Chicken vs Hotdog: The Ultimate Duel

It's time to settle the most important question ever asked: hot dogs or chicken? And there's only one way to do it! In a flipping contest, of course.

Published by Big Potato Games, Chicken vs Hotdog is a dexterity party game designed for two players and up.

Gameplay

The game is played with hot dog and chicken rubber figures. These come with suction cups at one end. Players split into two teams and each one takes one of these figures. Each team also takes the figure cards associated with the figure they took, and flip them to their gray sides. Each one also takes their team's deck of bidding cards, shuffles them, and draws four.

Each round, a challenge card is drawn and each team chooses a bidding card to play. These are revealed simultaneously, and the team that played the higher number wins the right to attempt the challenge. Challenges involve dexterity tasks such as flipping your team's figure so that it rotates at least twice, or achieving at least one flip using your non-dominant hand. In order for the challenge to be successful, the figure must land, standing upright, while also completing the challenge's requirement. Each challenge card also lists how many attempts you get.

If the team that won the challenge completes it, then they turn over one of their character cards to its colored side. If they fail, then the other team turns over one of their character cards. If both teams bid the same amount for the challenge, then both teams grab their figures and try flipping them as quickly as possible. If only two people are playing, the person who manages to land two successful flips is the winner. Otherwise, each member of your team must land a successful flip. Whichever team wins then gets to choose which team must complete the challenge.

Once the challenge has been completed, the bidding cards used that round are discarded. You then draw a new challenge card for a new round. Once both teams have used up all four of their bidding cards, they draw four new ones. Team members must take turns attempting challenges.

The first team to flip over all six of their character cards wins the game.

Review

Chicken vs Hotdog is a very silly concept, and therein lies the fun. The chicken and hot dog both look ridiculous (in a great way!) and it's enjoyable to toss them about, in the various challenging ways presented to you by the cards.

There are a lot of nice additional little touches in the game, such as the character cards that your team turns over each time it gets a point, or the fact that different challenge cards have different numbers of attempts so that you typically have multiple shots at something. The bidding is also an interesting concept that improves as you become more familiar with the game. The more you play, the more you will understand the different challenges and which ones you enjoy doing, and therefore have a better idea when to bid high or when to try to avoid getting the challenge card.

This is definitely a game where you need to be careful about choosing the right play area. While the hot dog and chicken are soft and rubbery, they can still easily knock things down, and you're tossing them in various ways that they're likely to misfire and end up going in directions you didn't expect. You also need to play near a surface on which the hot dog and chicken's suction cups can stick.

We would have liked a little more variety in the challenges, perhaps some that require teammates to work together or a few that have both teams racing each other. That being said, there are blank cards to write your own challenges so that players can adapt the game a little to suit their preferences.

A fun, creative, silly party game, Chicken vs Hotdog is a creative dexterity challenge that's unlikely to be quite like anything else in your game collection.

Pros: Well made, creative and unusual, leads to lots of laughter

Cons: Need the right space to play in where you won't risk knocking anything down, we would have liked more variety in the challenges

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.