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GameCity: Real-world animal stacker Fabulous Beasts is a fabulous use of NFC toys

Animal planet

GameCity: Real-world animal stacker Fabulous Beasts is a fabulous use of NFC toys
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| Fabulous Beasts

As I drop the warthog into its rightful place on the top of the tower, it skews slightly to one side, knocking an octopus to the table below.

"You've got five seconds to pick it up!" yells George Buckenham, the co-creator of Fabulous Beasts, who is demonstrating the game to me.

I sweep up the fallen octopus and try to place it gently back on top of the pile of animals in front of me, but I've been blessed with the coordination of a potato and sweep the octopus clean through the tower, knocking everything from the baseplate that connects the animal figurines scattered across the table with the tablet running the game.

Game over, man. Game over.

I like Fabulous Beasts a lot even though I rapidly discovered I wasn't all that good at it. It's a tablet-based puzzle game made real, with animals scanned into the game via a base unit and then balanced precariously on each other.

As long as this mountain of animals stays upright, you'll get points for each animal, every turn - based on how fabulous it is - although over time animals will become less fabulous, and unfortunately for Mr Warthog, he can't hope to ever be as fabulous as an eagle, or a bear.

To counteract their declining worth, you place elements onto your tower, smaller shapes that will make certain animals regain their lost… fabulousness?

Earth boosts land creatures, air boosts flying creatures and water boosts those in the sea. Fire will boost every creature you have in play, although tends to have a trickier shape to work around.

Just in case your tower is still feeling too stable, you can also add items that'll can impose a time limit or distraction on you, offering a lot of extra points providing you can handle the challenge. Special or modified animals can be created by adding other items to the tower.

The art on the tablet is deliberately simple, yet effective. It shows the animals you have in play and handles the time-limit, distraction tasks and all scoring. More than anything, it's tremendously charming, and I found myself coming back to the stall to watch other people play several times.

More often than not, groups of people were working together to try and build the best tower, a mix of children and adults coming together to appreciate the game.

It's simpler to play than read about, and incredibly satisfying when you're not awful at it. The NFC playing pieces are well-designed, keeping the game challenging while also looking attractive.

Fabulous Beasts is the first game from studio Sensible Object. The studio consists of Hide&Seek founder Alex Fleetwood, game designer George Buckenham, product designer Tim Burrell-Saward, artist Lyall McCarthy, and engineer Chris Shaw.

The game is coming to Kickstarter in the new year with a full price to be finalised then, but the set that I'm playing with currently will be similar the finished set. It's not gigantic, although perhaps isn't a tablet game you'll be able to play on the move.

But it's not supposed to be.

For amusing kids or as a party game, it might end up as one of the best there is, using the market's familiarity with NFC toys like Skylanders, Amiibo and recently released Lego Dimensions to make something unique with the technology.

Jake Tucker
Jake Tucker
Jake's love of games was kindled by his PlayStation. Games like Metal Gear Solid and Streets of Rage ignited a passion that has lasted nearly 20 years. When he's not writing about games, he's fruitlessly trying to explain Dota 2 to anyone that will listen.