Despite my love for former AEG franchise, Legend of the Five Rings, I never looked beyond this into AEG’s current crop(or even former crop) of board games. I’d played War of Honor and L5R Love Letter, but for some reason I never tried anything else. There have even been games that have caught my attention like Mariposas or Cat Lady, but for some reason I never bothered to try them out. Perhaps it’s a lingering and irrational sadness from when they dumped the L5R franchise or maybe it’s because I’ve just continued to put them off with an “I’ll get there eventually” mentality.

Wormholes absolutely ensures I will be paying more close attention to their catalog. The game is a fast-paced space navigator where you compete with up to four friends to deliver the most passengers across the universe. Along the way you’ll open wormholes to make travel easier. That’s it. That’s the game.

Obviously, it has a little more going on than that, but for the most part it is pretty straight forward. Each turn players with spend energy to move, drop wormholes, deliver passengers, and teleport through wormholes. Once a certain number of Wormholes have been placed, the game ends and you tally up points. Most points wins.

I think the thing that attracts me the most to this game is just how simple it is. The rules are extremely simple and with enough familiarity, games can potentially be played fairly quickly. Additionally, it’s just plain fun imagining yourself as an interstellar taxi service.

Beyond the simple mechanics, the components are great as well. A simple but effective wooden spaceship meeple is used to represent your spaceship and sturdy cardboard galaxy honeycombs create our space setting. Tokens are made from similar cardboard. The art is utterly pleasing to look at.

Another aspect I like is the small galaxy building aspect of this product. Before you can play, you’ll have to build the galaxy for your intrepid crew to maneuver through. It’s a little like building the galaxy in Twilight Imperium, but doesn’t take an hour. The whole game is purported to take 45+ minutes, but I think with familiarity the game would go much faster even with the five player maximum.

Overall, I am pleasantly surprised by this game. It’s a fast and fun addition to my game groups’ table rotation and since you build a new galaxy every time, no game will be the same allowing tons of replayability. Additionally, with it’s great looking art and well-made components, the aesthetics push that over the top. If you like quick games, space travel, or, you know, fun I can’t recommend this game enough.

-Ryan Miller