

[@Sebastian-rt9qf]

Yup, I agree with that. The sweet spot is 3. But as a 2 player good enough to hit the table.

[@JoelPinaMovies]

Those modules make the game a lot more interesting

[@GlorifiedGutsyGaming]

I got the card game version of this I need to try

[@22gjreyes]

You can spam tiles on one location to gain free tiles every turn?

[@michaeldilisio557]

You can gain one free tile per turn, since they don’t refill until the end of your turn.

[@Wigdogger]

You can, but eventually, storm tiles would block the cheaper slots when they come in. And others would rush ahead of you, getting better tiles and different opportunities. And they'd be closer to the end-game pearls. That's the tension of the game really -- wanting to stay in one place while everyone else rushes ahead and forces you to consider what to do.

[@Manny-M]

Players who hang back too long don't generally do well by end game.

[@dandurkin9735]

It’s a great little game - "refreshing" indeed. I think the recent game Parks should have been more like Whale Riders. You probably should have mentioned that the included draw bag is too small, though.

[@MichaelJones-yp8gj]

This does look like fun, but also a slight variation of Splendor

[@CresentSoul]

Those look like everdell tokens 😮

[@jeffsandridge536]

meh, doesn,t look that interesting.maybe iwas expecting something more like a wargame or the excellent manga series 'Aqua Knight'. (read it!)

[@nreekm]

I'm getting very tired of Knizia's designs. He's really starting to repeat himself to exhaustion (and other designers too, BTW). How many more ways of moving, getting something and then trading it for points is he going to come up with?

[@NaeMuckle]

So buy other games? If you're not interested then vote with your wallet

[@nreekm]

@@NaeMuckle Guess what? That's EXACTLY what I do! Which doesn't stop me in the least from expressing the reason why I buy other games.