Food Fight

Introduction
Food Fight on iOS is the iOS implementation of the card game of the same name. The paper version of the game is from Cryptozoic Entertainment while the app is developed by Playdek who is prolific at converting board games to iOS (Ascension, Nightfall, Summoner Wars, Can’t Stop,..)
The game is Universal (same app works on both iPhone and iPad) and is currently priced at $3.99.

Gameplay
In Food Fight 2 to 4 players battle to be the first one get 10 victory points (VP) at which point the game finishes and that player with 10 or more VP is declared the winner.
The players will engage in as many battles (rounds) as required for one to reach 10 VP. The battles take place on battlefields (meals; breakfast, lunch or dinner) and depending on the number of players, for each battle 2 or 3 meals will be drawn. Each meal is worth a different number of VP and the winner of the meal gets those VP.
For each battle each player will have 9 cards. Depending on the settings those can be random or drafted (player chooses 1 card out of 9 and passes the 8 remaining cards to the next player, gets 8 cards from the previous player and chooses one and passes the 7 remaining cards to the next player and so on until each player has 9 cards).
Those cards will (or should) be a mix of Troops and Instants. Each player then chooses 5 Troops to fight for him and keeps the remaining cards in his hand. Each player will then select which meal to fight at. If two or more players selected the same meal, they will fight to gain the VP of that meal. If a player is alone to select a meal, he will fight against the dog; basically a special shuffled deck of cards that will be drawn to fight you.
For a fight, the 5 Troops selected will be randomized and the top card for each player will be shown. Each Troop has a Yumminess value and the player with the most Yumminess will win a Mint Point (MP). Before deciding the winner of this turn (serving) the players can also decide to play Instants that can add more Yumminess to your card. Note that Troops can also have actions/effects that can influence their Yumminess or the Yumminess of cards played after it in the fight. Once the MP has been attributed, the players reveal the second Troop of their deck, compare their Yumminess and play Instants and so on until all the Troops (5) of each player have been played. At that point the player with the most MP is declared the winner of the meal and will get all its VP.
Troops have factions (breakfast, lunch or dinner) which have two impacts: cards of the same faction usually play better together as their actions can often impact only cards from the same faction; ties are broken in favor of the cards of the same faction as the meal being fought at. Note that any card from any faction can however be played at any meal.
Fighting the dog is similar to fighting a player but the cards the dog plays are different, he does not play Instants and he looses all ties.
There is lot of randomness in this game as the cards you play with are random or semi random (drafted) and the one you select for a fight are then randomized. The decisions to make are thus limited to drafting, selecting the cards that will be played (but not their order) and when to play Instants.

Implementation
The game lets you play 2-4 players games. You can play alone against multiple AI (3 difficulty levels), pass and play mixing AI and human players or asynchronous online using Game Center. There is not much activity online and it might be difficult to find a game to play, especially without too much wait.
To learn the game there is an interactive tutorial that you can supplement by accessing the rulebook. A positive point again for Playdek is that unlike some other iOS implementation of board games, the rules have been adapted to the digital game and are not a scan of the board game version.
The design of the app is inspired by the fun theme and cards of the game with drawn backgrounds and fun animations. The main complain about the implementation is that the graphics are not Retina enabled, so even on a newer iPad you will need to zoom in the cards to read them.

Verdict
As an app, it is a beautiful conversion of the board game with a nice design, fun interface, easy ways to learn the game and different options to play alone or with other players. The main complain about the app itself is the lack of Retina support which for me is kind of a deal breaker. Then there is also the lack of online activity which can reduce the replayability.
As a game, well, I do not care for it at all. There is too much luck involved and you cannot develop any real strategy or tactic. The tree version of the game might be fun as there is interaction with other players, but as a video game, it is not engaging enough.
I feel like this is a missed opportunity as the theme and the art are fun and maybe a house rule for the tabletop version allowing you to order your troops instead of randomize them could make it better.

I really cannot recommend this app except maybe for people who are fan of the original game and want a fix on the road.