First, players choose a menu for everyone. This new version has card decks for the menus for Friedey's ("The Fast Food Restaurant of the Damned") and McFrye's ("Just Desserts and Coffee"); these decks can be combined for the third menu, Ren-Fare ("The Food Court at Yon Medieval Faire"). Players are then dealt cards based on the number of players, and the game begins.
Each game consists of several rounds, over four "days." One player starts as the leader and either picks an order from the menu or rolls two dice to get an order at random. The player to the leader's left can try and fill the order by playing the cards that make up the order. If the player fills the order, they score the points for the order, put the cards used in a "points" pile, and becomes the new leader. If they can't, the pass a card to the leader (if the leader rolled) or to their left (if the leader chose), and the player to their left then tries to fill the order. If the order goes around the table and no one can fill the order, everyone tries to fill the order, with one less item of their choice; another item is subtracted each time an order goes all the way around the players unfulfilled.
The day ends when a player runs out of card, either by filling an order or passing a card. Then everyone scores points for the orders they filled and loses points for all the cards still in their hand. The next day starts (with the same or a different menu), and after four days whoever has the most points from the four days wins!
Lord of the Fries is simple, enjoyable fun. The strategy is pretty straightforward: Pick orders early in the game (so players pass you cards you can hopefully use) and roll for orders later (so you're not stuck with cards that subtract from your points). The artwork makes the zombies both goofy and befuddled in their tasks, and with menu items like Chickacheezabunga, "Rat" on a Stick, and Hippy Hippy Shake, players will enjoy calling out the various orders.
If there's one problem with the game, it's the changes before the current and previous edition. The Superdeluxe Edition has one copy of the three menus, while the third edition had eight different menus, with four copies of each one. Several of these third edition menus are available as expansions (which I'll review later), but that gives the Superdeluxe Edition less variety than its predecessor.
Lord of the Fries: Superdeluxe Edition remains a pretty fun game, excellent for new- or non-gamers and enjoyable for experienced players. While the fewer menus are a little disappointing, the new art, cards, and menus are quite nice and I'm glad to see that, thanks to Kickstarter, this game remains in print. Lord of the Fries: Superdeluxe Edition shows that it can be fun to be a rotting zombie -- or a fast food worker.
Overall grade: B
Reviewed by James Lynch
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