This is an appealing puzzle game designed by Gunter Burkhardt and published by Korea Boardgames. It's simple enough to be quickly grasped by primary school children but it's still challenging enough to work as a fast fun filler for grown ups.
Each player (2–4) has their own individual player board and set of 16 hexagonal tiles showing various pathways. To play, six numbers are drawn and the players all place their animal markers on the six corresponding locations. Players are then in a race to see who can be the fastest to place out seven of their 16 tiles so that paths connect all of their animals.
It's not as easy as it sounds because all the animals have to be connected on a single continuous path, paths must not connect to edge positions on which there are no animals and there must be no paths that are cut off (ie: which don't connect to anything).
There's a sand timer for the first player to flip to hurry the others along and there are rules for scoring over multiple rounds.
Eco-Links is attractively produced and presented, and it makes for a good short family game because it's a puzzler at which children can compete with adults on even terms. Although the rules don't include a solitaire version, it's the sort of game that readily lends itself to solitaire play: perhaps simply playing against the clock to complete a board.
Eco-Links is expected to officially launch at Essen Spiel at the end of this month.