SNAP Review – Delicious

(Holding up a cat) This is Tally. He is the best. But there’s one thing that’s really weird about him. Really weird. Tally thinks vegetables are delicious.

Broccoli, peppers, he eats them all with gusto.

I do love that most of the vegetables he really loves, we can grow in our back yard.

Game

This is a SNAP review for Delicious – A flip and write game by the team at Pencil First Games: Steve Finn, Eduardo Baraf, and Clémentine Campardou.

An unlimited number of people can play as long as they can see the cards and have a player sheet. Pencil First even has a sheet on their website that you can download so everyone can play.

A game takes about 20-30 minutes.

Art

Let’s talk about the art in Delicious.

So the cards and the background of the sheets have this watercolor style to it. They’re beautiful.

Of course, that’s not all the art in this game.

That’s right – Delicious calls itself “an artful game”. Why? Because when you flip vegetable cards or fruit tokens, you actually draw them on your sheet.

For those of you who can’t draw, like me, the back of the rulebook gives you step by step instructions on how to draw those fruits and vegetables.

If you still can’t do it, you can just write letters.

Mechanics

But let’s talk about the mechanics of this game.

You’re going to set this game up by setting up a split deck of vegetable cards, for the “top” and “bottom” halves of the garden. They’re indicated by these little up and down tokens. Give everyone a garden sheet and a player sheet.

Each round, flip out a new “top” and “bottom” card. You’ll also take two tokens out of the bag and put one on each card. More on those in a minute.

You only get to draw vegetables according to what you select on your player sheet, though. Each round you need to choose:

• Will you use one card in the correct place, top or bottom?
• Will you use both cards in the correct place?
• OR will you use one card but switched to the other side?
• You’ve also got two chances to use both cards and put them wherever you want.

Each vegetable card also has an icon in the bottom right. This is going to tell you whether the token you pulled out goes on the fruit side or the tool side.

If it’s a tool, use it to put a fruit or a vegetable of any kind in the row or column that has that tool in it. You’re still limited by that top or bottom restriction, though. And you need to cross off the tool after you use it.

(You can’t use it a second time? No.)

If it’s a fruit, draw that fruit in the fruit planter in a space that is the same shape as on the card – hexagon, star, or oval.

Each of the six vegetable planters has slightly different restrictions:

• In the wheelbarrow, everything has to be different.
• In the boots, you’re planting two different pairs of vegetables.
• Three identical vegetables need to go into the suitcase.
• And three different vegetables in the small raised bed.

If you’re the first to fill a planter, you’ll check this box on the left for an extra bonus point. If you’re the first to complete the entire top or the entire bottom, you get the honey bonus, as well.

Over on the fruit side, you score points for rows or columns; you get a few points for at least three different fruits, but more points for at least three of the same fruit in a connected row.

At the end of the game, flip over your player sheet and add your scores up to see who wins!

Expectations

So Andrew, what were our expectations for this game?

Pencil First always makes super solid games. So I knew that even if I didn’t care for something about it (either the theme, or something about designer decisions), I was going to respect and appreciate the solid gameplay. And that’s exactly what I got.

As you know, I’ve also been becoming more fond of roll and writes lately, so that helped too.

On the negative side, I saw that it said 1-100 player count on the box, and that told me there wouldn’t be player interaction (yeah…), which is something I really like in games; and I was right about that too.

[Anitra] I saw that the game has an additional solo mode. That’s odd to see in this style of game that’s 1-100, and I wanted to check that part out!

Surprises

That leads us to what surprised us about Delicious.

[Andrew] I was surprised how much this game grew on me (groan). After I played it once I thought it was fine, like Draftosaurus crossed with Three Sisters, kind of. But playing it more really made me appreciate the puzzle of trying to complete things faster than others while being held to the same exact restrictions. Unlike some other roll-and-writes, everybody has the same icons in all the same places.

[Anitra] It was fun to be able to play this solo (with the pesky crow, who limits your placement options). And it was also really fun playing over video chat with friends.

If the lack of player interaction really bothers you, there’s also a mini-expansion included, The Community Garden. This increases the tension between players by giving special abilities to whoever finishes a specific planter first.

Recommended?

So Anitra, do we recommend Delicious?

Delicious is a really nice, solid flip-and-write. It draws from elements of a lot of other successful games that came before it.

It’s definitely worth checking out if you love gardening, or if you’re a big fan of roll-and-writes and flip-and-writes. As long as you don’t mind the limited interaction.

Delicious didn’t till any unused soil – that is to say, there aren’t any brand new mechanics here. The drawing was a nice twist and it definitely did help draw in our artistic child.

All of these pieces are put together well, and it really does make for a game that can get its roots into you.

Sow Anitra, (groan) what should we rate Delicious from Pencil First Games?

[Anitra] Well, higher than your puns for sure. We’re going to rate Delicious 3 and a half out of 5 fruits. And vegetables.

And that’s Delicious, in a SNAP!

Find it on Amazon, direct from Pencil First Games, or ask for it at your local game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Delicious from Pencil First Games for this review.

This post contains affiliate links, which do not change your price, but help support The Family Gamers.

SNAP review music is Avalanche, provided courtesy of You Bred Raptors?