Image taken from https://boardgamegeek.com/image/8904203/lands-of-amazement

Designer: Scott Almes
Publisher: Button Shy
Artist: Daria Lada

Lands of Amazement should really be rebranded as Lands of Struggle because this game kicked my booty over and over again. After a few plays, it started getting a little easier and I began doing less bad (still not good though), but this is a very challenging puzzle. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it’s probably the most punishing Button Shy game I have (in terms of winning, not mechanics or anything). On top of that, one of the expansions, Family Fun, makes it even more difficult! Despite being challenging, this is actually quite an enjoyable and fun game; I’m just being a little baby because I’m terrible at it. 😂

This game is basically a pattern matching game, where you want certain symbols to form specific patterns by overlapping cards. The design is simple but clever and reminds me a bit of ROVE in terms of the pattern matching, but they’re still very different games. If you are able to match a pattern exactly (no extra symbols), then you can perform an action based on the card you just completed, which can be quite powerful. It’s a clever way to motivate the players to strive for a perfect match, but then again, there are times when a specific ability may not be super useful, in which case you can just work to match the pattern and not worry about it being perfect. It creates an interesting layer of strategy and consideration.

The main goal, however, is to create one giant pattern at the end of four rounds using cards you’ve set aside each round. Every round has certain symbols that indicate which cards can be put aside to save and utilize to make the final, large pattern.

Overall, this game is quite abstract. You are technically building amusement parks, but you’re basically just matching patterns and combining symbols; there is very little thematic integration or representation.

I already mentioned the severe difficulty of the Family Fun expansion, but the Restorations expansion doesn’t have the same issue for me. I find Restorations to be a good, neat addition that doesn’t increase the challenge level too much, but it still changes the strategy and game structure enough to create new puzzles.

One thing I can definitely say for this game that I usually can’t for these eighteen card Button Shy wallet game is that it doesn’t take up much space on the table. It’s honestly incredibly how Button Shy can design so many tiny games that end up taking up a ridiculous amount of table real estate, but thankfully this isn’t one of them.

For me, Lands of Amazement isn’t my favorite Button Shy game ever, but it’s also not my least favorite. It’s great for a quick, actually small game that’s brain burning and difficult but still fun. I enjoyed it enough to play five times back-to-back one afternoon to learn the game and try the expansions, so it can’t be that bad! Just don’t expect this one to be a walk in the park (pun intended).