Quick Peaks – The Hanging Gardens, Hits & Outs, SETI: Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence, CODO Berlin 63, Bohnanza

The Hanging Gardens - Justin Bell

Last year, I played The Hanging Gardens and covered it in our Dusty Euro series of articles. A card-splaying gem from 2008, The Hanging Gardens was a fun time at the table and reminded me a lot of the game Honshu. In this way, both games require players to lay small cards on top of other cards to satisfy scoring conditions in a very snappy 30-minute format.

I picked up a review copy of the 2025 version of The Hanging Gardens during my trip to SPIEL Essen 2025, and immediately noticed that the game format had changed. Now, players must complete a 12-card pyramid of garden cards that include scoring options for various elements, such as visitors, animals, irrigation cards (which must be placed in a certain pattern to satisfy a private milestone card), and various adornments to empty garden cards. There are public objectives along with a mechanic that requires players to choose from different card markets (in three columns) to draft the right cards.

The new version of The Hanging Gardens is pretty ordinary. In fact, this new version feels very much like what an industry friend likes to say about the modern state of the hobby: “new games are…

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