Yeti Snack! from Mandoo Games is an easy-to-play speed dexterity game that's not quite like any other we've played. Designed by Roberto Fraga, Delphine Lemonnier and Yohan Lemonnier, the amusing premise is that the 2-4 players are preparing snacks for a Yeti using ice molds.
The 'snacks' are players' four coloured tokens. These are satisfyingly hefty poker chips. Players all take a rubbery ice mold with nine cavities in a 3 x 3 grid and they all place the snack tokens out so that the position of each colour corresponds to its position shown on the pattern side of a card. This ensures that players all start off each round with their tokens in the same position - so no-one benefits from an advantageous starting position, which has been a gripe in some other dexterity games like, for example, Oh My Ring (Helvetiq).
A card is then flipped to reveal the objective for the round. This will be for just one, two or three specific colours to be visible, or 1-3 specific colours invisible, or for the four tokens to be in a single pile in a specific order. Players aren't allowed to touch any of the tokens: they manipulate them only by folding their mold orthogonally so that a token falls into another position. If you accidentally touch a token - most likely because one falls out of your mold - you have to take a time out token before resuming the challenge. The first player to successfully meet the objective for the round wins that round's starting pattern and objective card.
The theme may seem silly but Yeti Snack! is actually quite a challenging dexterity and pattern recognition game with elements reminiscent of Dr Eureka (Blue Orange). The competition of the game demands speed from the players rather than deliberation (time out token notwithstanding). It's a game in which children can compete on at least equal terms with adults. With two players, the overall win condition of being first to collect 12 cards (ie: win six rounds), feels about right but you might find that with more players that can make the game over long. Obviously tho' you can adapt the win condition: from our plays at Board's Eye View we'd suggest that with four players you set the overall win condition as being the first to win four rounds rather than six.
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