Taco Twosday

Review

Game Description

“The world FBI (Flour Bureau of Investigation) and CIA (Corn Intelligence Agency) must join forces to stop the Guaca-mole!
Designed for two teams to tackle together or remotely with 2-3 hours of teamwork!”

Personal Experience

I was looking for a fun two-player game to play over Zoom with my bestie, and happened upon this charming and fun looking asymmetric puzzle game from Trapped Puzzle Rooms. Novel puzzle idea, created to be played remotely, and taco puns? It was in my cart before you could say “guacamole”.

Once I received the game, I handed off the Flour Bureau of Investigation packet and kept the Corn Intelligence Agency for myself. Then, on game night, we got our Zoom session setup and cracked them open, finding an introductory letter and our first puzzle, along with a series of tasty sounding operations, like Operation: Ground Beef and Operation: Shredded Cheese.

Upon starting the game, we were directed to a well-developed website that validated our answers, gave us additional story, and provided hints if we needed them. We found that both of us should have the website open, so that we could each read the story and game elements that it provided.

We had a lot of fun playing through the game and really enjoyed the humorous writing throughout. Altogether, it took us just a hair under two hours to finish. The game thoughtfully provided break points through the game, each of which came with a fun little business card to help you pick back up at the right place; a thoughtful little touch in a game full of thoughtful little touches.

Narrative

While the story of Taco Tuesday is a little thin, it makes up for it with its fun, taco-related puns and humorous writing. The entire experience was playful and didn’t take itself too seriously, which was a fantastic complement to the stylistic veneer of “serious government agency”. The names alone in this game are punny perfection. Overall, a delightful narrative experience.

Puzzle Play

All of the puzzles were designed around the concept that neither player could see the elements that the other player had, making good communication between the players critical to solving the puzzles. The designers did a great job of making this both fun and challenging for the players, turning the act of figuring out how to describe what you’re seeing into its own “aha” moment.

The puzzles themselves were varied enough that each of them felt distinct. There were some truly novel ideas in the mix, some that I wouldn’t mind seeing tweaked and re-used even in a regular at-home puzzle game. The difficulty levels of the puzzles would be considered somewhat easy, if all of the players had access to the components. So the actual difficulty level for you when you play will be determined by how well you and your teammate can communicate with each other. We found that the puzzles seemed to get easier as the game went on, but I suspect that was because we were getting better at communicating the necessary puzzle elements, not that the puzzles themselves were easier.

Recommendation

This game was a lot of fun and a great way to spend a couple of hours. I haven’t played anything else like it this year, though I do have a couple of other asymmetric information games on my wishlist now. While there’s nothing that would prevent you from playing in teams of 2-3 people, I feel like this game is perfect for two players, especially if they’re in different locations. A perfect game for quar.