Title: ¡Taco Fight!
Created By: Daniel Aronson
Published by: El Dorado Games
Released: 2020
Player Count: 2-4
Time to Play: 6 Minutes
¡Taco Fight! is a quick to play, fast-paced, cooperative game where players work together to defeat an army of increasingly spicy tacos. Played over six 30-second rounds, players must work to combat the ever growing taco army by building their own taco army, smashing tacos or eating them! Every two rounds the "spiciness" of the tacos increase, making it more challenging to take them down. If by the end of round six all the tacos are defeated the group wins, if any taco remains (or if at any point a player has more than 3 undefeated tacos on their plate, more on that later) the group loses.
At the start of every round, players are dealt their taco(s) which need to be defeated in the next 30 seconds. Players can work to defeat their own taco, and/or help out other players with taking down other tacos. Any taco that is not destroyed when 30 seconds is up, must be held by the player it is in front of during the following round. This means if a player has one taco left, they must play one-handed, or if they have two tacos left they cannot play at all initially. These tacos can be defeated only once another player stabs them with a fork card. Once forked, that player who was holding the taco, may resume using their hand again. If any player has three or more tacos left at the end of a round, the group loses.
Players can defeat the oncoming tacos in one of three ways:
1. Build up their own taco armies by layering ingredient cards on top of each other to create a taco at the spiciness level needed. Each ingredient has a number associated with it, stack the ingredients in numerical order until it reaches the number on the taco card the player is fighting.
2. Smash a taco - cards may contain a fist (or two fists) on the top of the card. Players can use these fists to punch the attacking tacos. Tacos need punches equal to the spiciness level of the taco to defeat it.
3. Eat it - some tacos can only be defeated by stabbing them with a fork card. Players will need to hunt for a fork card in the deck to take down these tacos.
While the rules to ¡Taco Fight! are simple and straightforward, this game offers a lot of challenge. It has multiple levels of difficulty and the speed makes even the normal level a challenge. The varying degrees of difficulty increase replayability.
As all players play simultaneously, this game moves quick and there is very little down time where players are not involved. Even after defeating their own tacos, players can use the remaining time to help their fellow players out, or work on building up their taco army for future rounds. I promise you will need every second of the 30 seconds per round.
There are several things I have learned having played with both two people and four people. First, don't underestimate the power of punching tacos. There will be times when you simply cannot gather all the ingredients you need to take down a taco, but punching will still allow players to eliminate the attacking tacos. Next, if you have left over time, use it to start building tacos for future rounds. As your tacos don't clear out after each round, you can use spare time to build up an army for the future. Lastly, communication is key! Talk with you fellow players while you go, shouting out what you are looking for helps players to be able to better assist you while not looking up from their own boards. Plus yelling out taco ingredients is fun!
¡Taco Fight! is a great choice for gamers looking for a game where they can play several games in a short amount of time. It is also good for high energy groups, that enjoy racing against the clock. While ¡Taco Fight! is geared for ages 14+, it is mostly language independent and could be played with younger kids if the rules or the time were adjusted slightly from the official rules. ¡Taco Fight! is a great choice for those wishing to try out a Co-op game for the first time. Though cooperative, the speed at which ¡Taco Fight! plays at increases the feel of competition between players and the AI. Players can get a taste of what a cooperative game is like in a short amount of time.
¡Taco Fight! is was originally released on Kickstarter but will be coming to retail stores in the near future.