Waterfall Park Board Game Review

Waterfall Park Board Game is a brightly coloured negotiation game that sees you creating the biggest amusement park by collecting the right pieces in the right locations to gain coins. The problem? Your fellow players will be the ones with the pieces and locations you need, and so to get them, you’ll have to bargain… It makes for a fun and social game, where you’ll figure out your allies from your enemies.

What is Waterfall Park Game?

Waterfall Park is a board game that sees you trading with your friends for locations and attractions, so that you can earn money by creating the very best theme park you can. It’s a game by Repos Production for 3-5 players, with a recommended age of 8+, and it takes place on an island in the middle of the sea.

Waterfall Park board game shows a towering structure, with numbered boxes making up locations from the very bottom to the top of the theme park, split through the center by the eponymous waterfall. The huge towers make the game visually striking. You’ll have small plastic tiles that click into these boxes to show your ownership of them, and small attraction tiles that fit pleasingly into those plastic tiles to show what you’ve chosen to build there. The goal is to build attractions for the theme park, and you’re considered to have done this when you have enough of the same tile next to each other. These then earn you coins, and the player with the most coins at the end of the game is deemed the winner. Throughout the game, to get both the locations and the pieces you’ll need, you’ll need to strike bargains – but you can weight these bargains to get exactly what you want, or intercept others deals, making it all about your crafty negotiation skills! Effective tile placement is crucial for maximizing your income and optimizing gameplay.

Waterfall Park vs Chinatown

Waterfall Park is actually a new version of a previous, very popular game called Chinatown. The structure of the game – trading for components – is very much the same. The main difference is how scarce the resources are. In order to win at Chinatown, you’ll have to strike quicker deals and be more cutthroat with your bargaining. Waterfall Parks is more family friendly – you’ll still need to bargain, but missing out on one deal won’t end your game. There’ll be more chances further along. Additionally, Waterfall Park provides enough tiles for each attraction type, enabling players to form two complete groupings, which encourages more dynamic trading and negotiation. Chinatown was an exceedingly popular board game, but one which has been out of print for a long time. If you’ve played that, you’ll enjoy this.

How to Play Waterfall Park

Waterfall Park is a really simple board game to pick up and understand. You start with a random assignment of locations (called Plots in the game), and attraction pieces. This means that to start with, all of your locations are scattered at random across the board. As you need these to be grouped in order to score any points, it can initially feel like an impossible task, but over the rounds, you’ll gain more of each, and bargain for anything you don’t have. Soon, you’ll be trying to secure that last piece to make your structure perfect!

This initial set up on each turn is called the preparation phase. Helpfully, the amount of items you need are printed on the board itself, so depending on how many players are playing the game, and which round it is, depends on how much you receive just as part of the game itself. Building larger attractions is easier when you focus on occupying adjacent spaces. The round marker helps indicate the current round, ensuring a structured game experience.

Once everyone has their pieces for the turn, the ‘exchange’ or trade phase opens. There are no restrictions to what you can trade, so it doesn’t need to be like for like, or even balanced. If you’re in a position where another player wants one piece so much, they’re willing to trade you every attraction they have? Well that’s great news for you! Equally, you might even throw in a coin or two – which are important, as coins are how you win the game! – to sweeten a deal you need. Careful not to trade away too much though…

The only aspect you cannot do, is move or trade an already built/placed attraction, because it now exists. However, the ownership of the location is still tradable, which makes sense thematically. The game also makes a point to say trades are free of restrictions, which means that often, bargains come out of the game too, and into real life ones!

All conversations take place around the table, with no secrecy. That means there can potentially be a lot happening at once, as players listen out for what pieces others have, and begin their bargaining. It quickly becomes much more interlaced, as players start picking up on other deals being made and disrupt them by offering better ones, or even making bigger, multiway trades.

Once all deals have been made, players then place their attractions in the construction phase, and these are then scored in the income phase. Every attraction tile has a number on it, showing how many of those you need to build (connected to each other) in order for the attraction to be considered built. Building bigger attractions, earlier in the game equates to more coins, but is easier said than completed. A new turn begins, with new allocations, and once again, the trading begins!

The game takes place over four rounds, and takes around 45 minutes – though, depending on how lengthy your negotiations are, depends on how close to this time your actual play is. After the fourth round, players count up the coins they have, and the highest wins.

Gameplay Mechanics

Waterfall Park is a negotiation game that challenges players to build the ultimate amusement park by strategically placing attraction tiles and negotiating with other players. The game unfolds over four rounds, each representing a year of development in your park. At the start of each round, players receive a hand of Location cards and a set of Attraction tiles. These are the building blocks of your amusement park, and how you use them will determine your success.

The heart of Waterfall Park lies in its negotiation phase. Players must trade and barter with each other to acquire the locations and attractions they need. This phase is where the game truly shines, as it encourages lively interaction and strategic thinking. The goal is to place your attraction tiles in such a way that they generate the most money by the end of the game. With only four rounds to achieve this, every decision counts, making each trade and placement crucial to your strategy.

