Daisy Yi-Ching Chen's Isle of Bears, Heybye Gaming & Taiwan Boardgame Design, How To Play & Review
Transcript
Cute bears brutal gameplay. Don't let the cute bears fool you. Isle of Bears is one seriously brutal little strategy game. Isle of Bears is an abstract strategy game featuring various mechanics including grid movement, hand management, layering, map reduction, moving multiple units, physical removal, a square grid, and take that. Designed and illustrated by Daisy Yi Chingchen, the game is published by Hai Gaming in collaboration with Taiwan Board Game Design in 2026. The game accommodates two players only, takes around 10 minutes to play, and is recommended for ages eight and up. The game is set in 2050 in a fictional world where the Arctic has completely melted.
White polar bears have drifted onto an island inhabited by black bears, but there's not enough room for everyone. Now, the two types of bears must battle it out for control of the island. Each player takes control of either the white or black bears and uses a hand of cards to move their bears around the island, stack them together, and interfere with their opponent's bears. As the game progresses, bears can be removed from the island and entire sections of the map can disappear, making the available playing area smaller. The player who gets their bears on top of every occupied space immediately wins the game. Now, let's take a closer look at how to play Isisle of Bears tutorial.
To set up the game, connect the four aisle boards to create a 4x4 grid with 16 spaces. Then randomly place one bear on each space. Each player takes their matching deck of 13 cards. After shuffling their decks, both players draw three cards and place them face up in front of them. To determine the starting player, both players snap their fingers at the same time, and whoever makes the loudest snap goes first. Players then take alternating turns. On your turn, choose one of your face up cards and resolve its effect. The cards allow you to move, stack, swap, push, attract, unstack, or remove bears in different ways. I'll share the list of effects somewhere here on the screen.
Bears can share a space and form a stack, and whoever has their color on top controls the entire stack. After resolving the card, check for overcrowding. A space can hold up to five bears, but if it contains six or more, all of your opponents bears in that space are sent into the sea and permanently removed from the game. Next, check the islands. If an aisle board has no bears remaining on it, it sinks and is permanently removed from the game, gradually reducing the size of the playing area. Finally, discard the cards you used and draw back up to three cards. If your deck runs out, shuffle your discard pile to create a new deck. Your opponent then takes their turn and follows the same process. The game can end at any time if the top bear on every occupied space is the same color. If that happens, the player controlling that color immediately wins the game.
Aisle of Bears is such a wonderful game. Not only is it super cute, but it's also a very tactile game. Don't let the cute artwork and components fool you, though. The game is surprisingly cutthroat and brutal, and I've enjoyed every single of my many playthroughs. The game is very thinky, and you really have to consider what you want to do on each turn, especially when deciding which card to use. All of the information is public, so you can see which cards your opponent has available. This allows you to plan around their options and try to counter their actions. There's so much back and forth between the players, and the tension stays high right up until the very end. While both players have an identical set of cards, the luck of the draw can still have some influence on the game. I really enjoyed the variety of cards available though. And while a few of them can be very situational, I think that's also where some of the brilliance of the game lies. You need to think about how to counter those cards when your opponent has them available.
Constantly reacting to what they're doing so they don't gain the upper hand. That's probably my favorite aspect of Aisle of Bears. The game play is filled with tension and there can be some seriously brutal and fierce plays at times. You really have to stay focused throughout the entire game, keeping an eye on your opponent's moves and the cards they currently have available. It's also the kind of game that makes you want to play again immediately after finishing. Since the game only takes around 10 minutes, it's very easy to play several games in a row. I've also absolutely loved the artwork. The illustrations across the various components are gorgeous and I've really enjoyed the overall presentation of the game. The components are great as well with the bear anime definitely being one of my highlights. Overall, Isle of Bears was such a wonderful surprise. It's another brilliant game from designer Daisy Eq Chingchan who also brought us the abstract strategy game Pond last year.
I would absolutely love to see Isle of Bears receive an international release as I found this to be quite an exceptional two-player abstract strategy game. Thank you so much for watching. Hope you enjoyed the video and see you next