While “Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza” may sound like a memory test, it’s actually the mantra you will love to chant while playing Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. Ready to slap some cheese?
What’s in the box?
A deck of cards. That’s all you need to play Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. There are the standard Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, and Pizza cards, plus some special cards, including Narwhal, Groundhog, and Gorilla. Even the instructions come on cards, but you can also find the instructions on Dolphin Hat’s website.
How to play Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza:
Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza is a fun, simple, quick game that relies on luck, attention, and a little memorization. Shuffle the deck and deal all of the cards facedown to the players. The cards stay facedown until they are played – do not peek at the cards, including your own!
Similar to War, the cards are then played one by one, as quickly as possible, until a match is made. The difference, though, is that each player plays a card in turn, rather than simultaneously. The matching isn’t between two cards, though. In Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, whenever a player flips their card onto the discard pile, they say the next word in the sequence: Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. If the card they flip matches the word they said, the players must rush to slap their hand onto the discard pile. The last person to slap their hand down loses the round and must collect all of the cards in the discard pile into the bottom of their draw stack.
What about those special cards?
The special cards require specific actions to be carried out by ALL of the players, followed by the discard pile slap:
Narwhal – make a horn over your head using your hands, then slap the deck
Groundhog – knock on the table with both hands, then slap the deck
Gorilla – beat your chest like a gorilla, then slap the deck
If you make the wrong action, hurry to make the correct one so you aren’t last to slap the deck, because, yes, you do have to pick up all the cards in the discard pile if you are the last to slap the pile after completing the action.
You have to pay attention the whole time, though, because if you flinch (slap the deck when it’s not a match or even just start to slap the deck), you have to pick up all the cards in the discard pile. If you don’t keep up the pace of the game, forget the word you’re supposed to say on your turn, or forget that it’s your turn, you have to pick up all of the cards in the discard pile. And don’t peek at your cards before you play them! Cheating is penalized by (you guessed it) having to pick up all of the cards in the discard pile.
How to win Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza:
You might think that you win if you’re the first to empty your draw pile, but that’s not enough. You must continue to chant Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, in turn, though you don’t play any cards, until you are the first person to slap the deck when a match or special card is played.
Seasonal Varieties:
We have two seasonal versions to share, too: Halloween and Christmas. In the Halloween version, the Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, and Pizza on the cards are in their Halloween costumes and the game play is the same except for the special cards and their special actions, which are:
Boorilla – wave your hands while yelling “Boooo” in your best ghost voice
Hogula – tuck your nose into your elbow (as if hiding your face in your vampire cape) while yelling “Blah” in your best vampire voice
Arr-whal – cover one eye with a hand and form the other into a hook while yelling “ARRR” in your best pirate voice
In the Christmas version, there are no tacos, no cats, no goats, no cheese, and no pizza. Instead, there are Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman. The game play is essentially the same, but the chant changes, the characters on the cards are different (but just as adorable!), and the special cards are different, too. Oh, and there are two Santas: one dressed in red and one dressed in green. The special cards and their actions are:
Drums – drum the table with both hands while singing “Rum pump um pum”
Silent Night – close your mouth and put your finger over your lips while saying “Shhhh”
Reindeer – spread your fingers and put your hands beside your head to form antlers
And don’t forget to slap the discard pile afterwards!
The game is marked 7+ for age recommendations. Given the memorization and attention elements, you might want to slow the pace and add a little patience if your littles want to play, too. Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza is for 2-8 players and would be a fun party and/or travel game, especially because it doesn’t usually take more than 10-15 minutes to complete a game. There is a Spanish-language version of the game, but this game could be played with/by players of any nationality and language.
*****Highly Recommended
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