Second Look – Chew: Cases of the FDA

I’ve been waiting for my copy of Chew: Cases of the FDA to come to my local comic book shop for half-a-year. It finally arrived last week and I was able to play the game with two friends this past weekend. It is a crime-solving card game based on the popular comic book by the same name. Players find clues, partners, and other characters through a series of investigations that lead to tracking down the culprit.

The goal of the game is to create a path from your Case card to your Culprit card by connecting them through a series of clues that match by color. Clues are earned after playing investigation cards.

Each player is dealt one Case and one Culprit, plus five investigation cards and three “Chogs” to start. A Chog is half-chicken, half-frog and is used as payment to play investigation cards.

On your turn, you start by picking up investigation cards and Chogs. Investigation cards help you do things like, take an extra Clue card or double your Chog supply. There are Partner cards, which give you various bonuses. Bad Guy and Pain-in-the-@$$ cards are used against your opponents.

After playing investigation cards, players choose a Connection from four available Clue cards laid out in the center of the table. Your Clue cards must match each other on one side. So, if your Case card has a red right side, the Clue card you put next to it must have a red left side. The only exception is a wild card board, which allows you to use any color. Clue cards have a point value, which is used to determine your score.

The game ends when a player creates a path with at least 20 Clue card points that also matches from the Case to the Culprit card. One game takes about 30 minutes to play.

The game is designed to be very simple. Investigation cards have specific actions on them that are easy to understand.

My friends and I really enjoyed this game for its simplicity and humorous content. One friend has never read the comic and commented on how he thought the flavor text was very funny and the artwork was appealing. He is planning on buying the Chew comic in order to find out more about the unusual story.

This game is great for casual gamers looking for a light, fun experience. Even heavy gamers can enjoy this title as an in-between snack. While the game is fun and easy to understand, it isn’t exactly family-friendly, depending on the age of your children. There are a few swear words and cartoonish violent imagery. Plus, it might be difficult to explain to a five-year-old why the game’s protagonist has to eat human flesh in order to solve a crime.

You can pick up Chew: Cases of the FDA from your local board game shop (or even comic book shop) for about $30.