Food Fight
Overview
Food Fight is fun battle game with anthropomorphic food warriors and lots of puns. The mechanics work well with a theme that is both entertaining and well illustrated.
In Food Fight players build an army and go to war over battlefields like Remember the À La Mode and Spaghettis-burg. The game is very entertaining and comes with cool components like after meal mint tokens.
There is little downtime between turns because many of the actions happen simultaneously. Food Fight is easy to learn but I think there is more strategy to winning then at first appears. It might be best to describe Food Fight as a beefed up filler game with a fun theme.
Gameplay
1. Prepare for battle
Battlefield cards with varying victory point values are revealed and dictate which meal the battles will take place. Players build army of warriors and mascot cards in order to capture a particular meal. The warriors are troops who go to battle whereas mascots are instants cards used to add bonuses or special effects.
2. Plating
Secretly, players will choose which battlefield/meal they are fighting over. Using colored meal plate tokens they reveal their choice.
3. Battle time
Players select up to 5 warriors from their hand to be plated, those cards are shuffled and sent to the chosen meal. Simultaneously, the top cards are turned over and each warriors yumminess is compared. A cards yumminess can be increased with instants cards or special combos. The warrior with the highest yumminess wins that serving and gains an after meal mint token. The player with the most meal mints wins that meal and scores those points.
The object of the game is to capture meals and score 10 points.
Clever Game Mechanics
Each food warrior’s abilities are super fun and make for some silly yet powerful combos. For example, plating General Chicken with Private Waffles gives your waffles extra yumminess.
Funny mascot cards, like Vlad the Clampire, can be added to a battle instantly. The mascot cards keep things interesting similar to ability cards in Cryptozoic’s World of Warcraft TCG.
A unique element of Food Fight is that there are multiple battlefields (plates) to try and win: breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But, what happens when you go to a meal and there are no other players present? The Dog happens. A hungry dog shows up and tries to gobble down your army, you have to battle him instead.
Matt Hyra, the game designer, thoughtfully included rules for first time players called Boot Camp. Once beginners get up to speed they can move on to the more advanced card drafting* style to build their armies.
* Card Drafting: Players have a hand of cards. Simultaneously, they select 1 card from their hand, keep it for themselves, then pass the remaining cards to a player sitting next them. The process is repeated until no cards remain.What I like about Food Fight
I love drafting games, since everyone is drafting at the same time there is less analysis paralysis. Looking through a handful of cards and strategizing which troops are best is a lot of fun. Plus, I love trying to figure out what my opponents need and denying them that card.
How about Locked and Loaded Spud with Pizza for breakfast? In Food Fight I find myself picking warriors and mascots because the character amuses me. It’s sort of like taking Berserker Haflings in the board game Small World because it’s funny. In other board games where the themes are not so well developed it’s easy to fall into the rut of choosing something simply based on the numbers.
Components:
The components are a 10 out of 10, I love every detail. From the illustrations to the funny flavor text, every element is top notch. The back of the rule book looks like a menu and even the box interior is themed with a checkered tabled cloth and silverware. These details are what I love about the Cryptozoic games.
If you purchase the game don’t forget to check out the awesome cardboard standee, there’s a little easter egg on the back.
Who would enjoy this game?
Final Thoughts
To say this game is like the boring card game War is a lame simplification. However, Food Fight does share some similarities to war in that it battle fields are won by having the troop with the highest yumminess.
Some may find that going to 10 points takes too long. I find that lowering the win condition down to 7 works well and is still really fun.
Food Fight is great casual card game with a lot of theme and fun components. If you’re not sure about purchasing this game you can try out the ios version, which is also well done.
User Reviews (7)
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When it comes to filler games, you can choose from a large amount of games before you get pumped to tackle that big game everyone wants to play. Food Fight is one of those games that surprised me and my friends the first time I brought it out to the gaming table. After explaining the rules to them and after playing it a few times, they agreed it’s a fun game to play between games.
Food Fight is your game where you recruit food cards to make a small little stack of cards to fight in a selected battlefield between breakfast, lunch and dinner. Of course, your troops also has the advantage of winning ties on their field. Other cards also help out like Instants to buff up your troops to win the battle. And in an event of a tie or only a single person battling on a selected battlefield, then you will have The Dog come out to try to stop you in the long run.
