Cat Island, or Nekojima – the Latin spelling of the Japanese conjunction for cat and island – needs to be connected to the power grid. Many high-voltage pylons need to be installed and connected, but there is limited space available on the island. The engineers, or players, have to build as many pylons and cables as possible. This is not without danger, as the pylons are not stable and the power cables must not touch anything. It also doesn’t help that the island’s cats get in the way…
Set-up and gameplay
The cat island is represented by a solid round plateau divided into four pie slices. These are the different regions of the island. At the beginning of the game, this plateau is placed in the centre of the table. The various pylons (two of which are always connected from a string and where the colour of the string corresponds to the length of the string) are sorted by the colour of the string. The cats, dice and draw bag of cubes are placed within easy reach of all players.
The game can be played either cooperatively or competitively, but the gameplay remains basically the same. The active player rolls two dice. The colours of the dice correspond to the different regions where this player must place the two pylons connected by a string. With a black roll, another player may determine the region for that die and with a joker, the active player may decide which colour the die represents.
To determine which colour rope and corresponding two masts a player should place, the player draws a wooden cube from the draw bag. If a black cube is drawn, a player of their choice must later hang a cat on one of the ropes in the structure. Players draw cubes until they have a colour corresponding to the masts.
Players may build on the ground or on top of previously placed pylons, but must ensure that the pylons are placed in the correct regions and the ropes and pylons must not touch each other to avoid short circuits. Players may, however, by holding and twisting the masts in their hands, slightly influence the shape of the rope to their preference.
Players who work together try to place as many pylons as possible without the tower collapsing and competitive players try to make sure the tower does not collapse during their turn, otherwise they are the loser. If players are looking for more of a challenge, there are also some game variations. One of these uses chips with nests on them. These are placed on top of pylons so no pylons can be placed on top here. There is also an expansion available with a large Japanese gate (a torii) that is placed on the game board at the beginning of the game.
Verdict
Nekojima is an intriguing dexterity game. Building a tower together until it collapses is a tried-and-tested game concept, but the unique components make Nekojima a unique gaming experience. In addition, the components are of high quality and the design is beautiful, which makes it not a dime a dozen skill game.
During Spiel 2024, this game caught my eye. Faithful readers know that I am a huge fan of skill games. Earlier we wrote a blog about fun skill games. On the second day of Spiel, I decided to brave a long queue to purchase Nekojima and was also lucky enough to meet the game’s creators and have my copy signed. Nekojima was one of the first games from my Spiel haul to land on the table and I have since been able to play many games with different players and groups, so I can say with certainty that the game has been enjoyed by all of them and thus appeals to a wide range of players. Nekojima is now one of my favourite skill games, along with Rhino Hero Super Battle.
