Nothing can be better than a good board game. I love video games and reading books, but getting together with a group of people for a game night is so much fun. Growing up my brother and I would play board games with our parents and sometimes friends in the neighborhood, but it wasn’t until larger family events would occur that we really got the chance to play a slew of board games to the ultimate finish. Hotels was our first go-to game. It had everything from colorful play money to three dimensional buildings. Guess Who? was another favorite. There was one other game though that really defined a certain moment in time with my brother and cousins. That game was Pizza Party and it was released by Parker Brothers in 1987.

Simply put, Pizza Party was the perfect game. Being half Italian and not much for pasta or lasagna, pizza was one of those foods that my hardcore Italian family approved of me eating at big family dinners. I used to roll up with McDonald’s to family events to which my grandmother would laugh, “I think you were switched at birth.” Anyways, Pizza Party was all about pizza. The box is amazing. The toppings have faces and an air of personality. The pepperoni and mushroom characters look like they are long lost lovers while the green bell pepper and onion get down with some dancing. I dare anyone not to want a slice after looking at this game.

The back of the box shows off some images and all the family fun that can ensue with a round of Pizza Party. Up to four players could get together but you could play with less than four. The skills required for this game were an excellent memory as well as the patience for when things get switched up and heated. Games involving the use of good memory space are always a challenge for me. My memory is atrocious. I can only hope that all those rounds of Pizza Party have hopefully staved off some dementia. (Seriously, I’m terrified of losing my mind.)

Anyways, here are the rules. Everyone gets a pizza handle and topping-less slice of pizza. The topping pieces are all faced down. Players have to essentially draw which topping they will be searching for. Player one picks a piece and if it is the onion, then they must look for the other onion toppings and so on. If a player picks up a topping that is not their own, they must place it face down. The player who finishes their pizza with their toppings first wins. It seems simple enough, right? Well Parker Bros. decided to mess this game up real good by adding color coded Switch pieces. If the Switch piece is drawn the player must switch with the corresponding color. If a player picks a Switch piece that matches their own pizza handle, they get to switch with any player’s slice! Now do you see how cutthroat Pizza Party can get?

Here is a closer shot of the rules. I love that the youngest player gets to go first. That distinction usually went to my brother since he was the youngest and it only further reminded me that I was forever going to be the old crone.

The pizza slices with handles were huge pieces! Made of a thick cardboard, they looked like pizza enough and allowed our brains to get some exercise while our stomachs began growling for pizza delivery.

Color choices were yellow, green, blue, and red/orange. They really don’t make games like this anymore. I loved the style of the pizza slices as well as the overall theme.

Nothing could compare to the pizza toppings though. They had faces! This game actually shared a similarity with that one Nightmare on Elm Street movie where Freddy has the pizza with the faces of his victims as he tries to serve it to Alice. I think that was the 4^th Freddy movie. That is all beside the point though. The toppings all looked so cute! The mushroom was my favorite. I really liked how happy she looked; even though she was essentially going to be eaten at any moment. Also, while the other toppings had legs and cute shoes, the mushroom was legless. I guess design-wise it would have been weird to give her legs? I don't know, but I get such a kick out of these toppings.

Pizza Party was one of those ultimate games that defined some of my time spent with my brother and cousins. We were always in a race to finish finding our toppings only to have a Switch card mess things up half way through the game. After we tired of playing the game by the rules we’d invent our own rules, like creating our own specialty pizzas where we’d (gasp) mix the toppings together. We’d also end up discussing some of our favorite kinds of pizzas. This is the inherent coolness with board games, like a good pizza, they can bring people together; unless it’s that Freddy pizza…

Was this a game that you played growing up? Tell me about it! I always look forward to your own stories and retro memories. Take care everyone.