In Cheese, players flip a piece of cheese (made of foam) and score points depending upon how it lands.  One corner of the cheese block has a nibble taken out of it.  When the cheese lands, if the nibbled corner is facing downwards the player gets no points and the turn moves on to the next player.  However, if the nibbled corner is facing upwards the player scores points: 1 point if the cheese is resting on its largest side, 3 points if resting on its long edge, and 9 points if resting on its short edge.  A player that scores points on a flip can gamble those points and take another turn immediately; however, if they do not score any points on their next flip then they lose all the points for that turn.

The cheese block has large round holes in it of three sizes and these start the game filled with foam discs so it is a single, solid block.  When a player scores points they remove a foam disc (small for 1 point, medium for 3 points and large for 9 points) from the cheese to keep to record their score.  Removing a disc changes the balance of the cheese block slightly.  The first player to 12 points wins.

Overall, Cheese is an incredibly simple game and is very quick to play.  These isn’t much skill involved, although I’m sure some people will be better than others, but this game is about fun and generates lots of good-natured banter too.  The cheese block looks great too especially when some discs have been removed.

The removal of the discs does change the balance of the block but it doesn’t really make much difference to how you flip it as it’s so light you don’t really have too much control over it.  But it doesn’t matter.  Cheese is not about skill, it’s about fun.  Gambling your points for another turn doesn’t seem worth it in the early game but it’s a nice game mechanic for the later game when other players are very close to winning as it means there’s still a chance you could storm to victory.

If you enter Cheese knowing and accepting it will be just a fun game, it is very enjoyable and you can play it with any audience.  For 6 euros, this was an easy purchase choice to get a game that is a humorous dexterity filler game, a game for Christmas with the family, and a good drinking game too. 

James.

Cheese is one of my Top 5 Games for a Family Christmas.

[Played with 3 players]