Designer: Philippe Keyaerts

In Evo, you control a dino species vying for domination amongst your fellow great beasts before a meteor smashes into the island, thus proving the futility of life and trying to make an effort to excel at all.

During your turn, you’ll place dinosaurs, migrate them, occasionally attack each other, and then build your own dinosaur. At the end of each turn, a climate wheel will turn, which will determine which biomes are too hostile to support life, forcing you and your opponents into conflict with each other to escape the coming genocide. The game ends when you flip the tile showing the meteor.

Interesting Mechanic: Build Your Own Dinosaur. Once per turn, there is an auction for new mutations for your dinosaur species (using a very clever auction mechanic). Examples of mutations are feed (increases monster speed), horns (increasing attack power), eggs (reproduction rate) and fur (increasing resistance to cold), among others.

I first played Evo with Will Wright, when I was contracting for Maxis. He looked at it as a source of inspiration for Spore, thus the game has always had a goofy place in my heart. That said, I did like the First Edition better, as I preferred the goofy, cartoony art.

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(Photo Credit: Clever Move)