Circle of Life (2015)

About this game

Circle of Life, Winner of the Mind Sports Olympiad's Game of the Year award, and winner of the Best Combinatorial Game Award, is a strategy game where players evolve species to eat each other in a growing ecosystem. Despite 1-minute rules, the game recreates key aspects of real ecosystems: It starts with simple species, which evolve to become more diverse and complex. Species get more complex as you go up the food chain. Simple species reproduce, die, and evolve at higher rates than more complex ones. When a species' population is high, another species often evolves to eat it. When a critter at the top of the food chain dies, it feeds back into the bottom, to complete the Circle of Life. For more insight into the game, visit this link.

Does it fit your group?

• Group size. Strictly 2 players — no more, no fewer.
• Rules load. At 2.0/5 this is a mid-weight game — expect a proper rules explanation before you start.
• Age. The publisher suggests 10 and up. That rates the rules rather than the artwork, so judge the box yourself for younger players.