Food for Thought Components Overview and Impressions
I’ve always said that the board game space seriously lacks food related games, but all I had to do was type in “Food” and “Board Games” into Google to be proven very, very wrong. So I’ve remade my previous statement as follows: “The board game space lacks food related games that I want to play.” Enter Food for Thought, a much deeper game than your average food related game (which tends to be very card based, by the way). While our review of the game will be coming soon, let’s take a look at the game’s components!
Due to issues with the photos we took, this components overview currently contains some stock images from Grail Games!
First and foremost, there was a Kickstarter pack you could have gotten to deluxify this game – it included wooden tokens that replaced a butt ton of cardboard you’ll need to play this game. While I don’t have that upgrade kit, I think the cardboard chits used in the game are fantastic. They are the perfect thickness for collecting and placing around the board, and while I think everyone would agree that wooden tokens are preferred, to keep costs down, and for a retail release of this game, I think their choices here are great. The game punched well too, so I knew even before playing my first game that once again, Grail Games was knocking it out of the park on the production side of things.
I find the cards and character sheets used in the game amazing as well. You can see an obvious linen finish on the cards and sheets, which is always a nice touch. As Jamey Stagemier once told me, linen finish cards are one of the most expensive upgrades you can give a board game, so to see that here is phenomenal. If you generally like to sleeve your favourite games, then you will do that regardless of what I say here. Personally, though, I’m not going to sleeve these, despite me thinking this game will get quite a bit of play over the next year or so.
Regardless of where you look – cards, player boards, or the central board – the artwork in Food for Thought is phenomenal. I’m no artistic connoisseur, so what type of art this is means nothing to me. Everything looks like it was painted, though, and while I know how the game looks is secondary to how it plays, I honestly just love a nice table presence.
The central board looks phenomenal, with really nice images throughout. The activity cards are also really fantastic. Even basic things like a bicycle or soccer ball or swimming pool are represented beautifully here, and I love the care and detail the artist put into this game.
The game also includes a number of little bags for holding tokens. As you can see from some images above, there is a TON of tokens in this game, so to have these bags is nice both for storing and managing all the things you will be punching out! The quality of these little bags is much better than many other bags I’ve received in the past, but only time will tell if they holdup long term.
Despite a game that feels pretty busy to me – the look, that is – I’m pretty impressed with everything here. Even without the deluxified pieces, I think this is still a great production and one worth picking up if you see it at your local store!
Article By Adam Roffel
