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Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more we tackle card game terminology. Greasy Spoon is a Ladder Climbing and Shedding card game. Ladder Climbing is where Players play one card, or a set of related cards. Subsequently, players must play cards of an equal or higher value of the same set already played. Shedding is essentially trying to get rid of all of your cards in order to win the game.
Greasy Spoon includes Two Identical 54 card Decks but what it really needs is one more card for each deck: A player aid with a list of the Menu Items (The ladder you will be climbing), possible combos, and some examples. Sure,it's on the back of the Instruction Manual but this is a two player game, so you will constantly be sliding it back and forth.
Each deck has Three Suits (Ketchup, Mustard, and Relish) with three copies of each number/rank from 1 to 6. Which is, honestly, it's first hurdle. It lacks an solid “standard deck” anchoring point since it has an odd number of suits, numbers only from one to six and multiples of the same rank in the same suit. Yes, you eventually get there but it is not an easy “remember.”
You begin with eleven cards in your hand, and when you play cards, you draw back up to eleven immediately. You will be using these cards to create Menu Items. What you play as Menu Items (Drinks, Side and Main dishes) is somewhat easy to explain. But, are you going to remember that two cards of consecutive rank is Rings and two cards of the same rank are Fries? And that Rings are worth “more” than Fries? And that Fancy Rings (two cards of consecutive rank and of the same suit) are worth less than Fancy Fries (two cards of the same rank and the same suit). And that three cards of consecutive rank is a Hot Dog? That's a problem, because the names on the “items” make them even more obscure instead of more intuitive. Fine. Single cards are Drinks, Two card combos are Sides and Three card combinations are mains. But, again, it lacks an solid point of knowing what is worth “more” points by using known rankings like poker hands.
In addition to simply playing Drinks, Side and Main dishes, you'll can also play Combos. Combo 1 A Main Dish and a Drink. Combo 2 A Main Dish and a Side. And there is no such thing as a Combo 3...you know, A main, a side and a drink...probably the most Greasy Spoon food combo ever. All I wanted was a burger, a fry, and a Pepsi, just one Pepsi, and she wouldn't give it to me. Do you want to end up Institutionalized, because that's how you end up institutionalized.
When you do finally internalize the rankings (or, more likely, just keep looking at the back of the instructions) then you have a few other rule hurdles to jump: You cannot beat a menu item by serving a menu item from a different category. You cannot beat a menu item by serving a menu combo. You cannot beat a Combo 1 by playing a Combo 2. Why? Is there a set of lunch counter bi-laws I am unaware of?
When you can't, or don't want to, play a higher ranking dish, you pass by saying “Order Up!” Once you pass, you put three cards from your hand into a new but separate draw pile called your Backburner. Once you made it though your initial draw pile, you'll shuffle your Backburner pile and work your way though it. Once you have the hang of it, you'll be dumping high value cards into (onto?) your back burner so you can have them later in the game to put out a more “Expensive” Menu item when your opponent plays a weaker one.
But “skipping” your turn (which, essentially, is what passing/calling out “Order Up!” is) isn't fun...and there will be plenty of times where a player will pass three or four turns in a row. And, in a two-player only game, having a player ring the (metaphorical) bell and call “Order Up!” for subsequent turns makes that bell feel like a death knell.
Unfortunately, Greasy Spoon doesn't serve up a a simple, satisfying Ladder Climbing Meal. The setting /menu system actually makes the game less intuitive, as you try to recall what makes a Cheeseburger, remember to call it out, and what you can add to it to make a legal combo/move that beats your opponent...hold the Pepsi. Like the suits it includes, it's more messy condiments than meat.
A review copy of this release was provided by the publisher. Therewillbe.games would like to thank them for their support.
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