Wingspan Pocket Review: Is This New Bird Game Worth the Hype?

The game Wingspan is well known in the hobby space and has seen plenty of table time (especially at our table). From the release of the original game it has never lacked in table presence with its beautiful birds, dice towers and player boards though this version strips away a lot of the bulk of the game to form a new re-engineered version of the beloved game. In this version the designer Elizabeth Hargrave has taken the beautiful birds, eggs and wonderful engine building mechanics and attempted to create something new that comes in a smaller package. In this article we will explore our thoughts on this new game and share with you my personal opinions after playing it.

What is Wingspan Pocket?

Wingspan Pocket is a travel-sized game built by the same designer, Elizabeth Hargrave, who came up with the idea for the original game and is published by Stonemaier Games. This game continues the idea of building a wildlife reserve consisting of birds from around the world though is a standalone game in the series. The game offers both solo and multiplayer gameplay being able to be played with 1 to 5 players whilst taking around 25 to 35 minutes to play once you know the rules. 

Is it just a smaller Wingspan?

The best way to think about Wingspan Pocket is that it is a new game built from the strong foundations of Wingspan, rather than this version simply being a lighter, travel friendly version.

The thing that is most interesting to me about this game is that Elizabeth Hargrave hasn’t just shrunk Wingspan down, she has made something unique. By revisiting the game’s design whilst asking “What happens when you strip away the bulk of the game?” and “How do we preserve the feeling these games bring people?”, it has led her to design something really special. What is most interesting is that it is said that some of the elements included in this game have been inspired from concepts in the original pitch of Wingspan which for me makes this project incredibly interesting from a design perspective.

What is the difference between Wingspan and Wingspan Pocket?

Whilst the two games look similar aesthetically gameplay wise they offer something different.First of all Wingspan Pocket is entirely card based meaning that the dice tower, player boards and food resource tokens are no longer present in this version though the beautiful bird artwork remains. On top of this, instead of using a player board where you can play birds into multiple habitats with different rows that can be activated to trigger bonuses and actions, you only have a single row of cards you activate each turn.

Another difference between the original Wingspan and Wingspan Pocket is that Wingspan Pocket does not have any rounds so no longer has end of round goals giving slightly more variability in the games length due to the game ending once a player plays their 6th bird rather than the end of the fourth round. As mentioned previously the original food resource tokens are not used in this version this is due to another change between the two games. In this rendition the cards are double sided with one side featuring a bird and the reverse featuring a food resource that reduces the number of components and offers interesting choices for the players at the start of the game as well as during the game when choosing between birds that score points and resources to play them.

This leads me onto some of the changes on the cards themselves. The change that stands out to me the most is that the powers are more icon based than text based, reducing the amount of text on the card and offering easy reference during gameplay once you know what all the icons mean. Lastly there is the introduction of new green powers which are not included in the original Wingspan or its expansions which offer ongoing abilities that are active during your whole turn introducing new combos to the game not seen before.

How does it actually play?

In a game of Wingspan Pocket you will be competing to gather the best flock of birds from around the world by accruing the most points from birds, eggs, tucked cards and end of game goals.

Setup

To set up the game you will deal each player 6 double-sided cards food side up and then divide the remaining deck into roughly 4 equal piles to form the draw stacks, each stack should have the food resource side face up. Then flip over the top card from each of the stacks to form the bird display followed by then placing the eggs within reach of all players. In the advanced mode you will also shuffle the deck of random goal cards and deal two face up, which the players will work towards throughout the game.

After setting up the game you will then give each player the following items; a nest card which provides a turn reminder, a player token and 1 egg to add to their nest. The players will then flip two of their cards face up to reveal birds while the others remain as food resources. When playing the advanced mode you get to choose which two birds will be face up at the beginning of the game.Lastly you will randomly select the first player who gains the first player card and will be the one to take the first turn of the game.

Turn Overview

On a players turn they will perform the following three steps: Take One Nest Action, Activate Their Flock and Refill the Supply.

Take One Nest Action

In Wingspan Pocket there are 3 Nest Actions in the game and you can only perform one of them each turn. The actions are as follows:

• Play a Bird: Choose a bird from your face up display in front of you paying the food resources and eggs depicted on the card to then place it into your Flock. Whilst playing a card you may discard any 2 food resource cards and count them as any 1 food resource. 

• Draw 2 Cards: With this action you can either collect two birds from the display, gain two food cards from the top of the 4 decks or gain one of each and add it to your supply.

