Kevin Wenzel
United States
Bloomington
IN
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Piece o' Cake Review
Rio Grande Games
Well let us get the obvious white elephant out of the room. The game has the wrong name for the American sensibility. As I sat down to start to play, I felt like I was living a lie. Everything my little American mind was screaming this is pie.
First off, I have never sat down to a piece of Gooseberry Kuchen in my life (Not saying I am not open to it). I do know a little about my international bake goods and judging by my size, I have spent some time seeking out bakeries on my travels. I like meeting new bake goods: beignets, baklava, and pozsoni kiflik, and they have all become good friends of mine. I have also baked professionally for three years in a small cooperative bakery back in Wisconsin, and so I know a little on this topic. Therefore, the theme of the game intrigued me. I just wondered if the theme could keep my interest because after all you are is doing is just cutting cake (Piece o’ Pie for you Americans!) and counting whip cream dollops.
The pieces of the board are sturdy and they do look almost as good to eat, and have enough detail in the images to keep your eyes interest. I started playing the game and can kind of see that there is a fair amount of strategy involved. First, you can flip the tiles for instant points by counting the whip cream, or saving the pieces upright to claim a larger point values. Each piece belongs to a set and has a point value, which also represents the number of pieces in that set. If you control the largest part of that Kuchen you get the points for the set value that round. What I didn’t like is that there were three tiles that did not fit into the five cakes you made a round and they just were tossed into the box after serving your cake. I thought it added a luck element that sabotages the best-made plans if you are counting cake pieces (Pie Pieces oops!).
As I played with my friends, it just did not grab my attention, as if it was not going to become a game that I waited impatiently for the week to end so I could run out after work on Friday to go play. Then all of a sudden, it hit me. There is something missing that would make this game great: “this game needs kids”.
The next day I decided to take the game to my afterschool program, were the kids were getting ready to have snack, and I unpacked the box. There was an instant frenzy of kids wanting to play and asking me about this game. I finally selected three older girls and started dealing pieces of the board. They loved it and there was something about playing a game that look like sweets that captured this Charlie and the Chocolate Factory feeling. All the other kids in the program started to swarm around and wanted to play too. My only regret was that I had to leave when the kids had to start their homework hour and left some kids disappointed that they didn’t get a turn.
After playing many rounds with different groups of kids, it was obvious this game was a big hit! The students were really into cutting the cakes into the smaller groupings, and collecting wonderfully sweet looking pieces. The only one notable problem with kids younger than eight was that some of them had a hard time with the idea that they had to pick last, one of my six year olds with their egocentric ways wanted to cut the cake and then take the biggest piece for himself.
If you have kids this is a great game, and is a great way to enhance your children’s adding skills! If it is adults playing I would make sure to have plenty servings of tea and crumpets to accompany the long Saturday afternoon!
Kevin Wenzel
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tom moughan
United States
Rochester
New York
ahh....I love the smell of a stack of sketchily placed animals in the morning!
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It is pie!!! : D Not a slice of cake among them.
Agreed, this game would be extra sweet with kids. My father-in-law enjoyed his smidgen of game play quite a bit. This game has served as a nice filler or lunch game experience with adults and family. It works well with non-gamers as a nice gateway into games without the traditional "ball n' chain" dice or card deck. Is it a deep dish? No, but it's unconventional, fun, and tasty.
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Jeffrey Allers
Germany
Berlin
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Alas, the publisher did not want to name the English version "American Pie," the title of my prototype
I've never had gooseberry Torte here either. Seems as though it might be a bit sour, though I do like German-style rhubarb Torte.
Oh--and if you do not like having the 2 (3 with the expansion) slices left over, use my variant, which also helps adjust for a slight starting-player disadvantage.
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Kevin Wenzel
United States
Bloomington
IN
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I might have to look into the expansion. I plan to start a game night with the kids after school one day a week and they love playing this game!
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Posted Wed Mar 9, 2011 1:23 am
