Evolution Board Game

Strategy Game of Adaptation

Ratings

Age

9+

Board

Languages

English

Latest Version 3.0.59

Fri Apr 10 2026

Flight has landed! Soar away from Carnivores to a new food source.

Ultimate bundle added, get a sizeable discount on all the IAP for the game.

Weekly Challenge bug fix

Evolution is an award-winning strategy game where players adapt their species to survive in a dynamic ecosystem where food is scarce and predators lurk. With 17 unique trait cards, there are thousands of possible species combinations. This digital version features a full single-player campaign, skill-based matchmaking, and a comprehensive tutorial to guide you from biology intern to Nobel Prize winner.

Dinsun Expert Review

Our Expert Score

89/100

Evolution Board Game is a masterclass in how to port a complex tabletop experience to mobile. The transition from physical cards to a digital ecosystem is seamless, thanks to a beautiful interface and helpful animations that bring the species to life. The core gameplay—adapting your species with traits like 'Hard Shell' or 'Long Neck' to survive—remains as strategic and cutthroat as ever. The AI is surprisingly competent, providing a solid challenge even for veteran players of the physical game.

What sets this version apart is the 'Natural Selection in Action' feeling. The watering hole mechanics create a constant tension: do you evolve to be a predator and eat your friends, or focus on defense to survive the drought? The game’s tutorial is one of the best I’ve seen, led by a friendly professor who makes complex ecological concepts easy to grasp. Whether you're playing the single-player campaign or ranked multiplayer, Evolution is a deep, polished, and endlessly replayable strategy game.

Dinsun reviewed on: Tue Feb 04 2025

Features

Official digital adaptation of the award-winning board game

Single-player campaign with boss opponents

Real-time and asynchronous multiplayer

17 unique trait cards for endless strategies

Beautiful hand-drawn art and fluid animations

Tips & Walkthrough

The Survival Strategy

If the watering hole is running dry, prioritize 'Long Neck' to reach food in the trees. If a predator is nearby, 'Hard Shell' or 'Warning Call' are essential for survival.

Gameplays

Natural Selection

Each turn, you play trait cards to improve your species' ability to gather food or defend against carnivores. Balance your population growth with your food supply.

Screenshot

Q&A

The game is 'try before you buy.' You can play the tutorial and basic campaign for free, with a one-time purchase to unlock full functionality.

Ratings & Reviews

Honestly, even better than the board game

Sun Oct 13 2019 Crow_13

I played the board game a few years ago and was instantly hooked. It’s an intriguing concept that is well executed. It’s always fun to come up with what your creature might look like, with the different traits it has. In terms of improvements, there are a few things that don’t feel immediately apparent. For instance, you can zoom out of your opponents turn and handle your own instead of having to wait until they’re finished. It’s a fun game that seems a bit complicated, but flows really well once you get the hang of it. There are a few bugs here and there, especially in terms of trying to create an account. Me and my friends all recently got it, and almost all of us had trouble with the account creation process, with it not notifying us that the account had been created or not, maybe sending a confirmation email would help with that? I sincerely hope we get to see some expansions to the game! Having even more trait cards in play, like those from the Climate or Flight expansions, would increase the fun even more!

Overall pretty good

Thu Jul 23 2020 haixhdbnsh

This game was nice and I play it often the only main problem I can think of is the fact in the campaign sometimes when you finish a level and close the app and then come back a little later the work you did on those previous levels disappear and you have to do them again it gets really frustrating when a lot of times I have to redo the same levels over and over again and it’s not even guaranteed for them to stay completed not to mention I also have to do the hard levels over again and when I do finally complete them the progress just reverts making the campaign basically unplayable everything else is great except for a few glitches here and there but overall pretty good I like how you can see sketches of the unique animals Edit: Thanks for responding you were right something wasn’t syncing thanks

"Climate" rebrand/update bad news for existing owners

Wed Dec 08 2021 OriginalGrumpyOldMan

Rather than launching this as a new app, they replaced the existing game. So any reviews prior to Dec 6th 2021 should be taken with a big grain of salt since it is no longer the same app. Similar perhaps, based on the same physical game, but not the original game all those reviews were for. This new one starts off badly by forcing you to pick a name before you can even get to the main menu, tied to some online functionality that I did not consent to or have any interest in! This resulted in several minutes of not accepting any choice of mine until I finally entered a garbage string of characters just to get past this (even if it will obviously not be usable in any meaningful way with other players) Then I went to "Restore Purchases" which does not work! I understand that they want to generate more revenue, which would be fine if this was a separate game, since it has a different name, different (online) play system & different icon. Instead they replaced the existing, still working game... presumably to generate renewed purchases. No thanks. The only positive aspect is that this serves as another cautionary tale about the volatility of digital marketplace purchases.

