Donut Shop Review—Tastes great, less filling

As this gig has me reviewing a whole host of games that are outside of my typical comfort zone, I've grown an appreciation for chiller, maybe a bit simpler, games I can put in front of my non-gamer wife and mother and have something to do while we hang out that doesn't occupy all our cognition, kinda like reality TV or non-playoff baseball (aka all baseball in Colorado). That's right y'all, I'm officially entering my cozy arc, and Donut Shop is the first of my reviews that I'm lumping under that umbrella.

All players do on their turn is add the tile in their hand to the display, grab points for the largest group of donuts they added to, and grab a face-up order or tile, and draw randomly from the supply of the other. There’s also the option to fill an order, but more on that later. The common critique against games with this little decision space is that it's more activity than game, and I've recently levied that accusation against Betrayal if I'm being honest with you. For me, there's a breakpoint of investment required, be it time, mental effort, whatever, that puts a game in a “why though” zone that Donut Shop sits comfortably outside of, although it might toe the line of mindless. That is to say, Donut Shop is a lot like that cute guy you regret hooking up with: it's not all that smart, so it's got to rely on its looks. Thankfully, it's got my favorite components in a game this cheap. That display case doesn't just hold the offering of tiles, it holds up the whole damn game.

If the components are Donut Shop's vibes-based filling, the order mechanic is its icing. Other light games have little brinkmanship and/or microefficiency mechanics, but orders bring just the right amount of crunch. After a player drops their tile for their turn, they can drop an order box on the table by discarding order cards corresponding to the donuts they're covering. The dream is using one card to grab the largest box, but you could play with yourself and that'd never happen, so the real game is deciding where you're going to compromise. Everyone's point is going to be different, and that's what makes Donut Shop an interesting diversion. Granted, it's not an enormously finesse-able decision, but for a game where you halfway pay attention, and then it ends to say “wow you're a donut genius, here's a million billion points!”, it's enough.