Lotus Digital Blossoms As An iOS Board Game
The digital board game space seems to get better nearly every week with so many physical board game making the digital transition. Lotus is a new addition to the App Store that is all about cultivating flower blossoms better than your opponent. It’s a card based challenge in which each player has four cards in the hole, and each card corresponds to a petal of a different flower type. There are flowers that require three, four, five, six, or seven petals to complete, and you try to strategically play your petal cards to complete flowers. The game supports two to four players with either AI opponents, pass and play local multiplayer, online multiplayer with friends, or online multiplayer with random opponents in a ranked system.
Lotus delivers the standard feature set for a digital board game allowing you to play however you want, and then fully enjoy the digital adaptation of the Lotus. The best part is that there’s such a low barrier to entry for an extremely accessible style. Anyone can get up and running in no time at all, and yet there’s some nice strategic depth even with the simple introduction. Each game also only takes about ten minutes, so it’s not an overwhelming undertaking each time that you want to play. Instead, it’s about jumping in, and trying to out maneuver your opponents to maximize your points with each completed flower. The app itself is beautifully designed letting you appreciate each petal put into place, and the beauty of each completed lotus flower.
A digital board game that is all about growing flowers with every turn.
There are a lot of subtle details to each match including the ability to use guardian insect tokens as well as balance who has the greatest guardian tally for each flower. Each petal has guardian points, and if you have the most guardian points, but another player completes the flower, you still get a bonus for the flower being completed. Each completed flower gives a bonus of either access to a fifth hole card, a more powerful guardian token, the ability to play three petal types per turn, or simply getting five bonus points. The little elements let you really contemplate each turn as you try to balance completing flowers, building up your guardian tally, and get as many pieces of the completed flower pie on whatever turn it may be completed. You can change your strategy each time that you play depending on who you’re going against and how many players there are, which is always a good sign of a board game having a nice replay factor.
Lotus is a great digital board game that is highly accessible and intriguing whether you’re familiar with the physical version or not, making the digital edition well worth picking up.
