Metro Domino New York

Time to run to the Subway station in the infamous New York City! With Metro Domino New York Edition, published by Tactic, you can enjoy the clickety clack of the tracks without all of the hustle and bustle. This simplistic game, where both strategy and luck play big roles can resurface some nostalgic memories of playing one of your favourite childhood games. But this time with a twist!

Aim Of The Game

The aim is simple, you along with your fellow gamers need to open 5 subway stations in order to finish the game. The player who has opened the most stations is then declared the winner of Metro Domino New York!

How To Play

The glossy finish rulebook provides, easy to follow rules for play to commence. And what’s great is that there are also some diagrams in regards to play within the book, so this is particularly helpful.

To begin play, you must place the starting station tile in an area where all players can access it, a random Domino tile is then placed into the centre of the starting station tile. This will show players which digits on their own Domino tiles will need to be placed next when it comes to their turn. The Domino tile are to be played in exactly the same way in which they would for a classic game of Dominoes. Each digit must match another, for example if the last number shown on the tile is a 6 then a 6 must be placed next, it doesn’t matter what number is on the other side of the Domino tile that is placed as that only indicates how the next player should play in their turn.

The Dominoes tiles will essentially create a train line, but each station they are linked to will depict a number on them, stating just how many Dominoes are to be used in order to be able to add the next station. Some may say 5, some may say 9 and some also are completely closed lines which means that no Dominoes can be linked from that side of the station.

When a player ends a train line they can then open and claim a station with their player tokens. Play continues until 5 stations are opened or a player places their last Domino piece.

Game Contents And Quality

• A pack of 55 domino tiles
•  x1 Starting station
•  x10 Station boards
•  X3 Active line tokens
•  X12 Metro tokens
•  X 20 Player tokens

All components that are included in the game are of high quality materials. The tokens and tiles are made of dense cardboard which is ideal as it means they are less likely to become misshaped or torn when being handled. The colourful double 9 Domino tile set are again of very good quality and make up most of the weight to the game while they are sitting snug in the metro car box. A great little addition to have on display while in play as it just adds to the theme and aesthetic, although having the tiles in the metro car box isn’t a necessity during play.

It’s also worth a mention that the station tiles themselves in Metro Domino New York, all show beautiful images of well known stations situated within New York City. However, exactly like the London Edition of this game, the tiles do not have any names or labels of the locations on them, so if you’re not familiar with the locations then you won’t have a clue as to which ones they are referring to (not that it affects game play in any way) but it would have been nice to see.

How Well Does Play Work

As previously mentioned, the rules of the game are easy enough to learn, even for the most novice of gamers, which is great! Everyone takes their turn do make their moves and place whatever they feel they need to, it all flows well. On the other hand, as the rules state that the players are participating against one another in order to open the most stations, because of this there isn’t a great deal of player interaction.

I tested this game out with some family members, alongside it’s London Edition counterpart (totally separate game and not an expansion by the way) and we found that we weren’t really conversing all that much, which is something that I personally love when playing board or table top games. But this doesn’t bring down the enjoyment of the game at all. I love that it’s very straightforward to understand and even play, which also makes it ideal for younger gamers too.

There isn’t many technical mechanisms in regards to placing tokens or items or anything along those lines either, so for people that enjoy games that don’t involve too much, then Metro Domino New York Edition is an ideal choice.

Final Thoughts

Did I enjoy playing Metro Domino New York Edition? Yes I did, as did the family members that participated too. We all found the game fun. Would it be a game that I would immediately think of grabbing out when my regular board gaming friends would pop by for a game night? In all honesty, probably not.

Is Metro Domino New York Edition a game that I would like to play on a quiet relaxed night in? 100% yes! Plus the added advantage is that you can technically have two games in one too, as you could easily play a classic game of Dominoes using just the tiles. Win win in my opinion!