Tastes Like Chicken

Tastes Like Chicken is a new family card game from Patch Products. It's especially good for a family with a strong sense of humor and a propensity for shared silliness.

The large deck of 58 cards comes in a plastic case looking very much lke a ketchup bottle (I guess to make it taste better). Most of the cards are illustrated with hybrid critters, composed of two different animals: half cow, half snake, for example, or half snake, half shark, for another example. A cow/snake can be paired with any a cow/anything or a snake/anything. Which makes for what one might think of as the significant part of the cognitive challenge. But that only partially explains the fun of the game.

See, whenever you put a card down, you have to name the card, like, for example, "Cow-Snake." Out loud, of course. If you don't have a match, you have say "Tastes Like (whatever)" before you draw another card. The (whatever) being something sufficiently distasteful - the more agreeably distasteful you make it, the more fun. Then there are the special cards, like part-chickens, which, eponymously, not only tastes like chicken, but also make the next player draw a card and lose a turn. Then there are the part-pig-tasting cards and the wild rooster card, each of which adds yet another tasty wrinkle to this often hilarious game.

Easy to learn. Not in any way to be taken seriously. Different enough to be a welcome addition to your collection of playful pastimes. Perfect for family fun.