• Lay 3 Eggs: Place up to 3 egg tokens each on a different card that is either a bird or nest that has not reached its egg limit.

Activate Their Flock

Once the Nest Action is complete you move onto activating all the birds with Brown Powers in your flock going from left to right. These powers are optional so you can skip the use of any bird power you do not want to use. To keep track of what bird you're activating, place your player token on the bird you're currently using as you go along. You will notice some birds that have Green Powers which are permanently active during the whole of your turn and are effective from as soon as they are played. When activating birds in this phase the ones with Green Powers are simply skipped over but their power remains in effect.

Refill the Supply

Once a player reaches the right most card in its Flock it is the end of that player turn. At this point they will return their player marker to their nest and refill the bird supply if necessary by flipping the top most card of its deck to reveal a new bird. Then play continues clockwise to the next player.

End of the Game

The game continues until a player has 6 birds in their Flock. When this occurs play continues until all players have taken an equal number of turns, then it is time to count up points. Players will gain points for the birds in their Flock, egg tokens and tucked cards and if you are playing with the advanced rules you will gain points for completing specific demands on the goal cards. The player who has the most points is the winner.

The Double-Sided Cards is the Cleverest Idea

When looking at the Wingspan Pocket game there is one mechanical change that really makes this game stand out against the original and that is the introduction of the double-sided card. This mechanical change on its own demonstrates why this game isn’t just a downsized Wingspan, it is its own game.

In the original game food and birds were their own separate resource pools, meaning you could take from one without affecting the other, though by having the cards double-sided with one side showing a bird and the other showing a resource a new level of tension is introduced to the game. Do you take the resource you want and miss out on the bird on the other side or take the bird in front of the stack to reveal the bird on the other side of the resource card at the end of your turn ready for your next turn. It feels like a simple design change that has introduced a new dynamic to the game.

The other thing I liked about the introduction of the double sided cards is that it simplified the actions you can take on your turn to 3 instead of 4 as in Wingspan Pocket on your turn you either Play a Bird, Draw 2 Cards or Lay 3 Eggs. This means you no longer need to Gather Food as a separate action allowing players to set up quicker plays by drawing either 2 food cards on their turn or a food and bird. The added flexibility it offers allows for the game to flow nicely and maintains the pace it needs to keep players engagement in a travel sized format.

Does it still feel like Wingspan?

In my experience it has many of the elements that make Wingspan iconic to me. It has the beautiful birds with satisfying combos that can pop off and interlink with the other birds, the tactile eggs as well as the nest building element of laying eggs on birds. I genuinely feel that this game still offers a lot of the same tactical decisions and resource management that the original game offers though it is offered in a smaller package with its own unique twists.

With that being said though, there are a few elements from the original that I do miss. First of all is that you only have a single row of cards which takes away some of the strategy that building a sprawling engine across three different habitats offers. This is something I love about the original game as you could change up your strategy from game to game, though with that being said I do feel only having a single row does streamline gameplay quite a lot. This leads me onto another point regarding an element I missed and I think others will, and that is the end of round goals. These are always a fun thing to work towards in the original game offering an element of competition between the players and something to strive for. Meanwhile in the Wingspan Pocket game you only have end of game goals which whilst still powerful don’t create as much tension in the game. 

And lastly, one thing that is different and will be missed by some is that Wingspan Pocket is not as tactile as the original with no dice, resource tokens and a clickity clacking bird feeder to use there just isn’t as much stuff to touch and feel connected to during the game. Which may take away something people like about the game as table presence is an important factor when getting a game to the table on game night.

Is Wingspan Pocket actually better for travel?

This is a very good question as we have spoken about it being condensed, smaller and portable but how well is it actually suited for travelling.

Let’s start with the box. So the box the game comes in is 160 mm tall, 110 mm wide and 52 mm deep. For me this is a little big for my pockets or Emily’s hand bag but is ideal for taking on holidays when going with a suitcase or a large bag as it does not take up too much space. The box also closes really nicely with it not bulging up when you pack the components of the game back into it and it has a divider that splits the cards and eggs into separate sections which is a nice touch.

