Disclosure: Meeple Mountain received a free copy of this product in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. This review is not intended to be an endorsement.
Gems from Across the Pacific
It’s always great to see games from Asia make it stateside. As someone who is half Asian, I’ll always be drawn to games from my home continent. But in a time of crazy tariffs and international uncertainty, there’s a lot of gold that never gets its spotlight over here in the States.
Formosa Formosa, which literally translates to “beautiful Taiwan” in Portuguese, fortunately fell into my hands at the GAMA (Game Manufacturers Association) Expo this year. Designer Kirk Beiser is an expat living in Taiwan who happened to pack a few copies in his suitcase for the long flight to Louisville, Kentucky.
With events like the Tokyo Game Market and Asian Board Games Festival showcasing fantastic titles, we’re often on the outside looking in. Different cultural upbringings shape different ways of thinking and often lead to games that feel unlike much of what we see from Western designers. We can only hope more make their way stateside, whether through new distribution channels or smuggled over in luggage!
Toss and Tour
Formosa Formosa is a “toss-and-write” game in which every component is used, including the box itself. Players take turns until the final round, with the number of rounds scaling based on the player count so everyone receives an equal number of turns. The player with the most points at the end wins.
On a turn, the active player tosses six colored cubes, one of each color plus a dealer’s choice, into the lid of the box. Each cube lands on either a colored region or a cardinal direction, determining which sites are available to visit. Players choose a cube, cross off the corresponding site to increase its point value, and then select a round bonus, which usually allows them to cross off something else.
Traveling between regions creates pollution, with each piece escalating the number of negative points you’ll receive at the end of the game.
There’s also a section of bus bonuses that can be crossed off by completing different tasks, such as visiting one of each type of sight across all regions or reaching a specific bonus in the “beach cleanup” column.
Finally, there are two public goals, usually rewarding whoever visits the most of a certain type of sight, along with one personal goal that players can work toward for additional points during end-game scoring.
Cube and Cross
I can’t say I’ve played a game outside of the Exit series that incorporated the game box as an actual playing piece, let alone a “roll-and-write” where you’re literally tossing cubes into the box. It’s a fun and unique mechanic that brings a ton of charm to the table. My wife is a huge fan of roll-, flip-, and any-other-kind-of-write games, so anything that can take the genre and add a new twist is sure to grab my interest.
Though it’s still a fairly standard heads-down, roll-then-mark-stuff-off experience, there’s a bit of manipulation players can use to keep things interesting. The rules state that your hand must be at least 15 centimeters above the box, but aiming is allowed. I can’t say we broke out a ruler, but it was fun to jeer and question some of the tosses that conveniently put certain cubes into play more often than others.
Each color represents a different type of sight, and every region has its own breakdown of points. Some regions offer higher payouts for going heavy on temples, while others reward waterfalls. There’s also a white cube that allows players to visit a region’s island. While doing so creates two pollution instead of the usual one, islands provide extra bonuses that can help when the cubes don’t line up with your strategy.
The early rounds feel fine, usually giving you a simple cross-off or two, but the game starts compounding into daisy chains later on. A row bonus can lead to another mark, which triggers another bonus, which leads to even more marks. Some juicy turns make you feel proud when you’re still crossing things off while everyone else has already finished.
The simultaneous play also deserves some applause. It keeps everything moving and grooving while holding the game to a nice 30-minute experience.
After the main action, every player chooses a bonus action from their board. There’s a bit of hand management involved since each bonus can only be crossed off once. If your available selection doesn’t help you much, then tough luck.
More Taiwan Tidings, Please!
The animal meeples and player cards are simply adorable, and I appreciate the fun animal facts on the back (shoutout to the pangolins!). The personal goals themselves weren’t too difficult to accomplish, but I feel like a small asymmetric power could have been tied to each animal to add a little more variety.
For a game anchored in a love of Taiwan, though, I didn’t learn too much about the country beyond a handful of geographic names and animal tidbits. There’s plenty of room to celebrate Taiwan more deeply, and while I appreciate the game’s eco-conscious themes, a few additional culturally specific touches would have made the experience feel more rooted in the island.
Overall, it’s a fun time spent exploring the Asian island. It plays nicely at every player count since the number of rounds scales accordingly, and I appreciate that it supports up to six players, making it ideal for larger family game nights. Your vacation to Taiwan may start feeling familiar after a handful of visits, but you’ll still enjoy your stay.
