Nine Tiles Panic

Race to arrange nine tiles into the best town before a sand timer runs out, then see who scores which cards.

Designers: Jean-Claude Pellin, Jens Merkl
Published by: Oink Games
Editions by: Popcorn Games

Nine Tiles Panic is a real-time town-building scramble. Everyone gets the same nine double-sided town tiles, and three scoring cards are revealed: most aliens on a single road, most dogs visible, longest road, that sort of thing. Then everyone races to arrange their tiles into a town that scores on one, two or all three cards. The moment the first person is done, they flip the sand timer and everybody else has 90 seconds to finish. Compare towns, ties go to whoever finished first, and points depend on the number of players. Play several rounds and track your score. It is a short, noisy brain-teaser that looks calmer than it feels.

Nine double-sided tiles per playerThree scoring cards per roundSand timer starts when the first person finishes

Who it's for

You like fast, simultaneous puzzles and want a spatial brain-teaser with a timer, a bit like Take It Easy under pressure.

Not for you if…

Time pressure stresses you or you want the long, quiet planning of a Euro. This is a speed puzzle.

Vibe's take

Frantic and giggly. Everyone slides tiles around in silence, then someone sighs and flips the timer, and you realize your road was one flip short.