Matthew BaileyToday I’ve got the absolute pleasure of talking about Macaraccoon, a brand new order placement game from Memesys Games, currently on Kickstarter.
The first thing that strikes you about Macaraccoon is how absolutely adorable all of the artwork is. It reminds me of something out of a Richard Scarry book, but even more gorgeous and whimsical. The concept is that Master Baker Macaraccoon is retiring, and you are all playing bakers competing to decide who will take over as the next Master Baker.
You set the game up by placing the Kitchen Board, the Pantry Board, and the Chef Board, with each player receiving their own countertop made up of three plates. The aim of the game is to use the transparent ingredient cards to stack them on top of each other and create combinations that match the orders in the queue, earning Heart Points before someone else does. Once you’ve stacked two ingredients together without using a special power, you cannot separate them again. With only one version of each dessert available, once you’ve made something it is very difficult to undo unless another player gets there first.
Ingredients are made up of three types: toppings, which must always be on top, spreads, which go in the middle, and bases, which sit at the bottom. On your turn, you look at the Kitchen Board and pick one of the ingredients available. This can go immediately onto the bottom or top of your stack, but remember that once items are combined, they cannot be separated. You have three plates in front of you, and you can move stacks from one plate to another at any point in the game, which allows you to manipulate the order of ingredients to complete recipes. You can also jump to a wider range of ingredients using a sugar cube, which gives you more choice, but you lose that cube and it stays on the table for someone else to collect later.
The second action you can take on your turn is to serve an order. This means placing a completed order into the discard pile and claiming the corresponding card. There are three orders visible at any one time. If you want to fulfil an order from the middle or right side of the board, it will cost you an extra sugar cube, but the reward is worth more points as you are giving special treatment to a customer.
The final action is to use a Critter Power. These can be paid for using discarded ingredients or sugar cubes, which you collect either by completing orders or through specific critter powers. Critters not only let you pick an ingredient from their column, but also grant you a special ability, some of which can be very powerful. What is clever is that the critter itself does not leave the board immediately. All critters slide to the left at the end of the round, and the leftmost one leaves, even if you activated one in the middle.
Sugar cubes are also important as a currency, but they can be used for Sugar Rushes too. By discarding either the second, third, or fourth sugar cube in your jar, you can take an extra turn. This is extremely powerful if you’ve just finished making a dessert and need to serve it before someone else beats you to it.
The game ends when all the orders are completed, and the player with the most Heart Points wins. Macaraccoon requires a good level of strategy, and you really need to think carefully to avoid trapping yourself with the wrong combinations of ingredients. At the same time, the rules are simple to pick up, and the light-hearted, beautiful artwork ties everything together perfectly.
It’s also worth mentioning how wonderful the components are, even in the prototype copy I played. I understand these will also feature in the 14+ deluxe expansion, brilliantly called “Do Not Eat.” The sugar cube and sweet tokens are some of the most realistic I’ve ever seen in a board game. The sugar cubes look so convincing that if you put them in a bowl in the kitchen, I would 100% end up dropping one into my tea. The sweets look like small heart-shaped jelly beans that absolutely beg to be eaten. Definitely one to keep away from little ones!
I played this at three players with Jack and Toby, and I also tried it at five players with a group of teenagers. Everyone had fun, but I do think three players is the sweet spot. It gives you regular turns and a fair chance to complete orders without too much downtime. At higher counts, it can feel a bit frustrating to lose out on orders again and again, with limited ways to make up for that lost time.
Overall, Macaraccoon is a really lovely order placement game that shines because of its components and charming presentation. It may not be for everyone, as it is not the fastest game for its level of complexity, and our plays took about an hour each. But it balances accessibility and strategy so well that I can see it becoming a strong family favourite.
