Whether as a volunteer or a regular attendee, I love Edmonton’s Animethon Festival. Two of my favourite things have always been the food, and the Gaming Room(s). After a rough patch during lockdown, Animethon is back, but I knew I didn’t have the time or budget to be there. Lucky for me, I found Ramen Fury at my local chain bookstore, to capture that Anime Convention feeling of cheap Asian junk food and random, weird tabletop games.
Ramen Fury is a food themed card game, but unlike other food games, you aren’t specifically “filling orders” or “following recipes”. You can put any Ingredients in a Bowl of Ramen, but some combinations are better than others. The best thing about Ramen (at least the instant kind) is the Flavor packs. And the worst part is when it ends up being way spicier than you expected. A Flavor card determines how your Ingredients will be scored. So a Beef Flavor card gives more points for each unique Protein Ingredient, while the Soy Sauce Flavor card wants unique Vegetable Ingredients. Other Flavor cards may ask for a balance between Protein and Vegetables, or multiple copies of any Ingredient. Finally, there are two Ingredients that have their own rules. Spicy Chili Peppers, as the Instructions state, “Put the FURY in Ramen Fury!”. The goal is to keep these out of your Bowls, and in your opponents’ Bowls; unless you happen to have the Fury Flavor card. And then there is Nori; which is a garnish that you can add to any Bowl for a free point. Other than scoring, the difference between Chili and Nori and the other ingredient cards is that they have to go into a bowl as soon as they appear.
There are six different Actions that you can perform, but you can only do two Actions per turn. The Actions are: Prep – place an Ingredient Card or Flavor Card into one of your bowls; Draw – take a single card from the 4 card “Pantry” in the center of the table, or from the top of the deck; Restock – discard all 4 Pantry cards and replace them with new cards from the top of the deck; Eat – Flip over one bowl and all of its cards (once a bowl is “eaten”, you can’t make any changes to it, and a bowl can have a maximum of 5 ingredients, only one of which is a Flavor card); Spoon – discard one of your Spoon tokens to remove the TOP ingredient from any bowl on the table and move it to either your hand or one of your bowls; Empty – remove ALL the ingredient cards from one of your bowls and discard them (this does not require a Spoon). Performing the same Action twice counts as two Actions. Moving a Nori or Chili Pepper card from your hand to a Bowl, or from the Pantry to a Bowl is a Free Action and does not count as the two Actions per turn. The game ends when one player has “eaten” three Bowls, or if the entire card deck has been used up. Scoring is easy to understand, explained both on the Flavor cards and in the Instruction booklet. If there is a tie for points, the winner is the player who “ate” the greatest number of Ingredients. In the case of a tie on both criteria, both players win.
I rarely talk about packaging when I review games, but I do love the branding here. The outer package is a brightly coloured plastic bag that makes you think of an Instant Noodle pack. Not only that, you have to cut open the bag to get inside (don’t worry, it’s resealable). Inside the bag is something that made me laugh: a cardboard box printed to look like a dried noodle cake. The box is great for keeping all the cards neat and tidy. There are also “Spoons” that are used to remove ingredient cards (like those pesky Peppers) out of a bowl. I would recommend using your own ziplock bag to hold the Spoons once they have been punched. I would also recommend using a small bag to keep the Ramen Bowl cards separate from the Ingredient cards. It’s not necessary, but it will make game setup easier. The Instruction booklet even includes a brief history of Ramen, both traditional and instant, which I thought was a nice touch.
Ramen Fury is a fun, lightweight game that can be played by 2 – 5 players. The cards, like the packaging, are colourful and fun, and the food pictures look good enough to eat. It’s easy to learn, and easy to play. Most importantly, it helped fulfill my Anime Con Game Room cravings, and hopefully yours too.
You can find Design Studio Prospero Hall online at prosperohall.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/ProsperoHall.
Mixlore is a brand of Asmodee who can be found in Canada at asmodee.ca or on Facebook at facebook.com/AsmodeeCanadaEN.
