Back with a quick look at another app version of a board game. This time it’s the beautiful and serene game Tokaido.

In Tokaido you are a traveller trying to have the most interesting journey as you wander along the road between Kyoto and Edo over a four day period.

Tokaido ticks all the boxes when it comes to game modes. As the image below shows. I’m not a big one for playing with random strangers online (I do believe I have said that once or twice before in the past). So I really like that I can play just against my friends.

The app it self looks beautiful. It continues the art style of the board game which I love.

The developers also when implementing the game didn’t try and do a virtual representation of the board itself. But played to the strengths of the media and came up with a look that doesn’t feel like a board game.

One advantage the app has over the physical is in a two player game the app via an AI opponent controls the dummy third player.

For me this is a perfect digital version of the physical game. A must add to the collection, and a great game to play with friends during the lockdown.

Here we are once more with yet another quick look at an app version of a boardgame. This time it’s the really awesome two player abstract game Onitama.

The app version of the game implements the base game and the 16 card Sensei’s Path expansion (an in app purchase, the other in app purchase you can make is basically a couple of themed skins.)

Naturally the game looks nice. Although for me playing on an iPad would have liked the game to use landscape mode and not portrait. Or at least swap between the two intelligently depending on the orientation of the screen.

I’m fine with the top down view of the board. But a 3D view would have appealed more.

I’ve played this both online with Jonathan and solo against the AI. Naturally my preference is against friends. But the AI was a cool alternative with the option of setting how difficult the AI opponent is.

This is a solid implementation of the board game. If you are a fan of the game it’s worth getting.

One benefit of the lockdown is that I’m discovering that there have been app versions of some of my favourite board games released that I somehow missed.

A good example of this is that I missed Santorini hitting the App Store.

In physical form this is a great abstract game that looks beautiful on the table. It’s quick to teach and learn. But that hides a complexity especially when you are using the God cards with their different and unique powers.

This app version of the game looks beautiful and captures the real game fantastically.

For your initial investment you get 34 of the Gods selected from the base game, Golden Fleece expansion and a promo. You can also buy a further 24 Gods in-game.

I’ve only played against the AI so far, there is online play. The AI can be set at various difficulty levels, which includes a God level. Which I haven’t been brave enough to try yet.

You can rotate the board around easily to get different views of the board. Which you will have to do. It’s just a nature of this 3D game as an app and in real life.

I really like the job the developer has done with this. I’m glad I came across it.

In response to Jonathan’s comment:

Carcassonne has been on iOS for years.

I’ve owned it for years, had all the expansions they added.

It was a good implementation of a board game classic.

But things change. Never developers pick up licenses, old ones lose them.

For whatever reason a new version of Carcassonne got released, and given a make over.

Where the previous version was a good looking game that accurately represented the physical game. The art used was the art from the tiles. With a 2D top down view.

This new version adds an isometric camera view (bottom left) to go alongside the 2D top down view and other graphical flourishes that make the game seem fresh.

Naturally you can easily swap between the two views to your hearts content, and settle on the one you prefer.

Some of the flourishes include animating the meeples so that they bounce on the board in the isometric view. Or at the press of the button you get to see which areas of the board are covered by farmer meeples(top left). Or the dragon tokens that keep count of the number of moves the dragon has taken, along with possible moves and where it has been (top right).

I also like how a city only gets built once it has been completed. Until then it is just a muddy outline.

I’ve only played against the AI at the moment. Which was something that wasn’t possible in the previous version (there were puzzles/challenges you could do, but that didn’t work for me). Sometimes the AI can take a couple of minutes or longer to make a move, which is annoying. But on the whole I’ve found the AI challenging but not over powering.

There is online play across platforms. However I’m not one for playing against strangers. I much prefer playing against friends. Said friends have not got this app yet. So this isn’t something I’ve used in this version. There is also a text chat option to. But I refer you the just made statement about online play.

The main drawback for me with this new version is that I’ve had to buy everything again.

But it does have my favourite expansions as in app purchases. These are The Abbot, The River, Inns & Cathedrals, Traders and Builders, The Princess and Dragon, and the Winter Edition (not purchased yet). I like what these add to the game, they extend it’s playing time. But that’s a compromise I’m prepared to make, as they add so much.

I really like this new version.