There are several common themes that we see over and over again in tabletop board gaming. Fictional genres like fantasy and science-fiction are typically very well represented, as are historical games set during times of war. Every once in a while, though, a game comes along with a totally unique theme. The co-op board game we are looking at today is one of these, putting players in the role of workers at a Chinese restaurant who team up to meet the culinary needs of their customers in real time. Wok Star is a charming, tightly designed game that is immediately enjoyable for both inexperienced and veteran gamers.
Wok Star has a controversial history. The game had a very small original print run back in 2010. Another printing sold out very quickly, and though the game was getting quite a bit of buzz at this point, it was almost impossible to find a copy. In the summer of 2013, Wok Star went to Kickstarter in the care of new publisher Game Salute. After several delays, with a series of post-funding miscues, Wok Star has finally been delivered to backers and is in print once again.
Thankfully, the game itself is worth the wait. Wok Star is quite different from most games I’ve played. Players have a pool of dice to roll and manage, and can trade with each other for maximum efficiency. There is a fair bit of resource management going on, as well. It sounds easy on the surface, but all the action takes place on a timer, plus there are player powers and a random turn order that throw some delicious (if you’ll pardon the pun) complications in and add a bit of chaos to your planning. The end result is highly cooperative and quite satisfying.
As the game begins, you open your restaurant with a limited menu of three items: Fried Rice, Egg Rolls, and Lo Mein. A customer deck, full of hungry patrons and event cards, is assembled. Preparation cards, where ingredients for each of these recipes can be added to the collective pool, are distributed among the players. As the round begins, players roll all of their dice, and they can spend these dice in various ways to create ingredients like pork, bok choy, onions and peppers, or egg roll wraps. When you draw from the customer deck, you have until the timer goes off to use dice, add ingredients to the pool, and spend the ingredients to satisfy the customer.
At the end of the round, once the customer deck is exhausted, the players earn money for each happy customer, but lose money due to bad publicity for any customers who left the restaurant hungry. At this point, a selection of new potential recipes is drawn. The players must decide whether to spend money to buy these new recipes, or instead use the funds to upgrade their preps for the ability to get more ingredients for each die. You must balance risk vs. reward here; new recipes give lots of extra income, but require new ingredients, and you might not have enough dice to satisfy the needs of these potential customers. On the other hand, upgrading preps alone will not allow you to make enough money in the end; the goal is to end the game with $60 or more at the end of round four. It’s an interesting balance and allows for lots of interaction between players.
It may seem a bit simple to “math it out” and figure exactly what ingredients are needed each round. But the event cards in the customer deck coupled with the random turn order take care of this issue neatly. Each customer card specifies which table (player) draws from the deck next. Though players work together to fulfill orders, each has a player power that might make a significant difference. One power allows the player to substitute one ingredient for another at his tables, which is a tremendous boon if you are short on, say, shrimp. But if a customer wanting shrimp fried rice is drawn by another player, the group is out of luck. Event cards, which often give you additional dice, are similarly random. You might have a player very short on dice who never draws any of these helpful events at all. You can mitigate this by upgrading preps and assigning new preps to players with more dice. Still, it adds a nice tension to the game when these things happen, particularly when the round is almost over and you are very low on ingredients.
Wok Star is very impressive from a visual perspective, with high quality components. The cards are slick yet sturdy, and hold up well under shuffling. The board is clear and functional. The ingredient tokens are a mixed bag; a set of stickers was included with the Kickstarter pledges with art that more closely matches that on the ingredient cards. The tokens are nice and heavy, with a nice feel, in any event. The custom timer is very cool, and the inclusion of several tuck boxes for storing cards is most welcome.
If you are tired of dungeon delves, zombies, or other common themes in cooperative board games, Wok Star just might be what you are looking for. The mechanics are deceptively simple but provide interesting decision points, and the art style and unique theme give it a great presence on the table. It is one of the rare times when a game has totally lived up to the hype, despite all the issues with the Kickstarter campaign. Fans of co-op should enjoy the game, but be warned: you may get quite hungry for Chinese take-out while playing!