Game On! Review: ‘Throw Throw Burrito’
A little about our family….My wife and I love playing board games, card games and any tabletop game we can get our hands on. In the last two years, we have been including our 9-year-old son and our 5-year-old daughter, and sometimes our 3-year old son, in our game nights. With so many choices out there, it is difficult for families to know what a good game is for family game night and this is where we come in. We review a new game to help make this decision easier and hopefully help you make a good choice for your family! All suggestions are welcomed! Please comment below.
Who We Are
Jason Brigger, aka the Dad: Co-host of the weekly pop culture centric podcast, The History of Bad Ideas along with a weekly review of the television series, Black Lightning, which are both on Nerdly!
The Boy: My 9-year-old son who enjoys all types of games, from video games to board games to card games, as long as it makes him think.
The Girl: My 5-year-old daughter who is learning about games above the Candyland skill level and will guest in this column from time to time.
The Mom: My wife who will guest in this column from time to time, bringing a female perspective to games we review.
Officially, What Is It?
Per the official website: Throw Throw Burrito is what you get when you cross a card game with dodgeball. Try to collect matching sets of cards faster than your opponents while simultaneously ducking, dodging, and throwing squishy airborne burritos. The cards you collect earn points, but getting hit by flying burritos loses them. So clear some space and put away the antiques, because you’ve never played a card game quite like this before.
What’s Included: Two (2) foam burritos to throw, six (6) game tokens, and 120 game cards. My family ordered the Kickstarter version and received an additional 120 cards and two (2) more “exclusive” foam burritos.
Please note this game was purchased on Kickstarter so the game is not available at retailers yet. Once the game is available to the mainstream public, I would highly recommend getting the expansion pack of cards, which allows for more players and also extends the game play as it takes longer to finish each round.
How Do You Play?
Setup: Place the burritos on the table and confirm everyone can reach a burrito quickly, which is another reason to get the two additional burritos. Everyone is dealt five cards in their hands and 15 cards face down for their “draw” pile. The rest of the cards go in the middle in a “community” pile.
Gameplay:
- Once the game starts, everyone (at the same time) takes one card from their “draw” pile and places it in their hand. You must then discard one card as you can only have five cards in your hand at one time. The discarded card is placed in your neighbor’s deck. Don’t worry about the neatness of the card piles as they get messy really quickly. If you run out of cards in your “draw” pile, just pick more cards from the “community” pile in the middle of the table.
- If you have “three of a kind”, place the cards next to you (face up) to earn points at the end of the round.
- If someone plays three of the same Burrito cards, a Battle ensues.
Let’s talk about the three types of Battles:
Burrito Brawl: Three matching Brawl cards (of the same color) cause the players to your right and left to immediately grab a burrito and throw it at each other. The first person to get hit by a burrito loses a point, which is represented by a game token placed in front of them.
Burrito War: Three matching War cards cause all players at the table (except for the player that played the Burrito cards) to reach for the burritos and throw at any other player. The first player to get hit with a burrito loses a point.
Burrito Duel: This is my favorite type of Battle and surprisingly, my 3-year-old is the best one in the family at this Battle. Three matching Duel cards allows the person who played the cards to pick anyone at the table to face each other. Each player grabs a burrito and stand back to back like cowboys in the old Western movies. Both players count down “3, 2, 1, Burrito” while taking steps away from each other on each number and then turn and fire the burritos at each other. The first person to get hit loses a point.
The developers created some fun additional rules to cause people to lose points as well:
- If a player places the wrong three set of cards down for the battle, i.e. mismatched colors, you lose a point.
- If a player grabs a burrito and they aren’t supposed to be in the battle, they lose a point.
How Do You Win?
Once all the tokens are distributed, the round is over and points are counted by each player. Points are scored accordingly:
- Three matching “general” cards are worth one (1) point.
- Three matching Burrito cards are worth two (2) points
- The player with the most points after two rounds of play (three rounds if you have the expansion pack), wins the game.
What We Liked About The Game:
Dad: Much like their previous game, Exploding Kittens, this game never takes itself too seriously and is a fun game to play without much thinking. The game is great for family game night or a party game with friends as the more players involved causes the fun aspect to increase as more craziness ensues and more burritos to go flying. Let’s be real, you are here to throw burritos at each other and in that aspect, the game doesn’t disappoint.
Another positive aspect is the quality of game box and burritos. The game box is sturdy, which is much appreciated when carrying not only the original game but the expansion pack as well. The burritos are made of squishy foam and are not only good stress relievers but they don’t hurt when players are rocketing them at each other.
Mom: I enjoyed the overall concept of the game as it was quick to learn, which allowed us to easily teach our family. The game was simple to learn but still required skill to master. I appreciated the game was fun for the whole family and was truly a “family” game. Plus the special edition Kickstarter burritos were cute.
The Boy: It’s a good mix of Dodgeball and Exploding Kittens, which is exactly what the creators set out to do. I also enjoyed the variety of different Battles in the game, which allows people to get up and move around instead of just sitting during the game.
What We Didn’t Like About the Game:
Dad: The cards can get a little messy and while I understand the creators wanted chaos for their party game, it can get a little out of hand if you aren’t paying attention. It’s difficult to see the cards everyone is trying to play/get to make a “three of a kind” and I always felt I was missing out on what the other players are doing. I don’t mind chaos in a game but wish it was a little more “organized chaos”.
Mom: The rules about when you draw cards were a little confusing and took several rounds of playing to fully understand. Since everyone draws cards at the same time, it negates the “fast pace” the creators were trying to present with the game. If everyone is discarding into their neighbor’s “draw” pile, there is a possibility the players can pass the same cards around to each other without the introduction of new cards.
The Boy: It’s a small issue but I wish players didn’t need to collect three of the Burrito cards in order to start a Battle. I would have enjoyed more Battle cards as there are times when the action slows down and there are long stretches of time when no Battles occur.
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Replay Value: Moderate. The gameplay is fun and lighthearted, the burritos are a blast to throw, everyone from kids to adults can pick up and play, and if you need to spice up your party, nothing says fun like throwing burritos at a person’s face!
Recommended Age, Per Developers: Seven (7) years and older
Our Recommended Age: If your child can play Go Fish, then with a little assistance from Mom and Dad, they can probably grasp this game. My wife and I involve our three-year-old son in the game by having him hold the cards and do our Battles for us (with some prompting) so while five years old and up is probably a good age, any child will love just throwing a burrito at a family member.
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Final Score:
Dad’s Grade: B-
Mom’s Grade: B
The Boy’s Grade: A
Throw Throw Burrito lives up to its Kickstarter claim that it’s a good game for adult game night or family game night. It’s a fun, fast-paced party game that thrives when four or more people play the game. Once the game is available in stores, I would recommend the game to anyone that has frequent game nights with friends or family as it definitely will get guests up and moving. For parents, it’s a fun, light-hearted game that children will not get bored with since throwing burritos at their siblings and the general chaos will keep them entertained for the whole game.
