Rooster Cogburn

What the Food?! is a game based on a cafeteria food fight, making it light enough of a theme to be enjoyed by any age, but the mechanics are just advanced enough to make it fun for avid gamers.

This game could have just as easily been a card-chucking real-time game, but the designer instead opted to keep it turn-based, in such a way that still manages to simulate the chaotic nature of a food fight.

Players choose their actions from a limited set of cards (with the opportunity to expand their action hand as the game goes on) and secretly choose the order in which they will take their actions. All players then reveal their actions at the same time. This way, if you think you know another player well enough to predict what they will do, you can potentially avoid a hit.

I’ve found that this game has a pretty high replay value, especially if you play a different character each time (since the starting actions differ between characters). It’s difficult for any one player to run away with the game, and I’ve seen players with a strong lead end up losing by being the favored target of the others.

The art is pretty great in this game too. The characters are vibrant and stylized in such a way that they look like the cast of a Saturday morning cartoon.

My only complaint (and it’s not much of one) is that although it doesn’t require it, the game is not as good with less than four players. The creator went as far as to make special rules for a two-player game, but with less than four, it’s just not as much fun. But then again, I can say the same about a lot of games.

Epic Picnic is, simply put, an adult party game. The humor is sometimes goofy and overall dirty. It takes about a minute to learn to play, and there are a lot of variations included to change it up every now and then.

At its core, this is a player-elimination memory game in which cards stack upon each other, hiding the text but leaving a letter revealed that gives a clue to the card underneath. Most people cringe when they hear “memory game,” and they’ll swear that they won’t be any good at it, but everyone I’ve played with so far is surprised at how far they get.

Although Epic Picnic is a competitive game, it also has a cooperative side to it–how long of a progression can the players make together? When I talk to other people about this game, they say things like, “We got up to 25 cards,” instead of, “Steve won.” This isn’t implicitly mentioned in the rules, but this aspect of the game not only gives it a co-op feel at times, but also that you’re playing against yourself just as much as the other players.

My favorite variation is called “Down but not out,” which can turn a twenty-minute game into an forty-five minute game, and alleviates the player-elimination aspect of it.

Overall, this would make a good icebreaker game, something to start off a night of gaming and get a group’s spirits up. Or, if tension is running high after a more serious game, break this out to have a good laugh.

RDI3 is probably my favorite of all the Red Dragon Inns–up to and including the current four. The game is great by itself, but imposes a limitation of four players. Combine it with any other RDI (or the single-character expansions) for more players.

The only issue I have with the newer expansions (both this one and RDI4) is that they make playing early characters, specifically from the first RDI, a bit difficult. Slugfest is great at coming up with unique mechanics for every new character, but I think that the advanced nature of these newer versions is steadily making the original characters somewhat obsolete.

Overall–great game and a great theme.