Espresso Doppio Review

A game that might be happiest on the shelves of IKEA, Espresso Doppio is one of the few games I am aware of that comes with its own crockery. Yes, inside this box are three sets of espresso cups and saucers in inoffensive white, brown and black. Yes, they’re real. Yes, you could drink your coffee out of them if you wanted to – even while playing the game itself. Should you? Probably not. Aside from the cups and saucers are three similarly coloured plastic spoons, some points cards and coffee bean tokens to count up your points.

Each round involves you trying to create one of your goal cards in front of you by carefully, moving and swapping around items in the five slots in front of you. You might be trying to line up three items in a row of the same colour (spoon, cup, saucer) to complete one of your cards, or just any lonely cup without any other items. Of course, on your opponent's turn they’re doing the same thing, so it feels like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube when one person is attempting to work on a different side.

While the novelty of the game offers an initial diversion, we found the game dragged, and the usual feeling of digging into an abstract puzzle against someone else wasn’t strong enough to make things work.

CHRISTOPHER JOHN EGGETT

PLAY IT? NO

Read the full review here

Designer: Walter Obert

Publisher: HUCH!

Time: 30 minutes

Players: 1-2

Ages: 8+

Price: £25

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