In the end, you are given mints for each battle you won and whoever has the most will claim the battlefield and the victory points with it.
It’s a fun little game to play, so much so that I picked up the small expansion with it and I do hope down the road, maybe another expansion will show up. But if you need a break between games to help you get ready for the big game at that game night, Food Fight is a game to try and enjoy.
The great thing about this site is that we can all share what we love and dislike about a particular game.
I think there is more strategy to Food Fight then at first appears. The mechanics work well with a theme that is both entertaining and well illustrated. How many popular card drafting games can claim that?
Drafting cards in this game makes sense thematically and is fun. Players draft a squad of food soldiers that will give them the best tactical advantage on the battle field. This is vaguely akin to a game called Slapshot! but with way more strategy and integration of the character’s various abilities.
Food Fight also has some elements of Magic the Gathering. In Magic you send fighters to a battlefield and power them up with instants. Food Fight also has instants but with funny themes like Salsa Bandito. A unique element of Food Fight is that there are multiple battlefields (plates) to try and win, breakfast, lunch, and dinner, in addition to a dog who tries and gobble up your meal.
I love games like Food Fight that are interactive and easy for new comers to pick up. If you’re not sure about purchasing this game you can try out the ios version, which is also well done.
The
AwesomeArtworkMaybe this part of my Review is more of Rant but I just don’t understand what there is not to like about the illustration and design of Food Fight. The artwork is fantastic – that is what drew me to this game. You may think the Food Fight art is strange but the skill level of the illustrations are exceptional. In fact I think the artwork of all Cryptozoic games are a cut above the norm.
I have read reviews that say that color palette is too muted. Be reminded that a distinguishing component of most Eurogames is that same muted color palette – Ra, Hansa Teutonica, Princes of Florence to name a few. In a world that is already overly saturated in order to demand visual attention I don’t need my retinas burned out every time I play a board game.
C’mon people, do you think the artwork of some of the ‘more popular’ card games are better? All I’m gonna say about that is Intrigue – Scout.
So, you and your buddies want to sit down and play a card game. Do you feel like something serious and competitive? Because if you are, Food Fight is not the droid you are looking for.
The name ought to say that anyway, but it bears mentioning. I do not play Food Fight when I am looking to win a game. I play it when I am looking for a good time.
Looking in the box, you have 190 cards, 18 meal plate tokens, 9 after dinner mint tokens, a rule book and a cardboard Food Fight stand-up. The latter is simply thematic and does nothing. The artwork is Simpsons/South Park quality cartoon depictions. I am good with it personally, but honestly I am not much on card art anyway. Take a look at the cards depicted on the site here to determine if you can stand looking at them.
The ultimate goal of this game is to score 10 points. So how do we get there? 27 of the cards are battlefield cards. They have titles such as Push at Hamburger Hill and Battle of the Bulge. They indicate where/when the battle will take place, either breakfast, lunch or dinner. They also each have a point value. Each player will receive three meal tokens, also each representing the three meals. Before playing your cards you will take into consideration which meals are up for grabs and secretly choose a meal to battle.
Each player receives 8 cards. Most cards are food warriors, many of which have ranks such as Private Pancake, General Donut and and Captain Cereal. Each soldier has a yumminess factor, which will determine the winner of each skirmish. They also each have a meal designation, and many have special abilities printed on the bottom of the card. Along with these cards you will have cards that can be played as instants to alter the tide of battle.
So, you choose which meal you are battling at and then pick your troops. You take 5 soldiers and shuffle them randomly. When choosing, it is important to take the battle into consideration, as some cards have abilities or higher yumminess factors at certain meals. For instance, the Dinner Roll has 1 yumminess, but that is increased by 8 at dinner, giving it 9.
So, everyone has chosen their warriors. It is time to reveal the battle you showed up at. If every player is at the same battle, everyone starts by revealing the top card of their chosen army. Yumminess values are compared, and instants can be played. Once no player wants to play any further instants, a winner of that skirmish is decided, and that winner is awarded an after-dinner mint token. Ties go to the player whose troop matches the battle being fought (hot dog, a lunch troop defeats pancake, a breakfast troop) or, if that does not determine the winner, do a die roll or coin flip or something similar. The next troop is revealed, instants played, etc. Rinse and repeat. Once all troops have been played, the player with the most mints wins the battle, and takes all of the battlefield cards available for that meal.
