ARKA: Ark of Animals  Published by the Polish games company: Fabryka Gier Historycznych (Historical Games Factory). Designed by Adam Kwapinski.

Okay so let's clear up a couple of things before getting into the actual review of the game. The first thing that people will almost certainly think of when they first encounter Arka:Ark of Animals is "Noah's Ark" and the first thing that you should do when first encountering Arka:Ark of Animals is to forget "Noah's Ark". On Noah's Ark the animals went on two by two and were sorted into pairs of males and females, so that breeding could continue after the floods went down and the world was allowed to continue. In ARKA there are not any male or female animals and each animal species is only allowed one animal on the ark. This ponders the questions, how are the animals supposed to procreate? and why are they entering an ark in the first place? Neither of these questions is answered in the rule booklet, in fact there is no preamble as to why you are doing what you are doing, so the answers are simple: "It's a game and the ark is just a theme that has been hung on what is actually a good mechanic". Therefore if you are looking for anything deep, meaningful or even remotely religious (most mentions of the word "ark" are to do with religion it seems) then this isn't what you are looking for.