Jewels for the Emperor Penguin

Designer: Shane F.F. Carr
Artist: Kenzie Lindow & Josh Nelson
Publisher: Left Justified Studio
Year Published: 2024
No. of Players: 2-5
Ages: 9+
Playing Time: 30-45 min.
Main Mechanisms: Set Collection, Dice Rolling, Chaining

A welcoming game packed with unusual strategy and clever penguins!

Find more info on BoardGameGeek.com

Disclaimer: Publisher provided a copy of the game for this review.

Overview:

Jewels for the Emperor Penguin is an engaging family-weight game chock full of intrepid penguin explorers and shiny clicky-clacky gems. An intriguing new mix of dice drafting for movement, chaining moves into multi-penguin bumps, along with solid set collection sets this game apart from the crowd.

Choose dice to move your penguins up and down the ice wall, collecting gems - then turn those gems in to earn jewelry cards. The first penguin team to acquire five cards earns the respect of the Emperor (and bonus points!). Everyone else takes one last turn and then points are added up to determine the most Emperor-pleasing guild of penguins!

Gameplay and Mechanics:

• Roll 3 dice and put them in your dice pool.
• At the beginning of your turn, choose one of your dice and move the penguin with the matching number exactly one space on the board - diagonally up or down to the left or right or sliding straight down - but never moving straight up because that’s much too steep!
• Activate the two benefits for your landing hex - one is just for you, and the other is for any penguins who are on the hex (including you).
• Collect gems and use them to build a piece of jewelry by matching the required gems at the bottom of a card!
• Reroll the die you used and put it back in your dice pool.
• At the end of the game, score for the jewelry you crafted, plus bonus points for cards that match your secret penguin guild symbol.

What’s most interesting about this game is the bumping mechanism: if you move a penguin into a hex that already has one of your penguin *with a lower number*, you can BUMP that other penguin and move it in any of the five directions it could normally move. You can even chain these bumps - for example, by moving a 5 Penguin onto a 4 Penguin which then moves onto a 2 Penguin! You’ll only activate the hex that you land on with your final penguin, but this can be a great way to get up to the higher hexes (which tend to have better benefits and more powerful actions, due to the clever way the hex pieces themselves are marked for game setup).

This is an unusual mechanism that can lead to some fascinating opportunities to build a strategy by lining your penguins up for a really good bump!

There are also opportunities to trade in gems you have for those you need, but only on certain spaces (or at the valley floor). This adds a little extra decision-making and planning to what we usually find in a family-weight set collection game, and I’ve loved watching people start to figure out how to plan moves to take advantage of the best possible trades.

Theme, Artwork and Illustration, Graphic Design and Layout:

Penguins climbing an ice wall to retrieve gems and craft exquisite jewelry to impress their emperor! What a fun theme for families and penguin-lovers. The art by Kenzie Lindow & Josh Nelson really helps draw players into the game, from the adorable expressions on the wooden meeples to the wildly dashing necklaces, bracelets, and tiaras!

The graphic design of the board and hexes does take a little bit of teaching - it's not intuitive that you can move to any first-level hex from the bottom of the board, no matter where along that edge your penguin had been sitting. I appreciate the “do not go” symbols to keep you from trying to move straight up the ice wall, but we could have used a few extra arrows for clarification.

Inclusivity and Accessibility:

Jewels for the Emperor Penguin is a very welcoming game that can be played with people new to gaming, including kids! The majority of the information (everything except your secret guild symbol) is completely open, so we were very comfortable helping younger players work through what some of their choices were, which can be a really helpful way to scaffold new players to understanding the strategy behind the game. As a homeschooling mom, I appreciate the ability to gently assist new players through the game and being able to see that “aha!” moment when they start to make even stronger moves on their own.

I do wonder if colorblind players might need a personal mat to put the plastic gems on to keep them sorted, since the different colors of physical gems are all the same basic gem shape. The icons for the gems are very well delineated, though, and most folks should be able to tell fairly easily what types of gems they need for each piece of jewelry. The different colors of penguins might need a small dot or mark if one of your players has difficulty distinguishing one color of penguins from the others (though you mainly only need to track which penguins are yours).

What worked:

Jewels for the Emperor Penguin hits a great balance between being easy to teach and having enough new and interesting mechanisms to make replaying it a joy. Take your time and explore the game, try new strategies in chaining and collecting, and enjoy that aha moment as new players click into the groove of the game. (The modular board gives extra replayability, too!)

Final thoughts:

From the moment I opened the box, my family was drawn to the world of these cheeky explorer penguins (including their mascot, Jewels Verne, also available as a stuffie!). The meeples are SO cute and we love that each team of penguins has five different poses and personalities. The gems are shiny, chunky goodness and I’m not the only one who dipped my hand in the bag just to have a good sensory swirl! Setting up the game is a breeze with the hexes clearly marked on the back, and the visual of the ice wall brings you one step closer to wanting to impress that Emperor!

Jewels for the Emperor Penguin is a delightful family-weight game, great for new players of any age. The mechanisms of movement and bumping other penguins were novel and interesting, and we found ourselves digging into the strategy of lining up your penguins for amazing future moves. It was a pleasant surprise to find so many things to catch the interest of a well-seasoned gamer in a game that’s so open and welcoming and easy to teach. Overall, it has been a hit for us here and we look forward to continuing to play.

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