SNAP Review – Football Feud!

Well, Anitra, the fall weather is in the air. I’ve got my hoodie on (Family Gamers branded, of course) and that means it’s time for football.

Eh, watching football takes too long.

I disagree, but I understand. What if we play a game where we get through 4 quarters in less than 15 minutes?

Deal.

Game

This is a SNAP review for Football Feud!

Football Feud is a card game for 2-6 players, ages 7 and up. It really does take less than 15 minutes to play, and it’s published by Sporting Chance Games.

Art

So Anitra, let’s talk about the art in Football Feud.

It’s… fine. The passing yard cards are red, with a quarterback winding up for a pass. The rushing yard cards are blue and picture a player running with the football tucked into his elbow.

The Feud cards have a yellow border and green background, and they picture a player either jumping or kneeling. And there are field goal cards – they have a picture of just the goalposts.

There’s a scoreboard, which is nice, and these little wooden figures that are really cute – but they’re a little too large to share spots on the scoreboard, which is annoying in a game with lots of tied scores.

Mechanics

Speaking of scoring! That’s what everyone wants to do in a football game. So let’s talk about the mechanics of how you score in Football Feud!

Start the game by dealing each player seven cards.

Players may discard as many of these cards as they like and re-draw, once.

Then they choose five cards to play – set the other two aside for a future round. Everyone reveals their five cards simultaneously.

Field Goal cards are the most straightforward – each one you play gets you three points.

You need to cross the 100-yards threshold to get a touchdown for seven points. Obviously you can do this by playing high yardage cards, but there are a few other ways.

If you play a set of three identical cards – like these three 5-yard passing cards – the set is worth 100 points PLUS their face value. If you can play more than 200 yards, you’ll get two touchdowns.

There are also these BIG PLAY cards, which double the value of all your red or blue cards they’re played with. That includes any 100-yard bonuses. Big plays are a great way to rack up multiple touchdowns in a single round.

And they even stack.

But don’t forget those Feud cards! These cards are a sort of like an attack on another player:
Interception lets you steal a card.
Sack subtracts yardage from a player.
And Fumble prevents a player from discarding and re-drawing in the next round.

Once all the points have been tallied, the quarter is over. Play four quarters and find out who won – or go into Overtime to resolve a tie.

Expectations

So, what did we expect from this game?

So Football Feud! is an adaptation of Footy Feud!, which is a game based on Australian football. Footy Feud! was popular and sold pretty well as a quick, fun game, so I was expecting the same.

We’ve played a fair number of sports-themed family games in the past. Some are really complicated and require you to already know and love the sport. Some have nothing to do with how the sport is actually played.

Since this game says right on the box that it’s 5 minutes to learn and 15 to play, I figured it probably wouldn’t have a lot to do with American football.

Surprises

But that leads me to what surprised me. Although Football Feud is very quick to learn and easy to play, it has just enough connection with the rules of American football that it feels good.

There is a lot of randomness here – sometimes it’s just really hard to get cards that work together – but that keeps the scores in the range you’d expect from watching college and pro football.

Yep. There’s definitely a lot of random in the card draw. I love the fact that you can basically partially mulligan every single round.

This shows that Andrew Williams, the designer, really cared more about making this game FUN! Of course, it doesn’t always work out: sometimes you discard something that would have completed a triple with the new cards that you draw, but that just makes you laugh and groan. It makes it a fun game.

I was also a little surprised that this game plays up to six players. We tried it with our three kids and I was surprised again – none of them hated it! And every one said they’d happily play it again. That’s a huge win when you’ve got a bunch of kids with very different interests.

Yeah, they don’t watch football with me, but they like this game. So, figure that one out!

And like you said, the scores at the end pretty much end up realistic. 27-24 has happened in this game! And I could see that happen on a Sunday.

The last thing that surprised me is that the rules were MOSTLY very clear. But there were a few things referenced that I, as not really a huge football fan, didn’t really understand. You can play a Sack card on someone to bring them down to negative yardage, and that gets you a safety? All of this sounds familiar to me, but I don’t know how many points a safety should be, and the rules don’t say.

So, keep an eye out for that.

Recommended?

I think if you’ve got football fans in your house, Football Feud! is a great quick game for you.

You can play it after dinner – or during half-time. Maybe even multiple times during half-time.

It’s really simple – it’s simple enough for people who aren’t really fans, like me, to play – and while there’s a lot of luck, there’s just enough strategy to keep things interesting.

And I’ve got to be honest, if you’re a fan of the pro team that I’m a fan of I am these days, this game is actually a heck of a lot more fun than watching THEM play football.

We’re going to give Football Feud! 3½ running plays out of 5.

And that’s Football Feud! – in a SNAP!

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Football Feud! from Sporting Chance 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?