Posted on 18th October 2024 by

Ramen! Ramen!: Game Review

Do you love ramen? Do you love games? This simple card game could be for you!

Brought to you by Japanime Games, Ramen! Ramen! Is an easy to pick up card game for 1-4 players that runs for approximately 30 minutes.

What is Ramen! Ramen!

What’s in the box

Your objective is to serve the most and best bowls of ramen to gain the most points. The play area is set up with 3 bowls of ramen and your mission is to fill each bowl with as much variety of toppings before serving.

There are 7 types of mouth watering toppings. Ajitama, Chashu, Kamaboko, Menma, Negi, Nori and Shiitake. Get all 7 types of topping in your bowl to reach a maximum of 10 points for your bowl.

How to Play

Game set up for 2 players.

In each round you and your opponent(s) starts with 4 ingredient cards and place down 2 cards 2 different bowls. You then take a face up card from the ‘fridge’, replace the ‘fridge’ card with a new card from the deck and you draw a card from the deck as well, to return your hand to 4 cards.

There’s a small catch. Each bowl must be served if the bowl’s value reaches 14 or greater. How do you know the value of your bowl? Each card has a point value between 0 and 7. Count each of these cards’ value up, no matter how many varieties of toppings you have in the bowl.

Once you reach the 14 or greater point limit, whoever places the card down to hit the limit will take the pile of cards from that bowl. This is considered a complete bowl. You then start a new bowl.

This card has a score of 0, so does not add anything to the bowl count, but helps towards completing a bowl full of a variety of toppings.

Each player takes it in turn until the ‘fridge’ is empty and no more bowls can be made. Any bowls not complete or don’t reach the 14 point or greater mark you discard.

Each complete bowl on each side is counted and the side with the most points for their bowls win!

Presentation

This card game comes in a small, but neatly presented box. A fantastic game for travel or those short stays at conventions which neatly fits into any backpack or suitcase. The print quality of the box is gorgeous. The cards are really high quality and have a lovely texture to them, with mouth watering illustrations of each toppings. The larger bowl cards are no less impressive, with high details of a noodle and beansprout filled bowl with glistening broth.

Each card is really high quality with a nice texture.

Ease of play

The game is very easy to pick up and the instruction booklet has different rules depending on the number of players. You can choose to play solo, go head to head with another player or work in teams. Depending on the number of friends you want to play with will change small ways in which the game is played.

Value for money

Ramen! Ramen! Is a very affordable game. Managing to get a hold of a copy, you can expect anywhere between £10-£15 for a copy. Here at Animangapop we purchased a copy direct from Japanime Game’s stand at the UK Games Expo and glad we did! The staff were incredibly helpful and explained the rules of the game, showing they have passion for the games they sell. We highly recommend buying their games direct to support them.

Conclusion

We highly recommend picking up Ramen! Ramen! As it would make for a fantastic game to bring along to Animangapop to have a quick game with friends and family. The game only needs to take up a small amount of table space, so can easily be set up on the train, in a hotel room or even in our chill out zones at our larger events. If you love ramen, you’ll love this game!

A Game in Progress

At Animangapop, we love sharing our interests in all aspects of Japanese culture. Our next event is in London on the 4th August 2024 at the Royal National Hotel. Make sure you secure your ticket here.

Make sure you check out all of our other events here as well.

Claire

According to Claire, she was introduced to anime in a forgotten golden age some 400 years ago (the 90s). A borderline unhealthy exposure to classics such as The Slayers and Urusei Yatsura has gone onto influence her embracing Japanese culture in a big way; from its food, hobbies and even the adorable melodies that play at every Tokyo station.