Critter Kitchen
- Board's Eye View
- 40 minutes ago
- 2 min read
In Critter Kitchen players are anthropomorphic animal chefs collecting ingredients that they'll be using to create meals and, ultimately, a taster menu for a fussy food critic who will have their own idiosyncratic preferences. The game takes 1-5 players and is designed by Alex Cutler and Peter C Hayward.
Critter Kitchen is a worker placement game where players simultaneously and secretly (ie: behind a screen) allocate their small, medium and large workers to particular locations where they will pick up ingredients with various scoring values. Small workers can only pick up one ingredient but they get to choose ahead of medium workers who can pick up two. Large workers can pick up three ingredients but they are activated last, so they'll only actually end up with three ingredients if they are at a location that's not also been selected by other players for their small or medium workers. There are therefore opportunities for bluff and misdirection in players' table talk as everyone tries to second guess each others' likely choices in what is inevitably a push-your-luck scramble.
Among the items you can pick up at locations will be rumours that let you peek at otherwise concealed cards that show additional scoring in the final food critic meal. Knowing what's on those cards obviously informs what players try to collect. You can also compete to claim the round's 'zoo chef' (a play on 'sous chef', geddit?) that gives you the equivalent of an extra meeple for the round.
Prior to the food critic meal, players are able to score points by matching ingredients to those shown on the challenge cards for the round. You can only carry a limited number of ingredients on to the next round but you'll need to make a judgement call about which ones to use in the early meals and which ones would be better served to that fussy food critic.
Like Flamecraft, Critter Kitchen is published by Cardboard Alchemy and Lucky Duck Games (now part of Goliath Games) and tho' it has a different designer it shares a visual similarity with Flamecraft because both games benefit from the distinctive art of Sandara Tang. The art certainly adds considerably to the game's appeal but there's an enjoyable easy-to-play game here that's not just dependent on its great artwork. And with its simultaneous location selection, this is a game with very little downtime so you can expect to play it in around 60 minutes.