Next I want to look at the gameplay as this can usually be what makes or breaks a game coming out on holiday. So lets start with the setup, due to the game only needing the deck to be split into four roughly even stacks and starting card cards being dealt to each player I would say setup is excellent. Then there is the infamous play time that so many games can fall down at to consider. After playing this game this is something it excels at, especially if you have played it before, as it has a 25 to 35 minute average play time. Even if I am to add 10 to 15 minutes for teaching and learning the game I feel this falls nicely into my holiday board game library for time scale. Finally there is the gameplay itself. This is the part I feel this game delivers on well as the game play is smooth and is easy to follow with an easy to read player reference card and a starting card that reminds you of the three actions you can take, the game is quick and snappy to pick up and play. For me I can see myself playing this with a wider range of people than I can play the original Wingspan with.

To conclude this section we will look at table space and practicality of playing while travelling. After taking some time to play this game several times and look at its layout I do not feel this game works very well as a travel game to take on a plane or train due to the tables being too small. Though I would say this game is ideal if you are staying at a hotel, apartment or going to a cafe as the table space it takes up is improved over the original Wingspan but does not make it tiny, requiring the extra room the tables in these locations would offer.

Overall taking all the points above into account I would add this to my list of games that I would take with me when vacationing. It is small enough to pack in a suitcase, fits on a hotel table and can be played quickly while scratching that strategic itch I look for when playing a game.

Is it easier than Wingspan?

This is something which I feel a lot of people will want to know as a “Pocket” version suggests it will be simpler to pick up than the original. So let’s take a look and explore this question.

To begin with we need to look at the structure of a turn; this helps determine how much of a rules overhead there is and how quickly someone would be able to get into the game. Due to the turn structure consisting of taking one of three actions and then activating your row of birds following their instructions, the overall gameplay is simple to pick up allowing someone who is new to the game to pick it up in one or two turns. This is much easier than the original game where you have four actions with habitats that when activated do different things depending on the birds in the selected row along with the action the row lets you perform. This new format of the turns makes turns quicker resulting in the games being faster.

Next we would want to compare the decision space in the game and the strategy. Where this game has double-sided cards that function as both the birds and food resources this removes one level of decision from the base game as you no longer need to think about the Get Food action as it is part of the Draw 2 Cards action in Wingspan Pocket. Due to this flexibility it makes choice in the game more decisive as there are fewer hoops to jump through to complete the goals you are moving towards. In my experience there are less interesting combos that you can pull off taking some of the fun strategic engine-building away but you still get some of that but just in a lighter format and shorter play time.

Lastly we will look at the table space and pack down. The original Wingspan is beautiful with its player boards, dice tower and tokens though is a bit of table hog making it hard to play on smaller tables. On the flip side Wingspan Pocket has a smaller footprint allowing it to fit on more tables. The other thing to consider is that due to the number of components with Wingspan it can take a while to set up while Wingspan Pocket only takes a few minutes to set up and get playing which I really like.

So taking all these elements into account, my opinion is that as an overall experience Wingspan Pocket is easier to play and get to the table than standard Wingspan.

You already own Wingspan. Do you need this?

Now that we have explored Wingspan Pocket together and talked through everything it has to offer, I will now elaborate more on who I feel this game is best suited for. I will begin with the people I think will most enjoy this game and end with those who I feel should avoid adding this to their collection.

After playing the game I can see this game being a must have for people who are Wingspan fans who have everything else in the series along with people who frequently travel. This is due to its interesting and innovative gameplay as well as its compact nature. Due to this reason and having a good solo experience I can see people who are looking for a solo game with a quicker play time also enjoying Wingspan Pocket.

The next group of people I think would be interested in this game are people who enjoy playing games at home and those who are casual or family players. This game works well for those audiences as the rules overhead isn’t too much, the game has a good pace to it and you feel you have accomplished something at the end even if you’ve lost the game. For me this makes it much more accessible for people looking to play games to relax.

As with all games they are not ideal for everyone and this game is no exception. After taking some time to think about it I feel this game is not the best choice for people looking for a deeper strategy experience or the deepest Wingspan experience. I feel the original game offers more depth and strategy as you have the three habitats to balance and there is a wider range of combos to create.

This game is also not worth picking up if you are hoping to add the Wingspan Pocket bird to your Wingspan game as they are not compatible with each other.

My final thoughts.

My final verdict on Wingspan Pocket is that this game is a great game for couples and families who like to travel and enjoy the theme and gameplay of Wingspan though do not have a spare hour or so to play the full game. I genuinely feel that this game should not be used as a replacement for the original Wingspan game due to what it offers bringing something new to the table and is not worth picking up to add to your existing bird collection as the birds in the game are not compatible and there are a host of expansions for the base game you can explore instead.

