Following on from our previous publisher focus on Oink Games, we’re going to look at the… (EPIC MOVIE VOICE)… The Rise of the Big Potato!
Back in 2013 a group of three friends got together to form a company, less of a small fish in a big pond, more of a Big Potato in a growing field. Clearly they hit the market at the right time and with their pro-environmental choices and great work ethics they have taken root in over 30 countries across the world and continue to grow. We can’t touch on all the games that they publish (although we have previously mentioned quite a few!) but here are some of the favourites at our cafes across the country.
Starting with something cheesy…
Since we first played P for Pizza back in 2020, this has been a staple at so many of our tables, ‘crust’ us, it’s tasty.
You could say it’s hard to top this (unlike the puns, they get better and better) but Big Potato Games have recently released a new version, which we’ll come to in a moment.
The basics of the game are simple, collect 9 cards and win the game. Everyone is involved all the time, it’s a speed dexterity game! A stack of cards in the middle of the play area has three categories on it and around this card are three other cards with the backs face up showing a selection of letters. Answer a category first with a valid answer starting with the letter beside it, win the card. Yeah, the cards are triangular little bits of pizza. As you win them you form a larger slice of pizza and there is a wonderful catchup mechanism built in, if you’ve completed the first row of your pizza, with 5 slices, then you can no longer answer the green easy category to win, thus making it harder as you get closer to winning. Genius.
How could you make this better? (apart from adding pineapple…ooo… controversial!) Well, how about a simpler kids version. By cutting down the categories to just one per slice and still having three choices of first letter, that’s how. This is clearly aimed at a younger audience, some of the categories are stunning. That’s P for Pizza Kids Menu.
Doesn’t that look brilliant? I love these games from my head, to-ma-toes. There’s not mushroom for more improvement, you knead to play this, are we bacon you crazy yet? Just pay up the dough and make sure you get this grate game.
(A mature themed one has recently been released too!… ooo…)
This one blends in seamlessly…
We’ve been here before… in fact The Chameleon was mentioned in our first games for kids blog. Well, you can’t have too much of a good thing and they have recently brought out a new edition in The Chameleon Travel Pack.
With all new content but the same great game, they have minimised the game and kept it as awesome as before. As we’ve described this before, let’s just mention the effort that Big Potato Games puts into making their games environmentally friendly, this game is plastic free as paper, metal and wood is all you will find here. But wait, there seems to be stickers holding the tin shut… Well, these are made from plants and not plastic. Good on you Big Potato, no wonder they got themselves B-corp certified early 2024. That’s a certification that shows they are a company with high social and environmental standards. Go check it out if you want to learn more. Consider us big fans of this and also impressed.
Certainly, they are not content to camoflage their intent as a company.
Red enough yet?
Colourbrain has been around since 2017 and we expect to see it around for a while yet. It’s available in various forms, and we love them all, you’d think we have an ‘orange’ment with Big Potato, wouldn’t you?
It’s a great team game where questions are asked for everyone to answer and each group has a set of 11 cards with the same colours on and the answer is one or more colours. Slap your card or cards down, reveal, get points. Easy. To be honest, they had us at ‘yellow’. Other companies must be green with envy or be feeling blue. It’s certainly a great way to win friends and influence ‘purple’ and playing will make you feel in the pink.
Those that don’t win will likely want to brown their sorrows or go back to black turning their hair grey in the process.
This really has just turned into just an excuse to list all the colour cards in a series of bad puns. At least I managed to white them all down.
Mooooo-re games? Don’t get beef…
Herd Mentality has been making noise (literally) since 2020 and you will normally find our copies doing the (milk?) rounds on a busy weekend, non stop.
As all great Big Potato Games, it’s a simple concept. A question is asked, not a matter of fact, more opinion. Something like “What’s the best flavour of crisps?”, clearly you could answer anything but to get points you need to be in the majority of the answers given to score a point, the ‘herd’ if you will. Now there are two aspects to mention that up the fun factor… one is this. If one person has not written an answer then the rest of the group are allowed to moo at them. Who wants to be mooed at? Not me. It’s a bit of fun really and just ups the silliness of the game.
The other twist? Well, if you are the sole person to answer with a unique answer then you get the cow. A little squishy toy cow… in pink and purple. This shows you are not part of the herd and are unable to win if you are holding it. Simple as that.
The steaks are high in this game of udder chaos. Enough bull, I think I’ve milked this for all it’s worth.
Try not to draw a blank…
This is one of Big Potato Games earlier games, Scrawl is where fast scribbling meets the telephone game.
Take your card, choose a prompt and draw it. Put it face down between you and the next player and pick up the drawing from the player on your other side. Write what you think they drew and cover up the drawing. Pass it on, now on the one you are passed, read the new prompt and draw that, etc… until you get your original pile back. Now give out points and have a giggle. There is a family version and a rude version too and it’s hilarious.
I recall a work-do where this was played for hours and the next day some of the players came in and complained about how their sides were hurting from laughing too much!
That’s just priceless fun, by any sketch of the imagination.
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So, Big Potato Games, you’ll see them all over the place, they have done a s-mash-ing job getting to the position they are in. One last thing to mention and that’s their range of playing cards called MOOP which stands for Made Of Ocean Plastic. Two and a half plastic bottles go into each pack as well as recycled other plastics. A worthy venture to help clean up the world’s oceans. Great to shuffle too. Get some!
