Cookie Fu is a game designed by Bryan Kowalski and published by Blue Kabuto in 2003. Its a fighting game for two-players and a game (or should I say a match) takes anywhere from five to fifteen minutes to finish. It's classified as a collectible dice game, as you can purchase booster packs that contain more Cookie Fu dice to augment and strengthen your fighter to suit your particular fighting style.
COMPONENTS:
The game (I got the Grandmaster's Return edition) comes with enough dice for two players and a couple of booster packs to help you customize your fighters from the get go. The dice are of excellent quality... they're hefty and have the required images ingrained in each of them (pictured below). Its worth mentioning that my daughter loves the dice and can hold three or four of them in one hand with no problem. So far, the dice have been tossed around, battered, and dropped from decent heights... and they've been more than able to withstand the onslaught.
Picture Submitted By: ckirkman || Taken From the BGG Database
The game comes in a chinese take-out style box, and aside from the dice, also contain a rulebook printed a la take-out menu style and some fortune cookies (yes, they're edible), inside of which contains special moves for specific clans.
GAMEPLAY:
Each player gets a bunch of dice, the number of which depends on what level they're playing at. So far, me and my daughter have only gone up to four dice each (not because she finds it too complicated, but more because I've been too lazy to tear into the boosters) so this review will be based on that. Each player also gets ten life each (you can modify this number to shorten or lengthen the game, depending on your needs). Both players also get something to use as a shield to hide your dice behind in (the game suggests using the rulebook, I find it too darn flimsy so I just use a board game box cover) and you're ready to begin.
To start, each player rolls their clan dice to check for initiative. After that has been determined, both players roll all their "Fu" dice, making sure to keep the results hidden from the opposing player.
Starting with the player who has initiative, players then take turns attacking/blocking each other. For example, player A can play a dice with a punch symbol on it and player B can in turn play a dice with a fan symbol on it to block the attack. Initiative then switches to player B, who then gets the chance to attack (which might in turn be blocked by player A), rinse and repeat until both players either run out of dice, or one (or both) players pass twice, after which you re-roll for initiative, re-roll your "Fu" dice and start again. For every attack that goes unblocked, the defender takes a corresponding amount of damage. The first player to run out of life loses.
WHY CHILDREN WOULD LIKE IT:
The game is very simple, and its as complex as you make it to be. You can choose up to what extent of the rules you want to teach, and yet the game will still remain very playable.
I was able to teach my daughter this game in less than ten minutes, which included explaining what each side of the dice did in excruciating detail. She in turn has been able to teach the game to her aunts and uncles without much difficulty, after which she summarily trashes their behinds (What can I say? The dice love her!).
If you don't like the fighting theme, you can easily change it to something more palatable to your tastes (i.e. perhaps they're performing a dance, etc.) and it really won't detract from the gameplay.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Cookie Fu is not the best game in the world, but it is a game that my daughter and I enjoy immensely. Its not deep or heavily strategic, but it is a game my daughter and I can play on roughly an equal level (any superior plan I might implement is almost always easily foiled by her superior dice rolling).
So if you're looking for a game that's slightly different from the usual HABA and Selecta Spiel fare that you and your child could enjoy, give Cookie Fu a whirl. It might just surprise you.
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