Sweet Deals – A Sweet Treat In Moderation

Who doesn’t love a good sweet treat? Bake sales are a great place to get your favorites in real life – and in this little card game.

Sweet Deals is a set collection game for 2-8 players, age six and up, that takes around 15 minutes to play. It was designed by Shawn Patton and published by Surprisingly Fun Games.

Setup

Select the proper number of dessert cards based on the number of players. Each dessert card has a picture of the type of dessert, the name, and a point value.

There are also four types of special cards: Hybrid cards that count as two different desserts, wild cards that can count as any type of dessert needed for the set collection, interrupt cards that allow a player to swap the card for a dessert during the bidding or bake sale, and a single mochi card which is worth five points. The other special cards are worth zero points.

Give each player seven dessert cards, one bake sale card, and one player aid. The remaining dessert cards are placed facedown in a draw pile in the center of the play area. Then play begins.

Gameplay

Players are trying to collect sets of matching desserts.

Each turn, the current player offers a dessert by name only for the other players to bid on.

Then players bid by stating the value of the dessert card they are using to bid but not the name of the dessert. The highest bid wins, and the dessert cards are swapped. If there is a tie between bidders, the player offering the dessert chooses.

If no one bids on the dessert, the player discards the dessert face up, and draws the top card off the top of the draw pile.

Bake Sale

Each player has the option, once per game, to play their bake sale card. During the “bake sale”, the current player draws the top card from the draw pile and then chooses a card, either the card they just drew from the pile or a card from their hand, and places it face up in the middle of the play area.

The next player then can choose to pick up the card and replace it with a card from their hand – or pass. This continues until every player passes on the same card; flip the bake sale card over and play continues as normal.

Ending the Game

The game can end one of two ways: A player gets six of the same desserts – or all players vote to “Close Early”. When the game ends, players total the value of the dessert cards in their hands as well as bonuses for sets of desserts described on the player aid. The player with the most points wins!

Impressions

The art on the cards is cute, with a smiley face on every dessert. But it felt like something was missing in the illustrations.

The mechanics are fairly simple, spelled out well in the small rule sheet and player aids. Sweet Deals is an easy entrance to bidding and set collection mechanics for young players. Every swap in the game is one-for-one, making it simple to grasp.

However, that’s the extent of the game. If your kids have played a lot of board games, this might be a bit too simple. It’s a cute game but lacked staying power to capture interest very long for our family, even the 11-year-old who loves to bake.

Many of our plays also outstayed their welcome. Some players had used their bake sale and were ready to finish, but one or two were holding out for their Sweet Six and would not agree to end the game.

Our family thought Sweet Deals was a sweet little game, in small doses. If you have young players who will enjoy looking at the card art and can focus on a simple game for 15 minutes, this is a good option.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Sweet Deals from Surprisingly Fun Games for this review.