Dogs! Dogs everywhere! Pack your pooper scoopers and fill your pockets with treats, as we embark on a journey through Dog Park, one of 2022’s sleeper hits. The fast and the furriest are here!

1-4 Players 40-80 Minutes Age 10+

Designers: Lottie Hazell, Jack Hazell

Artists: Kate Avery, Holly Exley, Dann May

Publisher: Birdwood Games

Woof!

No, Dog Park is not the dog version of Wingspan! I’m pre-empting this review with that disclaimer as I’ve seen a lot of comparisons with the feathered powerhouse and I think Dog Park deserves to stand on its own merits without being compared to its fellow animal-themed game. True, there are some similar themes and mechanics at play, but at its heart, Dog Park has as much in common with Wingspan as dogs have in common with birds. Sure, they’re both living, breathing animals, they both make wonderful pets and neither of them can understand the popularity of cats, but beyond that, they couldn’t be more different. So, enough talk about what Dog Park isn’t. Let’s take a walk and explore what it is!

Bark!

Who’s a good dog? No seriously, I need to choose the best one.

Dog Park is a gorgeously illustrated card drafting, set collection game in which you build a tableau of your favourite beasties over four rounds. Each card presents a unique ability that can be used during your turn depending on which cards you’ve chosen to activate that round. The action takes place on a beautifully rendered watercolour game board depicting a peaceful countryside vista and at the end of the game, the player with the highest score wins! Okay, actually, that does sound a lot like Wingspan now that I mention it, but that’s where the similarities end.

Players are dog walkers tasked with walking a selection of doggos through a tranquil park, stopping along the way to fetch sticks, chase balls, be rewarded with doggie treats or chew on their favourite toys. Each round players take turns selecting two dogs to add to their kennel maxing out at eight canines in the final round. The selection process comprises one of my favourite elements of the game; each player has a leash dial which they secretly set to a number between zero and five in order to bid on a dog they wish to obtain using their reputation points (RP). The player with the highest reputation bid for each dog adds it to their kennel and can subsequently choose to walk it in the current and successive rounds. Should any player end up missing out on their preferred best friend they will end up taking whichever dog remains after all other players have selected theirs so no one walks away empty handed.

In the next phase, players choose up to three dogs to join them for the walk. Each pooch has a unique ability which the players will need to consider alongside the weather forecast, the park location card and their private objectives for that round. This could result in certain dogs being walked more than once, while others may never get their day in the sun, at the cost of the walker’s reputation. Reputation keeps players on their toes and each round requires reassessment as conditions change and with it, the strategy.

The final phase of each round sees players completing the walk, counting up their RP and resetting the board for the next round. Dogs are returned their player’s kennels and the process repeats this way until the game ends after the fourth round and the dog walker with the most RP is declared the doggiest walker in all the land.

Yap!

Dog Park lives up to its name by presenting 163 unique dogs, each depicted on their own gorgeously illustrated card. Each card lists all the vital information clearly and efficiently and is colour coded to each breed type. The powers can vary from collecting extra resources to providing additional RP if the conditions are met, so forming a winning team with powers that support the board state and objectives is both challenging and fun. However, I found it just as much fun to simply collect the dogs I liked best! Sure, I didn’t always win, but there are many different kinds of winning… even the losing kind.

The selection process was a huge plus for me. It encourages player interaction and since the types of dogs and their powers can influence the outcome so heavily, the bidding phase can prove to be the most competitive aspect of the game.

Speaking of player interaction, Dog Park takes a balanced approach, the selection phase being just one such example, the walking phase is another area where players try to avoid one another, just as you might steer your dogs away from oncoming dogs, so too to walkers try to select a space on their walk where they are alone, landing on a space occupied by another walker results in the newcomer using an RP, while this isn’t always detrimental, it adds a nice touch of flavour to the experience. Having multiple objectives, some of which can change from round to round, allows players to always feel like they stand a chance of doing well. The last round may not have worked out, but the next round might. This design approach only serves to make the game friendly, and more accessible.

Dog Park incorporates a combination of card drafting, bidding, hand management, uni-directional action-selection and resource management to evoke its theme and allow players to make sense of what is expected. It’s overall simplicity serves it well as this is not a game that require deep complexity. You’re walking a dog, an act that should be simple and joyous, qualities that are present in every carefully crafted aspect of the game. However, that’s not to say it’s without a few minor issues.

Whine…

Colourful and well produced, but bring your tweezers.

For one thing, the wooden resources are small, smooth and more than a little fiddly to handle, especially if you have large hands and are trying to remove them from the included Game Trayz storage trays (which are bone shaped by the way, but more on that soon!) Fiddly components are nothing new, but perhaps making them just a little larger might have helped, but again, this probably won’t be an issue for most people, but it was noticed during my play-throughs.

My only other point of contention is, while the gameplay as a whole is satisfying, it can feel a tad repetitive by the fourth round. By that stage, the game is coming to a close but rather than feeling like you’re amping up to a big finish, you just kind of do the same thing you did in the previous three rounds and then it ends. I’m not sure how they could have created a more rewarding end game, and perhaps I’m alone in feeling this, but I like to feel an increase in the stakes as I move through a game, increasing the risk and reward would have helped to keep me more engaged in the final stages.

Ruff!

Dog Park is an excellent production filled to the brim with components that, for many other games, would be restricted to the deluxe version. The retail edition featured in this review comes equipped with wooden resources, screen printed player meeples and score trackers and Game Trayz inserts, which, as mentioned earlier, include cute bone-shaped resource trays, which not only fit the canine theme perfectly, but also make set up that little bit easier.

That Cavalier King Charles Spaniel is staring into my soul!

Then there’s the dogs. So. Many. Dogs! Each one lovingly rendered by artists, Kate Avery, Holly Exley and Dann May. Each card oozes with the personality of the depicted dog and details the ability of each one, most of which seem rather fitting for the breed they represent. Playful toy dogs are likely to feature powers involving the ball or treat resources, whereas larger or more utilitarian dogs may reward players with bonus RP during or after their walk.

Overall, a very well put together package featuring eye-catching components, adding a touch of class to any board game collection.

Growl!

At the end of the day, Dog Park does what it set out to do very successfully. It’s a wonderfully thematic game about man’s best friend bedecked in all the love and attention that dog owners are likely to lavish upon their furry companions. The gameplay strikes an ideal balance between challenge and accessibility while still managing to bring a few new touches of its own to the game space. While I began this review insisting the opposite, comparisons with Wingspan will continue and, to be honest, it’s not difficult to see why. The two undeniably share some common DNA, but Dog Park successfully sets itself apart by leaning into its theme more heavily than its avian rival and is far from a re-skin of that system. Dog Park focuses on the journey rather than the destination and that is to its credit. I enjoyed playing it and I look forward to getting it back to the table often in the coming weeks. Its an easy teach and a great choice for a casual game night or if you’re in the mood for something light and pretty to pass an hour. Who let the dogs out? Birdwood Games did!…. Man, they really aren’t helping to distance themselves from birds are they?

To paraphrase the great Billy Connolly, thank you for joining me for my inane ramblings. I hope you enjoyed this review and if you’re looking to pick up your own copy of Dog Park, please consider using our affiliate link here at Mighty Ape (who supplied this copy for review, thanks so much!) as doing so will help support Above Board to continue bringing you more reviews in the future. While you’re at it, why not also join our Facebook Group here and keep up to date with upcoming content and engage in discussions with others in our community about our favourite pass-time. Hope to see you again!

Dog Park Review