The Big Fat Tomato Game – Fun to harvest

The Big Fat Tomato Game board game — The artwork says it all.

We think it’s funny with a board game has the word “game” right in the title of the game. So when we saw The Big Fat Tomato Game by Gamewright we knew it had to be something lighthearted and funny.

If you know anything about Gamewright games, you’ll know they focus on publishing family games. And The Big Fat Tomato Game is no different. It’s targeted directly at families everywhere (you don’t have to be farmers).

And the art on the game tin will give you a great idea of what you can expect inside.

Can the whole family enjoy The Big Fat Tomato Game?

We think most of the family can enjoy The Big Fat Tomato Game. We’d love to say that everyone in the family could enjoy it, but the catch is that the younger kids may have a harder time.

It’s not that younger kids wouldn’t enjoy stuffing the fuzzy tomatoes in the cool harvest baskets. Nor is it that they wouldn’t love the fun artwork. The catch is that there are 21 different types of cards with a lot of text on every card.

Of course, if they play alongside older kids or adults for a few games, they may come to understand and remember the power of each card without needing to read the text. They’ll just know when they see the picture of the Tomato Splat that a turn gets skipped or that the Catsup bottle card means tomatoes are about to be stolen from a stockpile.

The Big Fat Tomato Game is also a game that’s more fun with more people. Although you can play with just 2 players, it’s much more fun with more players – where the wacky attacks gets spread around.

Lots of twists and turns

On the surface The Big Fat Tomato Game looks like a simple game of play a card, roll dice, collect your tomatoes, win the game. However, the cards are full of twists and turns. As if the luck of the dice roll doesn’t affect your harvesting enough, players will be tossing bad cards your way throughout the game.

You may think you’re all set and the next thing you know you’ve got Pesky Weeds or Dang Varmints in your patch. So you treat them with a Hoe or a Chemical Spray. Then someone kicks your basket. But you immediately play the You Say Tomato, I Say Tomahto card to reverse the attack. And on it goes.

So there’s definitely a lot of luck involved. But that’s what Caleb loves about the game and why it can be great for families. It has silly stuff throughout and gives kids the chance to beat their parents. What more could they want?

How does The Big Fat Tomato Game score on the “Let’s Play Again” game meter?
The Big Fat Tomato game actually scores high on the “let’s play again” game meter for our youngest kids. They like the craziness and want to play over and over. We’ve found that the point swings from game to game can be lopsided at times, so it’s easy to call for a rematch. But since each game doesn’t take too long to play, it’s easy to set it all up and play again.

Thanks Gamewright for another fun family board game.