Nutty Noodles Review

You would be forgiven for confusing Nutty Noodles for a real box of takeaway noodles at first glance. Inside though, instead of your favourite tasty chow mein, is a game of dice rolling and pattern recognition that may look like a quick easy meal but will surprise you with its flavours. 

You work in a noodle restaurant feeding very hungry and impatient monsters. All available ingredients are laid out in front of you in a four by four tableau and a roll of the dice will determine which of them will go into the next bowl to be served. As a respectable noodle maker who cares about customer health and wellbeing, there is one more thing you need to be aware of: the monsters' individual allergies. However, if you feed a certain number (which varies depending on the player count) of customers to their full satisfaction first, you win the game.

This may sound like a very simple game to play, but there is a reason it has ‘nutty’ in the title. In this competition induced panic, it is very easy to confuse similar-looking symbols, like crayfish and chilli, or get one of the ingredients right but not the other. The next pit-fall is assigning the correct noodle bowl to the customer that won’t get an upset tummy from eating it. The excitement of getting the ingredient right can easily lead to putting whichever customer token was in your hand, without checking if they can be served this food. This constant fight against these gut-reaction actions makes Nutty Noodles a really fun, yet still challenging, party game. 

In overall appeal, Nutty Noodles only slightly loses out to similar games, like Dobble, due to its size: you will need table space to set up your ingredient tableau, making it less transport-friendly. But if you want a game that tests your memory, dexterity, patients and focus, Nutty Noodles will deliver that in full. 

PLAY IT? PROBABLY

ALEXANDRA SONECHKINA

Designer: Javier Jésus Domínguez Cruz

Publisher: Ludonova

Time: 15 minutes

Players: 2-4

Ages: 6+

Price: £16

This article originally appeared in issue 48 of Tabletop Gaming. Pick up the latest issue of the UK's fastest-growing gaming magazine in print or digital here or subscribe to make sure you never miss another issue.

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