When Hoffmann originally conceived the idea it was not different nationalities seated in a cafe, but rather different folklore groups seated in a Bavarian-themed tavern. The jury cited the game’s theme, family friendliness, and healthy combination of luck and skill.Ĭafé International was in development for nearly 20 years before its 1989 publication by Mattel. His best known work, Café International, won the SdJ in 1989 after being ranked number one that year by eight of the nine jury members. He wasn’t as active during the early 1980s (although he did receive a 1981 SdJ nomination for Ganoven Jagd), but he made a comeback later in the decade, receiving nominations for Janus (1988), Maestro (1989), Heuchel und Meuchel (1990), Ramparts (1993), and Minister (1998). He released his first game in the 1960s, and then he released more than 20 titles in the 1970s. Though his name isn’t mentioned much today, he had an enormous impact on the German hobby, and his name belongs alongside Sid Sackson and Alex Randolph. Rudi Hoffmann was one of the earliest – and most prolific – of the German game designers. Times Played: > 5 (On the 1989 Mattel German Second Edition)Ĭafé International: Rudi Hoffmann gets a win….For fans of the original and luck based simple games only. Café International is perfectly serviceable but doesn’t really feel engaging enough as a board game nor given enough love as a digital transfer to really be a solid recommendation. The game looks like a barebones mobile port – the UI tells you to swipe and has mobile icons everywhere. Aside from the standard game there is a time attack mode and solitaire mode for single players to enjoy beating their high scores. Online is meant to be coming but for now its local and steam remote play to the rescue. Having a mix of AI and humans works too but there is no online mode or asynchronous mode at launch. Again, due to the random nature of the game, they can be very powerful or have a terrible run too though. AI is added and they do put up a challenge on hard mode. The digitalisation of the game offers a few new perks such as a hint system with a cooldown over a few turns. I found it strange that everyone could see everyone else’s cards throughout the game. It feels like guessing cards in a casino – a bit frowned upon and unsatisfying to play. This helps you know what characters of your own you need to send to the bar. Where skill does come into play is remembering what others have had to sacrifice to the bar and what flag tables have already been cleared. From there, its pot luck as to what cards you get and the table flags, it doesn’t feel skilful at all. Often you won’t be able to take a turn early in the game so Café International always gets off to a clumsy start. So much of the strategy is down to luck and timing. What makes this worse is that the sound effects for sitting characters down just reinforces the racial stereotypes. This could have been an optional selection and perhaps some less 80’s caricature drawings could have been added as an option. In particular the Asian countries feel very mistreated. They are national political-esque spitting image drawings that have not aged well. It also brings over its 1988 artwork which will no doubt anger woke folk. The game is faithfully translated from 1988 to 2021 with all gameplay intact.
#CAFE INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FULL#
The game ends when that bar is full or you run out characters or tables to place. The table vanishes taking the guests with it and a new nationality flag is placed on the table. How do you score points? Seating characters and then completing tables of four. The bar acts as a negative as each seat there costs you points. If you can’t move, you have to discard one of your five cards to the bar. If a man is there, only a woman can be seated next and vice versa. If its a fresh table a man and woman must be placed. You must also sit them in gender parity positions too.
All characters have a nationality and so you can only sit your characters at the matching nationality tables. You need to place the characters in your hand at these tables in ways to score points. The board itself has 12 tables on, each with four chairs and a nationality flag. Up to four players can play this game in turns where you hold five cards of characters. A simple game of luck and strategy, can it stand on its own in 2021? In the time attack mode, you score points based on how quickly you place down your characters.įirstly, let’s get the gameplay loop nailed down as I hadn’t played the original board game before. The board game released in 1988 to large acclaim at the time. Sadly, this isn’t quite what’s happened for Café International. When a board game gets given a digital make over, the very least you can do implement some of the wonderful things that digital platforms can provide over physical boards.
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