Great game with small implementation issued

Mon Jun 01 2020 Norafran

Fantastic game! Loved the board game and both expansions, and this reignited my love for the game. So much depth and strategy in spite of a relatively simple layout, and I’ll be very happy to buy the full app after quarantine. The only problems here are technical. The worst is leaving the app - To start with, if i’m playing a game with my friend, there’s very few situations where I want you to replace him with an AI. Thats an option that should be VERY limited but actually happens quite a bit. If your wifi cuts out (even for a second),if you switch from wifi to data (or vice versa), if you check your text messages... its really annoying to have a whole game cut short because of something so stupid. I can see this being a little strict for online games but even then you should have a minute or so to reconnect. And you can’t start giving harsher penalties for people leaving games when the system around it is this finicky. Also should add typing for portrait mode, typing in chat is very cumbersome on the phone

Challenging and fun game, but a little polish wouldn’t hurt

Mon Jun 17 2019 affluentbridge

4 out of 5 Stars! This game was easy to pick up! It challenges you to use logic when approaching the other species. One turn you could be the Apex of the pond and the next your entire species could be wiped off the board. Frustrating, but that’s what makes this game a great pick! Also, you can “hone your skills” to make multiplayer lobby wait time pass by. That aside, there are a few things that I would suggest that may improve everyone’s experience. **Disclaimer: These suggestions may deviate from the original board game.** - Multiplayer: - When disconnected, employ an ability to rejoin the game. This way player’s won’t have to go through matchmaking again. - Allow players the option to continue playing against each other after a match is complete. This way players can redeem a loss or keep their victories. - Add different multiplayer game types. — Over populated: Players start with 2 species instead of 1 with a limit on card draws. — Apex Hunter: A random player is selected as a carnivore and must keep their species alive for as long as possible (keeping round limit as is). - Campaign: - Allow players to challenge the harder difficulty after they complete the entire campaign instead of having the current requirement of having won 3 multiplayer games. - View previous scores on completed ponds. - Allow players to replay completed ponds so they can improve on previous scores (without overwriting current campaign progress).

Confused - no longer; this game rocks

Mon Mar 04 2019 Dave39

So ignore the review below. I’ve now played this game for many dozens of hours. Once I went into campaign mode it all started clicking. It’s incredibly complex and nuanced, and I’m constantly learning new ways to combine strategies. I’ve now ordered the board game and can’t wait to play with the family. Original ignorant review below: I think this a game where you need to know the board game first. Or otherwise grab a tutorial because the in-game is not super helpful. I’ve been at it for an hour and still get randomly surprised by my inability to feed as a carnivore and my inability to defend as a herbivore. It’s frustrating as there seems to be zero logic to it. Every time I think I’ve figured out the “why,” the next time I apply that logic something different happens. I *should* like this game as I like other similar games. Just can’t get to the logic.

Educates you about Glitches!

Fri Jul 02 2021 Kari21631

This game is so educational! I never knew there were so many ways to glitch! The last update made all the difference. We got like 50 new glitches - free! It really arouses your curiosity when you see things like turn timers that keep resetting or won’t stop so the computer takes your turn, or not being able to place your card - sometimes you even get a card that just hangs out and doesn’t leave! The player icons on the left work 1 out of every ten times when you tap them for more information which really adds to the suspense - and GUESS WHAT?! Since the new update EVERYONE can glitch all at once! You can have a 4 player game all glitch together! Oh. Also - just as a side note, the actual game is super fun. The artwork is beautiful. You learn a bit about evolutionary strategies or something. Super respectful with the $ thing. You can buy cards for a very reasonable price but there’s also a lot of ways to play with them without paying - which is just like…major respect for this company. But honestly the glitches are what the game is all about at this point. I just played a game where the whole board disappeared. Nothing but background. I even tried offloading my app and reinstalling. It’s just an amazing game that is sometimes functional - but I guess you get what you pay for!

User Management Dumpster Fire

Sat Jan 01 2022 LoveLiam

The game in single player mode is quite good; very good, in fact. Gameplay is magnificent. Everything falls apart when trying to experience this online with one’s friends though. We set up accounts for our boys to play with us… or at least tried to. The first time the account is set up, it doesn’t persist correctly. To get an account set up to the point one can actually log in and out with, you have to reset the password. Even still, with accounts that now worked and linked to Game Center, the friends functionality was completely borked. Game Center friends do not show up. One can search for friends using user name or email and these will show up, but adding them only ever displays friends as offline. After an exit and restart, those friends previously added will be missing. You can try to add them again, but after finding them a second time nothing happens when trying to add them to the friends list. Not that it matters much though. The only time we were able to get a full list of friends we attempted to do an async game. The invites went out as notifications, but clicking them did nothing. Not sure if Timed Games has the same issue; with out a friends list we can’t start a timed game. I really do like Evolution and highly recommend it for the single player experience. Everything else is unfortunately a hot mess.