Boardgame Bulletin 23-22 – You’re gonna need a bigger…game table? Sharks! (Kristen Mott, The Dietz Foundation, 2023)

Decades after its release, Jaws is still one of my favorite movies. Although the movie is suspenseful, it is also educational. That said, the movie colored the public perception of sharks as dangerous creatures, in no small part because of the famous Indianapolis speech scene:

Sharks! designed by Kristen Mott, illustrated by Lenais Goumon, and published by The Dietz Foundation (2023) presents a far more shark-friendly, educationally-focused viewpoint of these fascinating creatures through a very family-friendly game. Although the RockyMountainNavy Boys are older we still found this set-collection game fun to play while also educating us about different sharks and the ocean ecosystem along the way.

It’s a shark’s life for me

Sharks are struggling for survival, trying to eat a varied carnivorous diet of sea creatures while emptying trash from their stomachs, outmaneuvering a boat, and defeating rival sharks.

Each shark is trying to eat different creature types and sizes, based on score cards in the player’s hand. Players are trying to get these specific creature types and sizes into their shark’s stomach.

Sharks! rulebook introduction

When set up a game of Sharks! has a score board in the middle with each player controlling a shark. The sharks move on a board composed of different ocean tiles. Each shark has a custom deck of scoring cards.

In each turn of Sharks! players perform four simple actions:

1. Swim (move 1-3 tiles) to a new ocean tile.
2. Perform the tile action (after eating trash on the path).
3. Score cards if desired.
4. Move the boat (which leaves trash behind).

There are six unique species of shark in the game of Sharks! and each has a special movement ability.

Eat enough of the right creatures and score points in Sharks! But watch out for that trash which clogs up your stomach…

Sharks in Sharks! need to watch out for the darn boat and the trash those nasty humans leave behind…

Some ocean tiles in Sharks! can be used to regurgitate a shark’s stomach to clean out trash while other tiles (tides) reset part of the board. The first shark to fill its stomach triggers the end game; the winner is the shark with the most points. A single game of Sharks! should be playable in 30-60 minutes. After a few plays I found that two experienced players can get a game finished in closer to 20 minutes making it look like total play time is roughly 10-minutes per player.

“Fish are friends, not food”

While certainly shark-friendly, Sharks! is an educational game that presents a more realistic view of sharks while not going as far astray as Di$ney in the movie Finding Nemo:

Although the RockyMountainNavy Boys are older than the targeted K-5 grade students for Sharks! this game will still find its way to the family gaming table. I look forward to trying the game out with Mrs. RockyMountainNavy’s students (elementary school age) to see their reaction. I expect they will find the game fun and not realize the deep education about the ocean ecosystem they are getting along the way. In some ways I wish the RMN Boys were still in school because taking Sharks! to a middle school boardgame club would be the bees-knees (to mix my creature metaphors).

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Feature image courtesy RMN

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