Though abstract games aren’t usually my thing, there’s something really appealing about Azul. It’s a clever little spatial puzzle, essentially, with players trying their best to maximise the points they get by taking, then arranging, aesthetically appealing tiles in their grid. Points are gained by placing tiles, with bonuses if they’re adjacent to others, and even bigger bonuses on offer if they can fill a column of tiles completely.

Of course, other players can ruin your plans by taking tiles you had your eye on, with a random selection of them drawn from a bag, blindly, each turn. Sometimes there’s no option but to take tiles you can’t even place according to the rules, which ends with them being ‘broken’ and causing you to lose, rather than gain points.

Once players have got their heads around the placement and scoring system, which is reasonably intuitive, Azul becomes very compelling indeed.

The Mini version is small, but not too reduced in size; it never feels fiddly in the way that, for example, Travel Blokus does. And it also has fantastic player boards with great player aid illustrations and practical scoring sliders, making it very easy to track points and progress.

It’s all in a form which makes it easy to travel with, and at a pretty reasonable price point too. Not all portable versions of big box games work well, but Azul Mini cleverly shrinks down the full experience, retaining the appeal of the original game in a smaller form factor (and with arguably better scoring trackers too!).

You can buy Azul Mini from Amazon.

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