When considering Katamino, I am reminded of the two MazeScape puzzles I reviewed last year. They were unique, clever puzzles that I enjoyed working on over the course of a few weeks. Those, however, were strictly puzzles. What about Katamino?

Along with a large, full color booklet, the star of Katamino is the brightly colored set of wooden pentominoes all set in a wooden frame. The twelve Pentominoes in the Katamino wooden frame.The introductory challenges start with a set of three pieces. After you’ve used those pieces to create a 3×5 grid, you’ll add a new, specific piece and move the wooden bar down to the 4 slot. A three-piece puzzle. Take, for example, this simple three-piece puzzle The same initial three pieces with a fourth added.

This sole game really doesn’t do much to change the fact that Katamino is really presented as a series of 2D puzzles, each set within a 5x grid. For example, a PENTA 4 indicates a challenge for which the slider is placed between numbers 4 and 5 of the game board: 4 Pentaminos must be arranged together to cover the four lines of the game board.

How to Play with One Player

When you are ready for more challenges, start again on Line B, Line C and so on, until you have completed Line G. Once the 7 Lines are completed, the player has solved 42 PENTAS and completed their SMALL SLAM. Congratulations! You should try the more difficult challenges! Use all the pieces, except for pentaminos 1 and 12. One of the 2 players chooses 1 maroon rectangle, 1 maroon square and 2 red squares from the small pieces.