If, say, two players in a four player game are doing battle at lunch and two at dinner, then the two at lunch square off against each other, then the two at dinner in a separate battle.
If only one player is at a meal, then they do battle with The Dog. There is a stack of The Dog cards, each one with a value on it. The player reveals his troop as normal, then reveals the next The Dog card, then plays instants as normal. If the player has a higher yumminess factor than the value on The Dog card, the player wins that skirmish. Either way, they then reveal the remainder of their cards in the same fashion. They do not take the battle unless they win the majority of the skirmishes.
That is the game in a nutshell. The craziness factor of this game is similar to Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre, another game by the same company. Obviously, there is a great deal of randomness and luck involved in this game, as not only are you dealt 8 random cards from the deck, you then have to shuffle the 5 troops you are using. Most of the strategy goes out the window since you have little to work with, leaving only decisions on when to play your instants. Can you win this skirmish, or do you hold on to this card for a skirmish where you have a higher number to begin with? This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I want to point out the fun of this game lies less in winning and more in the craziness of the journey to the end.
All in all, I enjoy this game in its place. I could see how this would be a great time with children, and there isn’t any reason a group of adults cannot have a blast playing it too. Just keep in mind what the game is and do not expect it to be more than it is.
This is a fun game that is a great break for any power gamer that has been rolling dice and trying to get a five or six unsuccessfully lately. Put the dice away and stop trying to kill. Instead try to create the best meal possible.
In the game you are dealt ten cards. Some are food soldiers such as General Doughnut and Private Pancake for example. Other cards are called Instants and usually state when they can be played out of your hand. Meals are presented at the beginning of each round and by winning a meal you will win points. You choose what soldier cards you want to use as your army depending on what meal you want to fight for (breakfast, lunch or dinner). Then by using a token to signify which meal your playing each player flips over the meal they’ve chosen to fight at and war begins.
Each meal you play the cards and resolve the text on the card. As the meal goes on whoever has won the most breath mints wins by the end of game round. It’s simple but loads of fun.
The game really shins when you have four or more people and is a great end of the night I want to keep playing games but I don’t have time game, if you know what I mean. It does sometimes take longer than you think to finish a game but its still a blast. Don’t expect to much strategy but just enjoy the ride and the art on the cards is really funny.
The 3 meals of the day are laid out with specific Battle. These battle each have points and appropriate themed name (examples: The Massacre at Little Big Corn, and The Bay of Pigs in a Blanket)
In your hand you have an army of food themed soldiers (everything from Private Pancake to Commando Steak). You decide what meal your hand is best suited to battle for, choose the appropriate meal’s chip and place it face down in front of you. All at once players reveal their targeted meals If you are uncontested you take that meal, if there is more than one food army going after the same meal, you play war in a head to head best of 5 series.
The drafting mechanic (pick one from your hand to keep, pass the hand to the left until everyone has a full hand) adds some strategy. Waiting for others to play war gets boring.
If it is on the table, I’ll play it, when it is not on the table I probably won’t suggest it.
On vacation in NY I walked by a game store and couldn’t help going in and getting myself a souvenir. After looking and reading a bit the storeowner recommended this one. And it is funny, but I usually end up playing other more intricate games instead of this one.
Basically it is a draft game. A funny, original such, but still a draft game.
What you do is draft armies of different food and make them battle against each other. Winning a meal gives you battle points, and the first one to have ten wins!
The graphics are absolutely lovely, with an aged retro feeling about them, and the puns are amusing with battlefields such as Triumph of Spaghettis-burg.
When is this game appropriate to play?
For a game night, we usually choose more complicated, strategy games that will last longer.
However, this game is perfect when I play with friends who are social gamers. If we have a few beers while playing, this one is perfect, since we can relax and just talk and play without worrying that we miss events in the game!
I have only played this game a couple of times and wanted to love it. It just didn’t get me excited however. I find the card art to be a bit muddy looking though the puns in the flavor text are amusing. The game-play seems to be just the old card game of “War” with a beefed up deck. (No pun intended). A couple of the other players really got into the theme of the game; however, it left me wanting more.