Throw Throw Burrito

Exploding Kittens was one of the earliest Kickstarter successes for board games. It raised nearly £7 million in funds back in 2015. The card game has received a cult following and the team behind it have gone on to release further games with the likes of “You’ve Got Crabs” and “Bears Vs Babies” hitting the market over the last few years. All the games, as you would expect from the titles, have rather wacky themes and the gameplay compliments such a style. Well, the team behind Exploding Kittens have done it again, with their latest release, “Throw Throw Burrito”!

Throw Throw Burrito follows in the footsteps of its siblings. It’s a card-based game with plenty of quirky action “thrown” in (pardon the pun). Described as a dodgeball card game, players will find themselves racing to match up cards while trying to take out their opponents by throwing burritos! Who would have guessed?!

How to Play

Much like Exploding Kittens, the gameplay has been kept incredibly simple. Anyone can pick this up and play it within minutes of reading the rules. Each player will be dealt an equal stack of 15 face-down cards. These cards having a range of wacky animals on, as well as burrito brawls, duels and wars! The crazy animals range from Goth Sloths and Floaty Goatys to Licky Chickys and Logger Doggers.

The aim of the game is to get three matching cards and create a set, each animal set being worth one point. The stack of cards each player receives will be their placed on their right, forming their personal draw pile. Each player will draw five cards to start and this is your hand limit. This game “throws” turns out of the window as it is every man for himself! The quicker you are, the better you will perform throughout the game.

It is more than likely that you will have no matches to start off with. Therefore, you must look at discarding a card. To discard a card from your hand, simply place on top of the player’s draw pile to your left. This means the next card they draw is the card you don’t want! You can keep doing this until you find your first triplet of cards. As soon as you do, simply place them down in front of you and continue playing. That’s the card element of this game nailed.

Now comes the throwing part! There are three types of “burrito” card that can be found in the deck; Burrito Brawl, Duel and War.

• Burrito Brawl. The players to your left and right fight it out. Both players grab a burrito and try to be the first to hit the other with said burrito! Who said food fights weren’t fun!?
• Burrito War. This includes all players, except the person who played the three cards. All of those players must try and grab a burrito and the first to get hit loses the war.
• Burrito Duel. This can include any two players, including yourself. The players must stand back to back with a burrito in hand. They pace outwards to the chant of 3,2,1, before spinning and throwing at the shout of burrito. The first to be hit loses the duel.

Each loser will receive a Burrito Bruise. They are worth -1 point at the end of the game. If you play either of the three Burrito Battle cards, you’ll receive two points for each set played.

The game will play until all the burrito bruises have been handed out. Once this happens, tot up your scores. The player with the highest score will receive the “Fear Me” burrito badge. The second round will then commence. If the same player gains the most points, they win the game. If not, the other player to win round two will have to duel with the previous winner. The winner of that Duel will be crowned the Burrito Champion!

Throw Throw Burrito – Burrito Cards (Credit: Metthew Inman)

Thoughts

This crazy dodgeball style card game is quick and easy to learn and that is what contributes to its appeal in my opinion. This is, of course, a party game and with party games, you don’t want that complexity, especially if you are playing with non-gamers or those new to the hobby. You don’t want people switching off and with Throw Throw Burrito, you can rest assured that no one will be switching off at all! This is the sort of game you can pull out at a New Year celebration and have people playing in a matter of minutes, even if they are slightly inebriated.

If you are familiar with Exploding Kittens, then you will be aware of their crazy yet rather satisfying artwork! It is fitting of theme and fits in nicely with the game. I have never imagined what a Goth Sloth would look like but sure enough, this game gives one a good idea of what you’d expect! It’s quirky, light-hearted and I think it really suits this style of game. Yes, it isn’t the best artwork I have ever seen but combined with the game, it works incredibly well!

Of course, being a party game, you will want a fair amount of interaction between players and this drives that interaction beautifully. You will be throwing cards down in your opponent’s direction, in a desperate bid to get that magical triplet of cards and naturally, their draw pile is going to get messier and messier. Numerous times during the games I have played, you’ll hear a yelp as the player realises they have an utter mess of cards in front of them and sure enough, they will then begin to find those brawl cards to get their own back for you messing up their play area!

Much like the Exploding Kittens game, the production quality is great, with good quality cards and some rather fancy foam burritos. Yes, this game could be seen as slightly dangerous, throwing burritos all over the place, but the burritos themselves are as soft as anything and while there is still a risk of hitting some expensive vases around the home, they aren’t going to do much damage directly! Of course, try and avoid playing the game in a room full of expensive antiques as you will more than likely end up breaking something!

So, what do I think of the game? With Christmas fast approaching, I am always on the hunt for new and innovative party games. Of course, you have the classics such as Codenames and Obama Llama, but I am always one for quirky and wacky games that really think outside the box. This game is just that! Never in a million years would I have thought a game could bring together card play and the throwing of Burritos but Throw Throw Burrito seems to do it so gracefully.

I have introduced this game to many of my non-gaming friends and they have all thoroughly enjoyed it, mainly because they got to throw a burrito in my face but also because we were all so engaged and competitive side was a real draw for them.

Should you buy Throw Throw Burrito?

In the grand scheme of games, this certainly isn’t anything massively innovative. However, combining the art of cards and throwing seems to yield a beautiful result, one that is a devilishly funny, massively interactive game of cunning card play and artful burrito dodging. If you need a new game for your Christmas Parties and New Year bashes, then this is just the game you have been looking for! Unadulterated fun, all brought together by a squishy, foam burrito! What more could you ask for!?