NMBR 9 Review – Tetris Meets Board Games

NMBR 9 takes me back to primary school. When we wrote on graphed paper and made images from the squares. Between that and Tetris, there’s an overflowing nostalgia emanating from NMBR 9’s presentation. However, despite referencing the past, the game takes on a relatively new genre of board games.

NMBR 9 is a polynomial tile-laying game. This is a fancy way of saying that it has different-shaped tiles that you place down in some sort of configuration to score points. In this game, the tiles are all shaped like the numbers from 0-9.

In each round, one player will draw a single card with one number on it. Then everyone adds that tile matching that number to their play area.

The idea is that you’ll join these Tetris-shaped numbers together to create a base level, and then put more numbered tiles on top. At the end of the game, you score points based on the number on the tile multiplied by the level it’s on minus one. So any tiles touching the table are worth 0 points, whereas a number 9 tile on the 3rd level is worth a whopping 18!

Once a tile is placed though, it can no longer be moved or rearranged. That’s not the only challenge you’ll face, as tiles on the second or higher level must not overhang and must touch two tiles on the level below.

You continue this loop of drawing a card, giving everyone a tile, and placing it in a way that gives you the most points until the deck runs out. After that, count up your points and the player having the most wins the game.

An ever-changing spatial puzzle

NMBR 9’s shape-laying gameplay is as frustrating as it is rewarding. Fitting together two shapes perfectly to create a solid foundation is incredibly satisfying. But with the way the numbers are shaped, that doesn’t happen as often as you want. At least without proper thought.

Yet as much as NMBR 9 is about putting pretty shapes together, it’s also about getting the highest numbered tiles onto the highest level possible. So you’ll need to do a lot of reconciling between what’s been drawn, and what’s left to come. And plan around this as you go.

However, with an ever-changing order of cards, you must constantly think about the best position for your current shape. You might have had a plan coming into a round, but if the card you wanted isn’t appearing. Then it’s time to improvise. Having to constantly adjust what you’re building is what makes NMBR 9 a fantastic puzzle, but it’s one you’re better off playing alone.

Often games are wrongly accused of having no player interaction, but that’s not the case in NMBR 9. There is no player interaction. You have your puzzle, I have mine. The only thing we share is the deck of cards determining the tiles we draw.

Making NMBR 9 a game that you can chill out and relax with over an evening tea. However, you need to be more patient with the game than I was. As I got frustrated with its staccato rhythm. Ideally, once you finish a turn, you want to move on to the next at your own pace. However, given you all share a draw deck, it means you’re either waiting for someone else to make a move, or someone else is waiting for you.

Congratulations you played yourself

Another issue when playing with others is that you’re all facing the same puzzle. Meaning two players could end up with the same result. Either fairly, or foul-y because nothing stops players from looking at what someone else did and copying that.

Note: After the release of NMBR 9 they quickly added a mini-expansion called the Starting Tiles mini-expansion. This expansion gives each player a different starting position and goes some way to rectifying the above problem.

Unfortunately, although NMBR 9’s puzzly nature leaves a great first impression, this initial excitement flames out after a couple of games. Often you find yourself making the same decisions, with similar outcomes. Of course, you get better at these decisions and are rewarded with better scores.

But with its non-existent player interaction, getting a new high score wasn’t a compelling enough reason for me to return to NMBR 9 after I’d played my fill.

That said, it’s exciting to see this new genre of board games come to life, and I can’t wait to see where it goes in the future. Even in the first couple of games of NMBR 9, I was blown away by how different and interesting the gameplay was. However, like most games that broach a new genre, that feeling of innovation doesn’t carry the game.

And after a couple of plays, I was done.