Review: New York Slice

New York Slice is a party game for 2 - 6 players. Designed by Jeffrey D. Allers, with art by Stephanie Gustafsson and John Kaufmann.

I first encountered this game with friends while attending PAX Unplugged in Philidelphia last November at the Bezier Games Booth. We played a few rounds and as a native New Yorker and a pizza connoisseur, i was instantly drawn to this game. One of my friends picked up on this and I received this game for Christmas.

I'm the slicer, trying to figure out how to divide the pie.

SET UP AND PREMISE

The premise of this game is fairly simple: collect the most slices of a point total to receive the amount of points indicated. Before you begin, shuffle the slices so that they're random, and form 6 pies.There are 6 pizza pies in a usual game, 1 pie per round. The pies are facedown in 6 seperate piles, and each pie comes with a special that modifies points or confers abilities. A person is designated a pizza slicer, and they lay out the slices (as seen above, I was figuring out how to finalize my lay out). The slicer then lays out the slices, which have to be laid out in order, either clockwise or counterclockwise (you don't pick where certain slices go, just pick a direction and go). The slicer then divides the pizza and special up into different segments, one for each player (5 players, 5 segments for example). A section can be one slice, or just the special by itself.

My friend's slices at the top, and the remainder of the pie, center right.

PLAYING THE GAME

Starting with the player to the slicer's left, each player chooses a segment of the pie they want (with the slicer going last). Your objective is to get the most slices of one number (pictured on the bottom of the slice, see picture above). Slices with two numbers serve as half of each slice (in case of ties, they break the tie). You can choose to eat a slice if it has pepperoni on it as soon as you get it by flipping the slice over (pictured below). You can’t eat veggie slices or anchovy slices, and you can’t eat them after your turn is up in the round.

My pie from a game, I ate a few slices, but couldn't eat the anchovy or veggie slices.

SCORING

A sample of the scoring sheet, based on restaurant checks!

Scoring commences after the final round. Starting from the lowest point total, players tell the scorer how many slices of each they have. The person with the most gets that amount of points. If there's a tie, neither player gets the points at all. Repeat for each number, then add the sums in the empty box next to 11.

Next, score the specials, if any. Some give bonuses for having veggie slices, or take points off for slices eaten. Add any totals in the column to the right.

Finally, count the pepperonis on any eaten slices (if you've eaten any), subtract any anchovies you collected from that total, there's a special that allows you to not lose points from anchovies. Enter your score.

Add up the 3 totals and the highest score wins!

THE VERDICT

New York Slice is a fun, quick to play casual game. Maybe it's my love of pizza that skews my opinion, but I feel like it's a great game to play at a party with a large group, just to pass the time. There are numerous specials, and with the shuffling of the slices, every game will play differently. It's definitely in my regular rotation, and I recommend it for those who want a fun game to play while waiting for the pizza guy to show up with the real thing, or for a breather game after an intense session. It plays relatively quick, requires a little strategy, but isn't much of an over thinking game. Fun, casual, exactly what you expect from a party game!

Set-up and break down may take a while if you're like me and a stickler for sorting all the same numbered slices together, but it's not atrocious.

4 Slices out of 5.