The sun beats down as you and the other craftsmen raise the walls, just like your ancestors once built their great stone villages. Be careful though, because if the Chieftain spots your signature stones, you will be penalised. As space runs out, only the most cunning will earn the Chieftain’s favour and successfully build their Pueblo by Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer from Mojito Studios with art from SillyJellie.
According to Wikipedia, and I quote, “Pueblo refers to the settlements and to the Native American tribes of the Pueblo peoples in the Southwestern United States, currently in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. The permanent communities, including some of the oldest continually occupied settlements in the United States, are called pueblos.”
There we go. Now you know a lot more about where this polynomial block stacking game got its name from than you ever will when playing the game or reading its rulebook. I think that’s rather sad. While stealing themes and settings from indigenous people may have just been about standard fare in board games in the early 2000s, when the original Pueblo was released, Mojito Studios doesn’t have much of an excuse re-releasing the game in 2024 without hiring a cultural consultant who could have ensured the game doesn’t retread outdated stereotypes, but instead provide an opportunity for players to get a better understanding of Puebloans. It’s a real shame that this opportunity was not taken.
Ecofriendly Pueblo
However, the game does a great job at looking into the future, even though it seems to ignore the past. Mojito Studios made sure from the start that Pueblo is as “eco-sustainable”, as they call it, as possible. To achieve this very worthy goal, all of the building blocks, player pieces, chieftain token and the feather token are made of wood and not plastic. Unfortunately, there is no mention where the wood was sourced from. So while not using plastic is very commendable, it would be even better if the wood was from sustainably managed forests.
Saying that, it sounds like the paper and cardboard was made from so-called bagasse, a fibrous material left behind in the sugarcane harvesting process. It’s the first time I have heard of this material, but it does look like it’s a great way to make sustainable paper and cardboard.
Another plus point in favour of Pueblo is that the ink they used was eco-friendly and that the bags were also made of eco-friendly material.
So overall, Mojito Studios has really been able to make a product that is much more environmentally friendly than many of the other games we see in our hobby these days. No plastic, sustainable bagasse pulp to make paper and cardboard and eco-friendly ink. These are things that are definitely worth shouting about and I wish more publishers followed this example.
With that out of the way, let me focus on the game itself.
Block by Block
I love polynomial or other tile-laying visual puzzles. Trying to select the most appropriate tile, finding the best place and orientation for it and being rewarded with lots of points fires up the reward synapses in my brain. I love games such as Looot, Diatoms, Applejack or Akropolis.
Pueblo replaces tiles with 3D building blocks that are all the same shape, but different colours. Everyone gets pairs of shapes, one in their player colour, the other in neutral white. You place the shapes so that the chieftain can’t see your player colour when they wander around the perimeter of the building site. Using shapes to build in three dimensions is what drew me to Pueblo in the first place. It’s what made Akropolis stand out for me – not only literally because players build upwards, but also because the third dimension creates a delicious additional mental challenge.
I also expected Pueblo‘s moving chieftain to create another interesting mechanism, forcing players to plan ahead. There was also the exciting potential of direct player interaction, intentionally moving the chieftain to give your opponents negative points, while passing by your own building block.
Yet, while those two things did work well, unfortunately Pueblo lacks the variety that you get when playing any of the other tile-laying games I mentioned. It isn’t a puzzle when all you do is choose between a white piece or one in your colour. Sure, it was exciting to explore the game the first time, and there was room for improvement in the second game. However, playing Pueblo for a third time felt like solving a Christmas cracker puzzle where you untangle two metal pieces. Once solved, it’s done. You might want to work out how to put it back together again, but that’s it.
Pueblo of the Past
The game is over 20 years old now, so it’s probably just showing its age. The new version that Mojito Studios created has certainly updated its look. The rotating platform that you build on works really well, for example. However, the setting is so out of touch for a modern game and it would have been better to remove the theme altogether and make Pueblo a purely abstract game.
So as it stands, I’d much rather try my hand at Akropolis. I get the 3D building element, I get a slew of different tiles that create a real puzzle for me to solve. My brain just lights up and gives me a much needed dopamine hit. Pueblo is very tactile, but that’s unfortunately about it for me. Maybe my expectations were just too high, because at the core of it, there is an interesting game here. It just isn’t a game that you want to play repeatedly. That is fine, of course, but it’s not the type of game I want to keep in my collection.
Useful Links
Videos
Transparency Facts
I feel that this review reflects my own, independent and honest opinion, but the facts below allow you to decide whether you think that I was influenced in any way.
- I bought and paid for the game myself.
- At the time of writing, neither the designers, nor the publisher, nor anyone linked to the game supported me financially or by payment in kind.
Audio Version
Intro Music: Bomber (Sting) by Riot (https://www.
Sound Effects: bbc.co.uk – © copyright 2025 BBC
Music: https://www.
License code: YHQXUSLI0LOYJY2O
Playlist
These are the songs I listened to while I was writing this review:
