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Board Game Review: The Stars Are Right—Puzzlelicious

There’s a lot of different types of games. But, every once in a while, a game comes along that has a much different feel to it than your typical cube pushing euro or your dice fight ameritrash game. This week, we take a look at The Stars are Right. Stars is essentially a competitive puzzle where the players work to move the pieces in a pattern that benefits them. If you enjoy Sudoku, puzzles, and logic games, then Stars might be worth a look. Plus, there’s Cthulhu. Cthulhu makes everything better.

The Basics. The players take on the roles of disciples of the Great Old Ones. Their task is to ensure that the Stars are Right to summon them, and their servitors, into the world. The first player to accumulate ten points worth of otherworldly denizens is the winner.

The board consists of 25 double-sided tiles placed randomly in a 5×5 grid to create the night sky. Then, the players are given five cards. Each card has a minion, lesser servitor, greater servitor, or Great Old One. And the card also shows a pattern of stars necessary to bring that creature into play. The more powerful the creature, the more complicated and precise the pattern.

Each card can be played and discarded to move the night sky—either by flipping a tile, pushing a column or row over one space, or swapping two adjacent tiles. If, after your move, the night sky now matches another card in your hand, you can bring that denizen from beyond into play.

And, once they enter play, those servitors allow you to change symbols. So, if you play a swap card, one servitor might let you turn it into a flip which you might need more. So, the more you get out, the more options you’ll have to change the stars.

The Feel. Stars are Right sometimes feels exhilarating—if you like finding patterns and figuring out puzzles. I enjoy logic puzzles and I bring my Sudoku with me every time I have to get on a plane. So, for Stars to be enjoyable, you’ll have to like that kind of diversion.

But, Stars can also sometimes feel very tedious. That’s because each player gets to move the night sky on his or her turn. So, even if you have your move all planned out and ready to go, the person right before you might move the sky in such a way that you have to start from scratch. With the new layout, you’ll have to double-check to see if you can still move the sky to summon the same minion. If not, you’ll have to see if any of your other cards are summonable.

As a result—especially as the game goes on and the players have more options—turns can really start to drag. The game says it’s for two to four players. Four players is pretty difficult to sit through. And it happens on every single turn.

Once the player before you makes his move, Stars can also get quite evil. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve been ready to summon a Great Old One and dominate my competitors when the player before me moved the board just so and summoning suddenly became impossible. So there is a level of frustration that you will need to be comfortable with.

Components: 4 of 5. The star tiles are excellent. They are on very thick stock and can be moved, shifted, and shuffled without worry. They are also double-sided, but denote in a corner what’s on the reverse side so that you don’t have to memorize. The cards are a little on the small side, and the gloss is somewhat lacking, but again they are perfectly functional. The art is a fun take on the Cthulhu mythos.

Strategy/Luck Balance: 3.5 of 5. Luck plays a role, especially in the early game when you have fewer options. But once you get a few servitors down, it really comes down to your puzzle strategy. And, while I wouldn’t exactly call it “luck,” sometimes you’ll be benefited by what the player before you did to the night sky, and sometimes it will tragically destroy all your hopes and dreams.

Mechanics: 3 of 5. There are two parts to this game. The extremely awesome part is where you examine your cards, the potential powers of your servitors, and the night sky to shift it in such a way that you bring forth the most powerful otherworldly creature that you can. It’s very stimulating and extremely entertaining to find patterns in the shifting sky. This part of the game is called, for brevity, “your turn.”

Then, there’s the rest of the game, or the “other players’ turns.” Admittedly, some of this will depend on your particular group of gamers, but analysis paralysis can run rampant. And, even if you don’t play with AP folks, it just takes time to reevaluate the night sky on each turn. So, you’ll need some patience (and the least AP-prone friends you can find) when you play Stars.

Replayability: 5 of 5. Each game is incredibly unique. First, you’ll have a different set of cards each time which means you’ll have to manipulate the sky differently and summon new creatures. But, more importantly, the night sky will be completely changed from any game before. The five-by-five grid, with each card having two backs, gives rise to (… add three, carry the one…) zillions of combinations. This means you’ll be looking at different patterns and changes each game and, like Sudoku, this creates a new experience with a familiar board.

Spite: 3.5 of 5. The players definitely want to spite each other. And it’s certainly easy to do just by moving the board around and causing well-laid plans to be worthless. But, you don’t often have the opportunity. More often, you’ll be using every last move to get the board just right to summon your card. But, especially in the later game, you may have an extra flip or swap action and you’ll certainly use that to change things around on your opponents.

Overall: 3 of 5. The Stars are Right is an extremely enjoyable puzzle-like experience. However, gameplay is unfortunately marred by long pauses in-between your turns. You will have a better experience with fewer players. Still, despite that glaring negative, my group enjoys Stars and it comes down off the shelf with surprising regularity. It usually gets played when a few people show up early, or some others are late, and we are waiting for everyone to arrive.