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Quick Look: It’s a Wonderful World

Designer: Frédéric Guérard
Artist: Anthony Wolff
Publisher: Lucky Duck Games
Year Published: 2019

No. of Players: 1-5

Ages: 14+

Playing Time: 45 minutes.

Find more info HERE.

From the Publisher:

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Review:

I have encountered It’s a Wonderful World many times in my board gaming life, but in all honesty, I have always found its title to be a put off-putting, to be perfectly transparent. 

I almost always felt the need to associate it with a tried-and-true Christmas movie classic, given the similarity in names to “It’s a Wonderful Life”, and have casually dismissed the board game from my radar without any good cause or reason for as long as I have been aware of it.

However, a recent offering to locally trade my copy of Gaia Project for not just one, but two games, left me an opportunity I seemingly could not refuse ; I ended up getting Summer Camp and It’s a Wonderful World (fully sleeved for its hundreds of cards and with every expansion ever made). 

To be honest, I might have completed the transaction for Summer Camp and the sleeves alone, but that is another story…

The one caveat for this deal was that my copy of It’s a Wonderful World would have its components and cards scribed in French ; I was assured this had zero bearing on gameplay whatsoever, as the bequeather of the set of games had printed out the rules in English for whoever ended up taking the game off of their hands. So in theory, I was all set. Besides, I had a daughter learning French, so perhaps this was something she could benefit from…

The Game:

It’s a Wonderful World is best described as a competitive card drafting game. My most recent experience of such a design can be somewhat compared to my review of Beast, which employs a similar mechanism ; Each player is dealt 7 cards, chooses one, and passes the rest to another player that is to their side. Players will then choose one of the 6 remaining cards, add it to their hand, and continue the process of passing and selecting cards until each player has 7 cards in their hand. Then the game will begin over a process of 4 rounds, with an additional card drafting phase held between each subsequent round.

A key feature of card drafting games is the ability to not only play to win, but also sabotage your rivals via card denial ; not allowing them to obtain cards that would otherwise help them to win. It’s a Wonderful World provides a clear exemplification of this gaming phenomenon.

During each round, players will attempt to build their empire and score the most points. They can either attempt to use their cards to either construct a building via one of their cards for future resource generation and/or points, or recycle cards for a scant one resource (of which there are 6 types). Completing a building utilizing such resources usually rewards one with an immediate benefit or long term scoring potential via features such as score multipliers that modify your final score based on a variety of resources or cards you may have accumulated throughout the course of the game. 

While there are some additional intricacies that can be detailed, this is essentially It’s a Wonderful World in a nutshell. Just a “scant” 4 rounds of gaming and then scores are tallied up to see who emerges victorious. So easy a kid could do it, right?

The Review / The Good :

To answer the previous question, the answer is indeed “yes”. In fact, even with a language barrier seemingly going to be present with cards denoted in French, the iconography of the game is clear and simple enough that my 6 year old could get up and into the world of It’s a Wonderful World in just one game. 

That isn’t to say the game is meant for kids ; I would still say that it is just as easily an adult level game and clearly involves some great long term strategy and planning to pull off a victory. And it doesn’t mean there is no luck involved ; it does indeed require some calculated planning to accompany the calculated risks that permeate the intended designs of It’s a Wonderful World. It might not contain the deepest ruleset, but that is okay ; it is at its core fun.

The game is staged and streamlined so wonderfully that there is virtually no room for confusion. In fact, the rule book reads surely and swiftly, with plenty of examples to demonstrate how the game works, but presented in a way that does not boggle the mind with bad abstractions of what to do to learn the game. In the words of Geico, it’s so easy a caveman could do it.

Components and art are all superlative, zero issues. 

One thing to praise is that the game is constantly engaging ; there really is zero downtime, as everyone essentially is always taking their turn at the same time. The end result is that the game is often complete within a span of 30-45 minutes, making it a viable option for busy weeknights.

It is also a testament to the game design that both my 9 and 6 year old find the game more engaging and fun than games specifically designed more for kids. That’s right, as good as Abducktion

 and Summer Camp was for them, they vastly prefer It’s a Wonderful World. 

Are there any negatives?

I do find that the 150+ cards that are essentially the entirety of the draw pile are difficult to manage , especially with regards to shuffling. Such a large quantity of materials to randomize every game can pose its challenges , especially when the cards are considerably bulkier when  sleeved and toppling over and out of the pile during and after any attempt to shuffle. I consequently un sleeved all the materials to the game and saved the precious commodities for other future gaming uses. And the cards are still a mild chore to deal with when staging the game during setup.

The game is perhaps not interactive enough for some people ; I can understand why the style of such drafting games is sometimes derided as multiplayer solitaire. However, in defense of It’s a Wonderful World, I would say this is a feature and not a bug. Its design allows for a rapid paced game that is difficult to put down since there is little room left for boredom waiting for others to take turns. This in particular makes it an asset worth keeping for us.

If purchased without any expansions, I would say the large box size consumes a bit too much shelf space ; it could be done with substantially less volume, and I could easily see us not delving into the expansion material all, as it seems to revolve around some “campaign” style games played over multiple sessions, which doesn’t seem to be required for the game at all ; it feels like it stands well enough on its own without the need for supplements, to be quite frank…

The theme, while sporting great artistic assets, could have also been tied to virtually anything out there. But that is also okay, as it’s mostly the gameplay itself that counts in this case anyways. 

Conclusion :

It’s a Wonderful World surprised me with its ease of accessibility paired with its ease of diversion. Clearly this is a game that has managed to please a lot of souls out there, and I am sad that I wasn’t able to see clearly enough to navigate through my own forms of self deception ; I should have recognized it as a worthwhile potential investment for my family ages ago instead of casting it aside based on its title. It should be worthy of consideration for anyone looking to make for a quickly flowing game night with plenty of opportunities to make a name for yourself in the world of It’s a Wonderful World.

8.2 / 10

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