The board game Oceans captures the beauty and ferocity of marine life
Maybe somewhere there’s an ocean where the transparent parasite Invisy McSuckFace is scrounging for its next meal. The bloodsucker might have to flee from the terrifyingly fast swordfish-shark hybrid Zoomy killa or dodge dozens of tentacles from schools of the octopus-like Grabbo clique. But more likely, these critters exist only in Oceans, a strategy board game by North Star Games that masterfully translates the wonders and complexities of marine ecology to a tabletop setting. The game, on sale this spring, is a sequel to North Star’s popular Evolution game, and the core experience is similar. Two to four players — or in some editions of the game, six — vie to keep species alive and well-fed, with acquired food ultimately converted into points. On each turn, a player deploys a trait card to create a new species or grant new abilities to existing ones. These traits, such as “apex predator” or...