Some time ago the game Pizza Chef was released. A light-hearted yet strategic and tasty game from Dutch (pizza) soil. Pizza is international and also Pizza Chef will soon enter the international market, but with a new recipe and now even tastier. Therefore, the campaign for Pizza Chef the Next Generation is currently active on Kickstarter. We were provided with an opportunity to check out a prototype of this new edition and its expansion.
A while ago I had resolved to build a pizza oven in our new garden. Why? Is that a question at all? Who wouldn’t want access to endless homemade stone oven pizzas! I read about the process and then entered the rabbit hole of stone oven videos, DIY instructions and all the accompanying experience write-ups. As it turns out, usually you don’t build a single oven, you build multiple iterations and each new iteration is an improvement over your previous build. Your first oven may work, but still you always see room for improvement.
To board games, I think the same principles apply apply as to pizza ovens. At least, that’s probably what the creators of Pizza Chef thought. They had an entertaining and tasty recipe, but for the second edition of their popular pizza game, they managed to improve the recipe further. Much has remained the same as the original game , but with some new toppings they manage to make the game even more dynamic and interesting.
In Pizza Chef the Next Generation, players will prepare and deliver pizzas in a traditional Italian village that is pizza-addicted. Players are given 2 actions each turn and may use them to:
- choose missions (cards that allow them to earn points by fulfilling certain conditions);
- take orders (cards that allow players to deliver certain pizzas with certain ingredients to certain addresses for, indeed, points);
- peak at the chef’s notes (take cards that allow you to activate certain features in later rounds);
- collect toppings from market to prepare their pizzas;
- discard cards or toppings;
- refresh the market supply; and/or
- deliver pizzas.
As we pointed out in our original review: Pizza Chef is a tasty and entertaining game in the category of convivial and lighthearted games. The same goes for New Generation. Pizza Chef is manageable and will manage to feed a lot of different mouths. In fact, the theme and gameplay will appeal to a wide audience. Just like a nice slice of pizza.
In this new edition, compared to the original, the gameplay has been streamlined and clarified. A collection of beautiful new artwork has been added, some new elements are included with the mission maps and chef’s notes, but the most drastic change is how the market works. In the original game there were several market stalls, but now the market is a whole where players collect ingredients through a small puzzle, and this new form of gameplay makes it more dynamic, interactive and clear. Another new feature is the expansion: the mean chef. The extra cards in this expansion provide additional interaction between players, allowing players to play off each other nicely.
