Finding the Balance of Nature in the Rainforests of Canopy
Build a beautiful rainforest with new growth to add seeds, flora, and fauna to an expanding realm of giant trees in Canopy.
I feel like I might be failing in my goal to stick with playing solo games that match up with Halloween this month… No matter! It was time to return to playing Canopy, which has been sitting around for quite a long time. This features absolutely spectacular artwork, and sloths. Sloths! Who could resist them?! Back to my solo table for some more nature!
Game Overview
Game Name: Canopy
Publication Year: 2021
Designer: Tim Eisner
Artist: Vincent Dutrait
Publisher: Weird City Games
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Over the course of 3 seasons, a rainforest takes shape in all sorts of ways. Trees expand into the sky as plants and animals take up residence. Threats pose ongoing challenges with the risks involved in adding more and more growth. And seriously… Don’t forget the adorable sloths! Ha ha!
First Play
June 18, 2022
Complexity
2
Latest Play
October 17, 2025
Expansions
0
Setup Time
5 Minutes
Lifetime Plays
8
Play Time
25 Minutes
High Score
81
Game Area
36" x 26"
Low Score
56
All the Greenery
This one has a gorgeous table presence, including the card backs. Look at all that lush greenery in the rainforest!
Gameplay revolves around choosing new cards to add. These begin face-down, however, and there are a fair number of threats like fire or disease that may appear.
Each pile is first checked, so it may make sense to play it safe to pick up just 1 or 2 cards. Yet that far right column can get really tempting… And cards will disappear over time!
The solo opponent is easy to manage, although this means there is a second play area that ends up sprawling out.
Above the Canopy
Maybe I’m striking out with the spooky category for October, but you better believe the costumes are still here!
This is one of the silliest costumes: A dog dressed as a giant blue bird. Not exactly what you’ll find in a proper rainforest, but you know I build the strangest ones possible. Ha ha!
There’s something to be said for artwork that is all about feeling happy. These colors are bright and cheery, and there are often little details hidden away among the leaves.
I remember a time when I loved learning about rainforests, so this one also brings back some very happy memories!
Choosing Wisely
The decisions are neat for a time, rewarding some risky choices without allowing everything to accumulate with the way the solo opponent snaps up card piles with less threats.
Fire and disease aren’t particularly great, but these sometimes work out in advantageous ways.
Every card is beautiful, yet everything spreads out quite a lot. I felt like I was in the rainforest. Ha ha! Stacking the trees and canopies also got a little messy at times.
No matter what I did, it felt like I couldn’t quite get ahead of the solo opponent at the easiest difficulty level.
Completed Trees
With a little work, this area looked absolutely beautiful! My completed trees were some of the tallest at the right times, and it was fun to mark them with the animal tokens.
The earlier rounds scored for short-term cards, like flora. Only at the end did I earn victory points for my animals. Luckily, I made the right call and ended up with the sloths!
This is a wonderful game that just slightly fell short for me. I felt like I saw it all, even though my scores were mediocre.
It also came down to the amount of table space I needed and how unruly the rainforest became. Still, I had enough fun!
When Games Take Us Back to Old Memories
As I mentioned, I vividly recall a time in my childhood when I couldn’t get enough of the rainforest! There was a lesson plan in school that got me interested, and I even remember sitting down with a composition notebook to write some poems. So it was pleasant to have that time brought back to me when I played through this game a few times. Very fun!
This one may not stick around in my collection, but I still love that I connected with it in a very personal way. That’s sometimes what happens with games, and why I think a numerical rating doesn’t tell the whole story. You may very well connect with a solo game I will never enjoy. That’s what makes it uniquely yours, and why this hobby is so great!
To expand on this, I will note that there’s a popular video game I don’t think I’ll ever be able to play again. It was fantastic, I loved it, and it gave me joy during a very difficult time. But I associate it with a very sad personal event, so I have very little desire to return to it. In that way, it’s going to be something I always remember… Yet I won’t necessarily play it again.
Session Overview
Play Number: 7 & 8
Solo Mode: Included in the Base Game
Play Details: Easy Difficulty Level
Outcome: 81-96, 75-82 (2 Losses)
Although my scores improved, I was still slightly off from a proper victory. I balanced the threats well enough, but never earned enough during final scoring. This one looks amazing on the table, but took up a lot of space and felt a little too luck-based to have me coming back for me. Still, a very enjoyable little game for the handful of plays I had with it! Time to move this copy along to a new home, though.
%
1 Play
Affordability
Price & Value
8
Functionality
Challenges & Mechanics
9
Originality
Design & Theme
7
Quality
Components & Rules
7
Reusability
Achievement & Enjoyment
7
Variability
Distinctness & Randomness
4
+ Pros (Positives)
- All of the artwork is gorgeous and feels like it transports a play space into the rainforest with all of the flora and fauna.
- Choosing which column of cards is an interesting decision with push-your-luck elements and a bit of risk-taking.
- Not all cards are used with each play and even the order can have a major impact on gameplay for a lot of variety.
- There are short-term and long-term scoring strategies to pay attention to in order to keep a rainforest balanced.
- Completing trees and marking them with animals is a nice visual reminder that adds some lovely character.
- Gameplay moves at a good pace with minimal downtime, allowing most of the focus to remain on active choices.
– Cons (Negatives)
- Cards spread out in areas for the player and solo opponent, which can get messy quickly with the overlapping cards.
- Managing the solo opponent isn’t difficult, but it requires some work that can take up a noticeable amount of time.
- Luck is a mechanic, yet this can seem a little unfair with the order of the card draw and very limited threat mitigation.
- Figuring out how to score well can still result in plenty of losses at the easiest difficulty level, which is frustrating.
Victory Conditions
Score the Most Points
- Overall Goal Progress 50%
Goals and Milestones
Score at least 80 points.
Win at least 1 game at the easy difficulty level.
Continue the Conversation
What do you enjoy about Canopy? Have you achieved a high score or built a particularly impressive rainforest? I appreciate a lot of what’s going on in the game, and am a bit sad to let it go. Yet I feel like I’ve seen enough of what it has to offer, and sometimes, that’s good enough for me! Glad I got to re-visit some fond old memories again, though. And the sloths!
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