Growing up I was always told not to throw things in the house, don’t throw things at your brother etc. All good worthwhile advice, but sometimes people just annoy and frustrate so much that you can’t help but imagining throwing something at that annoyance. Well now you can. I don’t mean pick up the television remote and launch it at the nearest annoying person, that would just be wrong. But family game time has just got more interesting. What if I told you that you could happily throw a burrito at you mum or dad, son or daughter, brother or sister or any of your friends? Would you be interested? Of course you would. But just before you head off into the kitchen to prepare a Tex-Mex snack or several, this is a dodgeball card game that uses soft and squidgy reusable burritos, not a game of wasting food. This game is called Throw Throw Burrito from those wacky game makers, Exploding Kittens.
Throw Throw Burrito is a fun party game for 2-6 players, suitable for age 7 years old and upwards, with a 15-20 minutes playing time. It is a card game combined with Dodgeball. The aim of the game is to win points over two rounds whilst having to avoid airborne missiles in the form of soft and squidgy foam burritos in burrito brawls, burrito wars and burrito duels.
In the box:
- 120 Game Cards
- 2 Squishy, Foam Throwable Burritos
- 6 Burrito Bruises
- 1 Fear Me Badge
- Instructions
So lets taco ‘bout Exploding Kittens Throw Throw Burrito and its game play. Let’s guac and roll!
Throw Throw Burrito is a simple and quick game to learn, the instructions are straightforward – you can either read the ones that come with them or skip them and watch the instructional video on the Exploding Kittens website (which is much more fun). If you do watch the video, you will still need to keep the rules handy to check things.
Setting up the game is simple. Take the cards and shuffle them. Deal around 15 cards to each player (this doesn’t have to be exact, although to me it does seem harder NOT to deal the exact number to each player), these cards become the draw piles, the remaining cards are then split into two piles and placed face down in the centre of the table, these become the community pile. The burritos and the burrito bruises are also placed in the centre of the table within each reach of all players. Each player then takes 5 cards from their draw pile and looks at them. You are now ready to play, brawl and duel.
Throw Throw Burrito is a game where everybody plays at the same time. There is no turn taking. All players play at once, trying to match 3 of the same cards in their hand by discarding and taking new cards. Once you have collected a set of 3 (cards with names like GothSloth and BarkySharky), you place these on the table in your score pile – a matching set of 3 is worth 1 point. But the game is not that straightforward. Also in the pack are brawl, war and duel cards (which are worth 2 points) and if you collect a matching set of these it is time to grab those burritos and let the burrito battles begin.
When a player collects a set of 3 super powered battle cards they must shout out the name BRAWL, WAR or DUEL and put the cards on the table in their score pile. All gameplay stops at this point, ready for a burrito battle.
- BRAWL: the players to the immediate left and right of the player that has collected 3 brawl cards and shouted BRAWL needs to grab a burrito as quickly as possible from the table and throw it at each other. The first to get hit and burrito bashed loses the brawl and collects a Burrito Bruise.
- DUEL: the player that has collected 3 duel cards and shouted DUEL needs to pick any 2 players for a burrito duel. Each selected player takes a burrito. The two players involved stand back-to-back and start to step away from each other whilst saying, “3, 2, 1, Burrito”. On the word Burrito they can turn and fire their burrito, the first to get hit loses the duel and collects a Burrito Bruise.
- WAR: when 3 war cards are collected and WAR is shouted, all players (except for the player that shouted war) need to try and grab a burrito and throw it at another player, the first player to get hit loses the war and collects a Burrito Bruise.
During these battles players can duck, dodge and even use other objects to block burritos being thrown, you can even catch a burrito or use your own burrito to block. You cannot however hold both burritos at once. If you are the loser of any of the battles you take a burrito bruise (this is worth -1 point) and place it on your score pile.
The game is played over 2 rounds. A round ends when the last burrito bruise has been handed out. The winner of the first round is the one with most points and is then awarded the coveted Fear Me Badge. The game is then reset and round 2 begins. If the player who has the Fear Me Badge wins again, they are the overall winner of the game, if another play wins, then that player then has to have a duel with the Fear Me Badge holder to determine the overall winner.
Overall, Throw Throw Burrito is a very simple game to set up and play and is lots of hilarious physical, competitive fun where players are moving about and hurling faux Mexican food across the room in the name of victory. You will need a room with a bit of space to play (making sure that any breakables or valuables are removed – pictures, glasses of water, granny etc.). Whilst the burritos are soft and squidgy foam objects they are being thrown around the room and could easily knock something over and break it. With gameplay of around 15 to 20 minutes it is a quick and easy game to play, no questions need to be answered and the only thing players have to think about is their strategy when going into battle.
The battles are lots of fun, very competitive and work better with 4-6 players rather than 2. And the more space you have to play, the better it is. We love the fact the rules contain small room and two player variants. It even has rules for if you want to combine two copies of the game for more players and adding in more burritos.
It is a fantastic fun family game or one to play with friends, and children and adults can play together. An excellent way to get the kids (and the adults) off the phones and screens.
Throw Throw Burrito is a really fun and energetic game for all your amigos and compadres. And don’t worry, the burritos are very soft and squidgy so don’t hurt when they hit you, and you will be hit at some point. We really would recommend it, just make sure you remove anything that could easily be broken from the room first. Definitely a game that will liven up your game nights, it is nacho average game.
Rating: 5/5
RRP: £24.99
For more information, visit www.explodingkittens.com. Available to buy from Amazon here.