Waterfall Park Board Game Review

Waterfall Park is a surprisingly simple game to play, and one which appeals to a wide range of audiences. Whether you play it with the family – in fact, we recommended it as one of the best games for 12 year olds – or on a game night with peers, the different characters involved will influence the game considerably. Waterfall Park is a strategy game that involves strategic thinking and planning, making it engaging and fun for both kids and adults. The over competitive friend has to be careful not to show their hand too much, the quiet one seems to somehow be winning, and you can’t help but talk because that’s the only way you can win. There’s a lot of reasons to love this game, but we’ll go deeper into just a few.

Waterfall Park’s Negotiations are Unrivaled

The game says you can negotiate how you like, and to begin with, you’ll likely just offer some asymmetric trades – eg, I’ll offer you three attraction tiles for one location, because that specific location is really important to me – but you’ll often find that the game ends up coming out of the board game, and delving into real life trades. Over the playthroughs, I’ve seen everything from chores to TV time exchanged within negotiations, and these can be hilarious to watch and experience. They’re certainly not a necessary part of the game, but it is something that comes up more often than you might expect. They also change significantly depending on who you’re playing with, so some negotiations will be harder fought than others, or mini alliances may form that place uncrossable lines in the sand. Whilst yes, there are opportunities for arguments to develop, Waterfall Park stands out among other negotiation games by offering unique real-life trade dynamics that enhance the overall player experience.

Which brings me on to my next point:

Waterfall Park is a Perfect Team Building and Strategy Game

Waterfall Park has a lot going for it as a family game, but it has another life as a team building game. Because the core of it is negotiation, and the resources you have are randomly allocated, you cannot play the game and not talk to everyone playing. You can’t half engage, because everyone is talking and trading, and to have any chance of succeeding, you’ll need to be in those conversations too. As a team building game, that’s perfect – players break down any nerves about speaking to others, because the topic is predetermined, and the necessity to engage is already there. The final round is crucial in determining the winner, and using a timer during this phase ensures players remain engaged and do not overanalyze their negotiations. As the game moves over the turns, funny stories emerge – ”remember that time Jim tried to trade his cat for a piece in Waterfall Park?”, or “remember how Jessica managed to talk Chris out of that one tile that let her win the game?”. Games are great opportunities for building shared experiences, but Waterfall Park is one of the best.

A Nostalgic Aesthetic

Many of the board games we remember as children ourselves – whether they’re hobby board games, or mass market board games – contained bright colors, plastic components, and an insert in the box (if there was one) that wasn’t great at keeping the pieces in one place. We’ve generally moved away from that now, not many board games can be described as bright, plastic components are sometimes now more expensive than wooden counterparts, and inserts are custom made.

Although the latter point is a bit of a dig at Waterfall Park, as the insert looks initially as if it’ll be a perfect holder for the game, where everything has it’s pleasing place to keep everything separate, but in fact the slightest movement sees the components flung across the box and everything quickly muddled – you can’t ignore the nostalgic elements. Having a tactile game of bright colors, a whimsical illustration and art style, means you feel that same temptation to pull it off the shelf as you did the games you played as children. Waterfall Park feels different based on the number of players, impacting the overall experience. Meaning, if you’re playing with the family, your kids are even more likely to want to play.

Strategic Depth and Replayability

Waterfall Park offers a rich tapestry of strategic depth and replayability, making it a standout in any board game collection. The negotiation mechanics require players to think critically and strategically, weighing the benefits and risks of different trades and alliances. Each game presents a unique challenge, thanks to the variable setup and the dynamic nature of player interactions.

The game’s replayability is further enhanced by the round-to-round distributions, which ensure that no two games are ever the same. This variability keeps the gameplay fresh and engaging, encouraging players to come back for more. Despite its strategic depth, Waterfall Park remains accessible to players of all skill levels, thanks to its straightforward rules and short playtime. Whether you’re a seasoned gamer or a newcomer, you’ll find plenty to enjoy in this negotiation game.

Components and Production Quality

The components and production quality of Waterfall Park are top-notch, reflecting the care and attention to detail that went into its design. The game board is sturdy and well-designed, featuring clear instructions and easy-to-read graphics that enhance the overall experience. The Attraction tiles are thick and easy to handle, making the process of building your park both satisfying and straightforward.

The Location cards are equally well-made, with a quality that ensures they can withstand repeated shuffling and handling. The game’s packaging is thoughtfully designed, with an insert that maximizes space and keeps all components neatly organized. This makes it easy to store and transport the game, adding to its overall value. With its bright and colorful artwork and high-quality materials, Waterfall Park is a visual and tactile delight, making it a great addition to any board game collection.

Conclusion

Waterfall Park is a bright and social game that offers so much fun over the table. If you want a game that gets everybody talking, it’s bound to be this one. Building on foundations laid by the game Chinatown, it was always going to be popular, but the way it’s been done has brought it to an even wider audience. We’d recommend adding this board game to your collection. 

Where to buy Waterfall Park?

Waterfall Park is available at local game shops, online and at Amazon. 

Frequently Asked Questions about Waterfall Park