I still have to say I am surprised at how much strategy this game has even though it has been streamlined and the adaptations to the game is almost worth the compromise that it has had on the reduced elaborate-engine building Wingspan offers. The thing I like the most about this game was the clever use of the double sided cards as I feel that is what makes this game truly special and unique when playing. That being said I do struggle a little with the name referring to it as “Pocket” as it is a little large for all my pockets but feel the game offers a great travel board game experience.

Overall if this game came out at a game night I would be happy to play it and it is one that I would suggest on an evening when I am looking for something a little lighter but wanting something that still has a bit of strategy to it. In my opinion it is a good game and is great for certain groups so I can understand the hype around it, especially due to it making hobby games more accessible for newer players in the hobby.

You can discover more about the game and grab your own copy at:

Wingspan Pocket

£17.99£15.99

Buy Now

Wingspan Pocket FAQ

Q. What is Wingspan Pocket?

A. Wingspan Pocket is a standalone, travel-sized board game designed by Elizabeth Hargrave, the designer of the original Wingspan. It keeps the core idea of collecting birds, laying eggs and building combinations but uses a streamlined, card-based system designed to make the game quicker and more compact.

Q. Is Wingspan Pocket just a smaller version of Wingspan?

A. No. Wingspan Pocket is better thought of as a new game built from the foundations of Wingspan rather than simply a smaller version of the original. It removes the player boards, dice tower, food tokens, multiple habitats and rounds, while introducing its own mechanics, including double-sided bird and food cards and new green powers.

Q. What is the difference between Wingspan and Wingspan Pocket?

A. The biggest differences are how players build their flock and collect resources. Wingspan Pocket uses a single row of birds rather than three habitats, has no rounds, uses double-sided bird/food cards instead of separate food resources and ends when a player reaches six birds. Its bird powers are also more icon-based and it introduces new green powers.

Q. Is Wingspan Pocket easier to learn than Wingspan?

A. Yes. The simplified turn structure makes Wingspan Pocket easier to learn and quicker to play than the original. Players choose one of three actions before activating the birds in their flock, meaning a new player can get to grips with the basic structure within a few turns.

Q. How long does Wingspan Pocket take to play?

A. A game takes approximately 25–35 minutes once players know the rules. You should allow additional time for teaching and learning the game when playing it for the first time.

Q. Is Wingspan Pocket good for travelling?

A. Yes, although it is better suited to a hotel, apartment, holiday or café than a cramped aeroplane or train table. The compact box and short setup make it easy to pack, while the reduced play time makes it practical for a holiday game night. However, the game still needs a reasonable amount of table space to play comfortably.

Q. Can you play Wingspan Pocket solo?

A. Yes. Wingspan Pocket supports 1–5 players and includes a solo mode, making it an option for players looking for a shorter solo game with some of Wingspan's familiar strategic elements.

Q. Does Wingspan Pocket have the same birds as Wingspan?

A. Wingspan Pocket retains the bird theme and artwork of Wingspan, but it is a separate game with its own card system and bird abilities. The Pocket cards are not designed to be added to the original Wingspan game.

Q. Can Wingspan Pocket cards be used with the original Wingspan?

A. No. Wingspan Pocket is a standalone game and its cards are not compatible with the original Wingspan. If you're looking to expand your existing Wingspan collection, you'll need to look at the expansions for the original game instead.

Q. Is Wingspan Pocket better than Wingspan?

A. Not necessarily. The two games are designed to offer different experiences. Wingspan provides a deeper engine-building experience with three habitats and more opportunities for complex combinations, while Wingspan Pocket offers a quicker, more streamlined game that is easier to teach and take on holiday.

Q. Should I buy Wingspan Pocket if I already own Wingspan?

A. If you love Wingspan and want a shorter, more portable version with its own gameplay twists, Wingspan Pocket is worth considering. However, it shouldn't be viewed as a replacement for the original. If your priority is deeper strategy and more elaborate engine building, the original Wingspan is likely the better choice.

Q. What is the best thing about Wingspan Pocket?

A. In my opinion, I'd say the double-sided bird and food cards are the standout idea. They reduce the number of components while creating an interesting decision:  take the food resource or take the bird you may want on the other side. It's a simple change that gives Pocket its own identity rather than making it feel like a downsized Wingspan.