Isle of Cats is a collecting game where you rescue cats from a doomed island by squeezing them onto your rescue boat. You play by collecting Tetris-like Cat and Treasure tiles and arranging them carefully onto your Boat board. It is a spatial puzzle where strategy is as much about being able to get the right shaped piece to fill awkward holes, as hoarding the most valuable.

There are lots of ways to score points, but the skill is choosing which to pursue and when. You start with Discovery cards that determine your missions and grant you Tetris-like Cat and Treasure pieces. The challenge is you buy more cards with your stock of twenty fish, so getting best value is crucial.

You do this by placing your Cats and Treasure pieces strategically, to maximise points by ensuring groups of the same colour are next to each other. You also score points by perfectly filling rooms and covering up other squares on your ship. Your ability to use space wisely now whilst planning for the future is key to your success here.

As you progress through the five rounds your boat gets full and placement becomes more complex. You also earn other ways of scoring points alongside tessellating cats and treasure. After five rounds, the player with the most points is the winner.

It sounds complex, and really is. But at the centre of it all is a puzzle piece challenge of squeezing things onto your ship to escape. The game leans into this variety with the huge variety of Discovery cards in the deck offering endless ways to win. There are many games that involve fitting pieces into a defined space, but few achieve such an open experience.