Streets Review

I came across Sinister Fish Games back when they launched their Kickstarter for Villagers. The promise of set collection and card drafting drew me in, and the stellar gameplay keeps me coming back for more! So when I saw that Sinister Fish was launching another game, I knew I had to check it out. Now that it has been delivered, how does Streets fare in my collection? Does it live up to the Villagers hype? Spoiler: Yes.

Disclaimer: I do not intend to rehash the entire rulebook in this review, but rather provide a general overview of the gameplay. For a more in-depth look, check out this game at your FLGS or directly from the publisher. -L

Streets is a game of tile placement and set collection in which players take on the roles of investors bringing new businesses and homes to this small and simple city. Over a series of rounds, players will be taking turns building buildings (placing tiles), creating streets, and earning money by attracting visitors and selling their buildings when a street has been completed. To setup for a game, create the stack of Building Tiles as described in the rulebook, per the player count. Set the Central Station and City Park tiles in the center of the table, creating the starting road, and place 1 Visitor (meeple) of each color on the Central Station. Players receive 5 Ownership signs in their chosen color, and draw 3 Building Tiles from the stack to their hand. Select a starting player, and the game is ready to begin!

On your turn, you will perform 3 steps: Build a Building, Score Streets, and Pick up a new Building. The first action taken each turn will be to Build a Building. Select one of the Building Tiles from your hand and put it into play, following the placement rules described in the rulebook. When you place a Building, you will put one of your Ownership signs on it, and place a Visitor of the matching type on the tile. Building Tiles have different symbols that attract certain kinds of Visitors, and each have a unique scoring stipulation. More on that in the next step.

If, with your Building placement, a street has become enclosed, the second turn step is performed: Score Streets. Once a street has been enclosed, the Buildings on it are immediately scored. Any players who own Buildings on the street will sell them for money, and the attracted Visitors will be redistributed to other streets. Each Building Tile has a unique scoring stipulation that will calculate how much money is earned for that Building. For example, a Building may earn $2 for each Tourist symbol located on that street. An extra $1 is earned for every Visitor on that Building Tile as well! Calculate your profit and collect the appropriate amount of money from the supply. You will then retrieve your Ownership sign, and the Visitors are moved to Buildings on other (unenclosed) streets. An important thing to note – more than 1 player may own Buildings on the same street. So when it comes time to score a street, all players who on a Building on that street will resolve their Building Tiles in turn and collect their respective money and Ownership signs.

The final step of your turn is to draw a new Building Tile to your hand from the stack. The game continues in this fashion, with players placing Buildings and enclosing/scoring streets, until all Building Tiles have been played. At this point, all remaining Buildings with Ownership signs are scored. In this end-game scoring, though, these buildings will only score half their normal value. Players count up all their earned money, and the player with the most cash is declared the winner!

As you could tell from my intro, as well as my score in the rating graphic, I absolutely love this game. Not only does Streets involve some of my favorite mechanics, but it also is incredibly strategic. You really have to think about where to place your Buildings for maximum profit. And since all players are collectively building one city, you might even be able to profit off an opponent’s placement! On the other hand, if you see an opponent really maxing out a street for huge profit, should you try to enclose it to stop their gain? As if that wasn’t tricky enough, there are strict placement rules as to where/how Buildings can be placed. Maybe you were trying for a specific spot, but an opponent has now blocked that option from you – how can you adapt your strategy to still work to your advantage? You only ever have 3 Building Tiles from which to choose each turn, so which one do you play? Where and when? You really have to think before you place anything, and that keeps me engaged.

Now let me get into the components. They are AWESOME. The Building Tiles are all nice, thick, chunky cardboard. The artwork is unique and interesting to look at. The Visitors, Ownership signs, and money are all wooden components. The Visitors themselves are printed with different ‘people’ on them, and that’s a fun little change instead of having blank meeples. The Ownership signs and money could have easily been cardboard, but I love that they are wooden. They feel great in hand, and are very sturdy. I know this game will hold up for a long time. All in all, excellent production quality here!

Streets is quickly making its way up my list, and could even break the Top 10 at some point. The gameplay is engaging, entertaining, and strategic. The components are high quality and just fun to play with. I liked Villagers a lot, but I am definitely a fangirl for Streets. It’s a neat game that goes beyond basic tile placement and set collection. It’s not one that I’ll necessarily pull out with newer gamers, but one that I hope will hit the table often with the regular group. If you’re in the market for something that is mechanically simple, yet strategically challenging, I would highly recommend giving Streets a shot. Purple Phoenix Games gives it constructive 5 / 6.