In addition to Reiner Knizia‘s Shell We?, which I covered here, Korea Boardgames has announced four other game releases for 2025, so let’s knock out the rest of its line-up:
▪️ Foldris is a new edition of Jinwoo Seo‘s flip-and-write game フォールドリス, which appeared in a Japanese edition in 2024 from <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamepublisher/43729/show-house-games“>Show House games. The cover and portmanteau of the title might already give you a good sense of how to play.
Each of the 1-7 players has their own Tetris-style playsheet with a different 2×2 area filled at the bottom of their grid, as well as a 1×2 barrier block.
On a turn, flip the top block card of the deck. Each player adds this block to their grid, after rotating it as they wish, by imagining it falling as far as possible into their grid from the top, with no horizontal movement being allowed.
If a player completes a line, they mark the line as complete, add a bonus marker at the top of their player sheet, then fold the paper to make that line disappear! If someone completes a line, everyone who has not done so that turn must now drop their barrier block horizontally into their grid, with the center of the block matching the number on the current block card. (In the image below, the barrier block was dropped on the 3 line.)
The barrier block is present only for your next turn, after which you return it to the side of your playing area, leaving behind a 1×2 hole because you can’t use the barrier to complete a line. Of course, if someone else has completed a line that turn and you haven’t, you must drop your barrier again!
Each player starts with two bonus markers. Spend one bonus marker to mirror a block, and spend two to remove one square from the block being dropped (as long as you don’t split the block in two).
If you can’t place a block because your grid is too full, you are eliminated, and the last player still in the game wins. (Use the number of completed lines to break ties.)
▪️ Beaver House is a real-time game for 2-4 players from Eddie Lee, a game in the mold of Andrew and Jack Lawson‘s Make ‘n’ Break or Yohan Goh‘s Fold-it.
Each player has their own dam board, habitat board, and ten material tiles. Each material tile shows 1-4 beavers, one of three materials (logs, rocks, or leaves), and some condition of muddiness (specks, lines, or across every surface). The eight-sided habitat board has land on half of its edges and water on the other half, with four sides next to flowers and two sides next to beavers.
On a turn, someone reveals an order card that shows something like no rocks next to leaves, one log on the water, or three beavers on flowers. Everyone races to place eight tiles around the edges of their habitat board in order to match the situation on the displayed order. Whoever does so correctly first claims this order.
To set up for the next round, rotate your habitat board one notch, then remove the two tiles next to the beavers, leaving everything else in place. Reveal a new order card. Each player must remove, swap, and place tiles to satisfy both the new order card and all order cards they’ve previously won.
Whoever first claims four order cards wins.
▪️ Jeppe Norsker‘s Burger Master is another real-time game, but unlike the previous title this is more like Ricochet Robots…but with burgers.
To set up, spread out the four plates, place a bun on each plate, then shuffle the ingredients and place one-third of them in a stack on the bun of three plates, leaving one bun empty. (Leave out the onions if you’re playing without the “gourmet menu” cards.)
On a turn, reveal a random menu card. Everyone tries to determine how steps it will take them to create that exact burger, with a step consisting of:
• Moving a stack of one or more ingredients to a different plate, or
• Flipping two or more ingredients, whether leaving them on the same plate or moving them on top of another plate.
When someone announces a number, they flip the sand timer. Each other player can call out a smaller number once, and when time expires, whoever called the lowest number tries to make the desired burger, with (1) everyone else counting out the steps and (2) the sand timer running.
If the player makes the burger before time runs out and in no more than the stated number of steps, they win a fry from the fry pouch; if they don’t, everyone else wins a fry.
The first player to collect five fries wins. If multiple players do this on the same turn, these players then have a sudden death round in which they try to make their opponents choke on a burger compete to create more burgers. If someone fails in sudden death, they’re out of the competition; if they succeed, they will be hailed by all far and wide as the burger master…or burger mistress should that be preferable.
▪️ River Kang‘s card game Purrfect Place is a <a href="https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgamefamily/46141/traditional-card–games-golf”>Golf-style game in which you want to place cats in objects to make them disappear.
Wow, sounds gruesome when you put it like that.
Each player starts with two rows of three or four face-down cards (depending on the player count), with each card showing a number 1-11 or a kitten, which has a value of your choice. On a turn, you take the top card of the deck or discard pile, then either:
• Place it face up in your display, discarding the card previously in that spot,
• Discard it, then flip a card in your display face up, or
• Stack it on a face-up card as long as the numbers add to 11, after which you go again.
At the end of your turn, if card(s) in the same column equal the same number, remove them and place them face down next to your display.
All of the cards
When a player has no face-down cards, the round ends and players sum the value of their display, with stacks worth 11, kittens worth 0, and cards set aside face down worth -1. The player(s) with the lowest score earn a bottle, and the first player(s) to collect two bottles win.
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