60 Seconds Toy Review: Food Chain Island, By Button Shy

Friday, April 26, 2024

Food Chain Island, By Button Shy - REVIEW

Nature/ Type: Card game

Rating: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Recommended age: 8 year-old ++

Who would love this: Anyone who enjoys a challenge of strategy games!

I LOVE all Button Shy games I have tested: small, compact, always thought-provoking! But Food Chain Island is of another level - it’s ADDICTIVE and we seriously can’t get enough of this solo game! (Thank you Even Toys And Games ).

Why I love ❤️ this game:

(1) Creative Food Chain Theme

The food chain theme fits perfectly well with the game mechanism. Shuffle 16 Land Animals cards, arrange them faced up in a 4x4 grid, and placed 2 sea animals by the side. On your turn, move a card (the predator) orthogonally one space, and place it on top of another animal (prey) with value that’s 1 to 3 less. I love that each card clearly sets out the list of values that it can eat (eg a Fox (No. 9) can eat animals with value 6, 7, 8). Once a prey is being “swallowed” up, we can activate the special ability of the predator- which range from moving the card 1 space (Wolf), discard an unstacked animal (lizard), move card to any other space (bat) etc. The rules also include alternative starting layouts to really “spice up” the game”! Also, the artwork is unusually cute (one animal consuming another - how more disturbing can this get? 😂).

(2) Special Abilities - Use Your Sea Animals Wisely

Don’t forget you can activate the special abilities of the 2 Sea Animals at the side - Shark allows you to move any animal 1 space to eat, and Whale gives you power to move an animal to any other space, Octopus allows us to discard an unstacked animal and activate its ability etc. If that’s not enough - the set also includes “Air Animals” cards. The selected “Air Animal” must be used and discarded during the game. For example, A Buzzard, when used, requires the player to select next 3 predators with odd number.

(3) Legendary Creatures Expansion Set Included

If you are up to some intense challenge, add on the Legendary Creatures cards. The 4 Legendary land creatures must be placed face-down in specific locations, and can only be revealed when an animal adjacent to it gets eaten. Also, the legendary powers will only be triggered when it’s being eaten.

(4) Lost Beasts Expansion Set Included Too!

The set also includes “Lost Beasts” cards with eating restrictions: eg Dodo only eats lower even-numbered prey, and Archicebus can only eat when it has two or fewer adjacent animals.

Loving it!

# gifted in exchange for review

Where to buy this:

https://www.aussiehobbies.com.au/products/food-chain-island-card-game (Australia)

https://morethanmeeples.com.au/product/food-chain-island-card-game/ (Australia)

https://www.gumnut.com.au/products/food-chain-island (Australia)

https://shop.goodgames.com.au/products/food-chain-island?variant=43348780908702 (Australia)

https://realtoys.com.au/collections/new-arrivals/products/food-chain-island (Australia)

https://www.unclepetestoys.com.au/food-chain-island (Australia)

https://www.gamesparadise.com.au/food-chain-island (Australia)

https://vaultgames.com.au/products/food-chain-island (Australia)

https://www.m-g.com.au/product/food-chain-island/ (Australia)