SNAP Review – Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

B’kAWK! I’m totally a chicken, can’t you tell? I’m not a fox in here to steal chickens…

This is a SNAP review for Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Game

This is a SNAP review for Winner Winner Chicken Dinner, a silly press-your-luck, chicken-stealing game for 2-4 players designed by Chad Elkins and published by 25th Century Games. It’s best for players 8+ and plays in under 30 minutes.

Art

The first thing you’ll notice about this game is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. I mean, you’re playing as foxes trying to steal chickens – and cook them!

The art on all of the components is cute and clear. Pictures of chicken heads, drumsticks, foxes, and dogs are all very clear on the dice.

The neoprene playmat is way better than a board, and provides an excellent surface for rolling the dice (unless you’re Elliot, who needs a dice tray). Bags to hold chicken tokens have a fried-chicken bucket printed on them, which made us chuckle.

The design and names of the fox characters are hilarious. Our personal favorites are One-Eyed Wilma, Furlin the Wise, and Dr. Emma Brown.

Mechanics

On your turn, roll the six dice. You may re-roll any dice except dog heads, up to three rolls total. Once you’re done rolling, resolve the dice faces, in any order you choose.

• Chicken heads will let you steal chickens from the coop and put them in your bag.
• A pair of drumstick dice lets you “cook” one or two of the chickens in your bag by taking them out and flipping them to their “cooked” side.
• If you roll one or more fox heads, spend them to buy action cards – more on this in a minute.
• Dog heads move the dog up the warning track, speeding the end of the game – but dog combos steal chickens away from other players!

Action Cards

Action cards add some variety to this otherwise simple press-your-luck game. Some let you change dice rolls or cook extra chickens. Others let you steal chickens or swap bags with other players. You don’t always have to play these right away! Most cards can be saved to play when they’ll give you the most advantage.

Some action cards are immediate, and our favorites are the “Cluck Off” and “Chicken Dance Party” in which the buying player becomes a judge of the rest of the group competing to sound or look as much like chickens as possible. (Is there anything more universal than the Chicken Dance song?)

The game ends when either the dog reaches the end of the track, or there are no chickens left in the coop to steal.

Expectations

When we first opened the box and looked at the rules, we expected a very silly game. Chicken cluck-off competitions get the whole family up and moving and being silly together; and we’re not against that!

We really like the natural rhythm of doing something silly interspersed with the more serious (but still light-hearted) gameplay.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner does this better than some other games (like Throw Throw Burrito, which is always fast-paced all the time).

Surprises

We were expecting a much sillier game (especially given the presence of a rubber chicken), and were pleasantly surprised that there’s a real strategic boardgame here! The combination of press-your-luck and take-that makes for some interesting decisions.

Our kids historically have a hard time with take-that mechanisms in games, and the silliness here helps it sting less.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner got our family to loosen up and be silly while playing the game. It did feel a little long for our youngest player… and his use of the rubber chicken drives us crazy. Because of these minor drawbacks, we’re giving Winner Winner Chicken Dinner 3 out of 5 silly chickens.

Find Winner Winner Chicken Dinner on Amazon, directly from 25th Century Games, or ask for it at your local toy & game store.

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The Family Gamers received a copy of Winner Winner Chicken Dinner from 25th Century Games for this review.

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