Unboxing and Component Review of Waterfall Park

Repos Productions makes some pretty nice games, and the production quality of those games are always pretty good. When I saw what Waterfall Park was, I was a bit skeptical of the entire system. It all felt really gimmick to me, and I quickly assumed it likely wasn’t going to work well. Now that I’ve played and checked out the components myself, here is what I think!

I love how everything in this game is really bright and vibrant. This begins with the player pieces, but extends to the board, attractions, coins, and yes even the insert. I love the choice of colours for this game – red, green, blue, pink, and yellow. They all pop really nicely on the board, and aside from the blue colour (which blends in a little too much with the background), they are all really easy to see, even when filled with attraction tiles.

The tiles and coins themselves are a nice, thick cardboard. They came out of the punchboard with ease, and I didn’t tear any of the cardboard. Poor punchboards can lead to damaged products, so it’s nice to see Repos Productions using quality cardboard for this release. The card quality isn’t the best I’ve ever seen, but since you aren’t handling the cards often, it’s not really a big deal. Thankfully, should you wish to sleeve your cards, the insert would in fact accommodate that I think! 

So let’s talk about that insert. I’ve said many times – both to those around me and in articles – that I am more than willing to pay a few extra dollars on top of the price of a game to get a good insert. A good insert makes putting the game away a breeze, and getting it out on the table in the first place a quick and painless process. The insert for Waterfall Park is phenomenal.

In Waterfall Park, players are placing down plastic pieces onto locations they own. These plastic pieces come with their own “tray” that holds them all in place. These trays nicely slide into the box after play, so you won’t be fumbling with baggies, or worrying about piles of bits in front of you during the game. The insert also includes dedicated spaces for the cards, round tracker, game information tile (for 4 and 5 player games), and all the of the attraction tiles.

If there is one thing I don’t like about this insert its that even after everything is put away properly, the game board still sticks up just slightly above the edge of the box. It’s a small pet peeve of mine, but a pet peeve nonetheless!

Finally we need to talk about the game board. Yes it’s vibrant, but it’s very practical as well. There are dozens of locations on the board, and as players claim these locations, they put down their little plastic piece over the numbers. The pieces themselves have small little pieces sticking up, which are then inserted into small round holes on the game board to make sure the tiles don’t move during play. Getting them OFF the board when you make a tray can be a pain, but the overall value of them not moving outweighs this small, but yet still problematic, situation.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the product quality of Waterfall Park. In Canada, this game retails for 43.99 at local game stores, and everyone at the table felt this was more than worth what was being asked!