Game Review: Pizza Pizza Yum Yum by Button Shy Games

Pizza Pizza Yum Yum designed by Lance Schricke and published by Button Shy Games

This two-player cooperative game has players crafting pizzas and menus to satisfy customers. The game is a micro-game with only eighteen cards, a rules book, and a little wallet barely bigger than the cards. The eighteen cards are dual use--they show a quarter of a pizza (with two toppings on it) and a half of a menu order (with two toppings on it too).

Sample cards (bottom two are the backs of the cards)

The game is played in three round. In each round, the deck is shuffled and six cards are dealt to each player. The remaining six cards are set aside and will not be part of the round. Players look at the cards and have to figure out a good scheme for laying down the cards to maximize scores. Players put down one card at a time. Those cards are played simultaneously. The first card is played face-up to a player's own pizza; the second is played face-up to the other player's pizza. The third card is played face-down to the player's own pizza as half of the menu order; the fourth card is played face-down to the other player's pizza as the second half of the menu order. The fifth card is played face-up to the player's own pizza; the sixth card is played face-up to the other players pizza.

After all the cards are played, the menu cards are flipped and the pizzas are scored. For every topping that is on its menu cards, a pizza scores one point. If there are duplicate ingredients on the menu cards, that ingredient on the pizza scores multiple times. The two pizzas are totaled separately and the players earn the points from whichever pie has the lower score. 

Sample pizza and menu

In the above pizza and menu, the pineapples score two point for each on the pizza, so six points. One point per mushroom and one per pepperoni, so three and two points respectively. Six plus three plus two is eleven, a pretty good score for one pie. If the other pie scored eleven points (a tie!), the team gets eleven points for the round. If the other scored higher, the team gets eleven points (since eleven is the lower score). If the other scored lower, the team gets the score for the other pie.

Then the cards are collected and shuffled, ready to start the next round. After three rounds, the three scores are added to see how well the team did. The rule book provides a scale for success.

The game plays very quickly, even if someone has Analysis Paralysis. Figuring out how to cooperate is not too tricky. There's enough variety in the cards to have different outcomes. That being said, my wife and I have been pretty consistent in scoring eight points per pizza, though we did get some better pies sometimes. The rounds go so fast, it's hard to get too invested in "if I had only done X" thinking. 

Recommended--this is a fun, two-player co-operative game, of which there are not many.