Next Station London Review

Story Time. I've been on the tube system in London once in my life after an overnight flight with about 5 minutes of sleep. I was the primary navigator of a city I've never been to before. Thankfully the London Underground is incredibly efficient and well laid out (and friendly English people). Next Station London embodies this concept. Players are attempting to connect different stations using different colors every round in order to attempt to score the best routes. This is done by simply flipping a card and connecting to a station that matches the symbol. Once you've pulled the 5th pink card, the round ends and you score for the round. There's four rounds and you can add in different scoring cards and abilities with the different colors. The player who has the highest score at the end will win.

The Good: This is a great puzzle that you can play in about 15 minutes. Here's the thing though, you'll never want to just play one game. I constantly wanted to play more and improve my score and as I learned more of the nuances of the game (like crossing the Thames and stopping at tourist locations) I was able to start to really get a feel for it. This is an excellent solo game.

The Okay: I felt like some of the scoring options were a bit confusing. Maybe I missed it in the rules but I had to do some of my own interpreting. Especially when it came to the route connections. It's very simplistic but there were some questions on my end. I'm also notoriously bad at rules.

The Not So Good: I would have liked to see different maps on each side. Even if the layout stayed the same more or less and the symbols changed that would have been a nice touch. Because it's not a game with a ton of cards and variability, having a second map to work from would have definitely enhanced the game.

Final Thoughts: In the past I've been pretty lukewarm on flip and writes. I've never been a huge fan of the manual nature of them. Next Station London is definitely a pleasant surprise, however. Having to simply draw a few lines and score makes it a perfect way to start the day or a great filler game to end the night. It's really nice.

Thanks to Blue Orange Games for sending me a review copy