I’ve gotten a few new games played recently. But the one that I’ve played most, because it works nicely as a work filler style of game, is Ramen! Ramen! from Japanime games. The game I picked up not knowing much about it. I just knew that I liked the artwork and for a small box game, I figured it’d be worth a try, so is it a good game?

How To Play Ramen! Ramen!

Ramen! Ramen! is a pretty simple game with how it plays. On your turn you will add ingredients to two of the three ramen bowls. Your goal is to collect bowls to score which is done by either getting the total of the cards to be 14 or higher. Or to get all seven ingredients into one bowl.

The trick to the game is that you can only place one ingredient per bowl. So if I put down the 6th ingredient into a bowl, I am doing that off of the assumption that you don’t have that 7th ingredient type. If you do, you can score that bowl. Much of the game is trying to set it up so that your opponent will give you an bowl with a number of ingredients in it.

The game ends when all of the cards have been played out. Players then score each bowl separately based off of the number of different ingredients in it. The more ingredients the higher the scores, and the total of all the bowls that is highest is the winner of the game.

What I Don’t Like?

Firstly, I should say, I have only played this game at two. I am not sure that I would want to play it at the full four. Part of the fun of the game at two is that I can really try and set you up to give me something. At a higher player count, it is going to be more random than that. Maybe at three players I can keep stuff far enough from being scored that it could come back to me, but that’s questionable. And at four players, I’d just be worried about not setting up the person after me. So I think this is probably best at a two player game.

That’s not a major complaint, though it does fight against other two player games. And not a major complaint either is that the rules are a bit odd for the game. The game is very easy to play and understand. But when you end your turn, you replenish your hand. That is normal. To do so, you take one card from a face up group of cards, flip out another card to that group so it’s back to four. And then you draw blindly from the top. They turn that end part into three steps. You could just pick a card and draw off the top then flip out a card. It’d be the same thing and easier to remember.

What I Like?

Ramen! Ramen! plays fast, and I like that. The turn angst isn’t there that much. You have three bowls and four cards. And you will only use two of the cards. So there is some decision space, but it’s not too overwhelming. Once we learned the game better, it slowed down slightly, but generally that was not much and just on a few pivotal turns where we were trying to give your opponent as few points as possible.

I also find it interesting how defensive this game is. And I kind of enjoy it. I don’t like playing other games, Magic The Gathering, for example, defensively. But since Ramen! Ramen! is so fast and simple to play, I like it better here. When I pull off a play that makes my opponent get way less points than they were hoping that’s fun. Or when I can set it up so that my opponent can’t help but give me bowls, that is fun. It’s a much simpler version of Hanamikoji that way.

Who Is This Game For?

I could also put it this way. What niche might it fill for a gaming collection. Because this is very much a filler game. If you want something that has pretty simple decisions, but interesting decisions this is not a bad game. Especially if you are playing with more casual gamers.

This is definitely a game that leans more towards a casual gamer. I think that heavier gamers will find it way to light. It is also a game that is going to work well for someone getting into gaming. If they like board game and have played simpler card games, this won’t be a hard one to pick up. In fact, it is possibly a decent alternative to some of the more classic card games you find in Target and such.

Final Thoughts on Ramen! Ramen!

This is a fun game, one that I wouldn’t recommend to everyone, though. It depends on the type of gamer you are and more so on the types of people that you game with. I think that there are a going to be a number of people who find it too light.

But for me, that lightness works. I do think it’s a game that might end up getting moved on from after a bit, though. The game doesn’t change massively from play to play. But then again, either does Hanamikoji. If I wanted to keep something simpler for two players, or maybe for more, on h and, I could see Ramen! Ramen! sticking around. Or as I play it enough times it might leave like Tsuro did.

My Grade: B-
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: B+

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here