Hut! Hut! Hike!: TGG Reviews Pizza Box Football

Game Name: Pizza Box Football

Publisher:  On The Line Game Company

Designers: Eric Smith and Scott Smith

Year: 2005

Genre: Lightweight football simulation

Players: One or two players

Ages: 8+

Playing time: 60 Minutes

MSRP: $29.99 

I picked this game up a while ago, but was waiting for the right mood to hit me before I actually sat down to play.  Well, football season is here again so the time is right.  I’ll admit I was a little leery, the game does after all come in a pizza box.  Inside is a game board that fits inside the open pizza box.  There are two reasons I see that they did this:  1) It helps you hide which dice you select from the opposing player, and 2) you need to be able to stick the pegs into the board.  The game I played had the board bending up so that it wasn’t completely flat, which was a bit annoying, but not terribly so.The game comes with pegs that you stick into the game board to track everything.  The clock, the down, the score, the ball, timeouts, etc.   In the board are 100 holes marking each yard on the playing field, and you track the ball progress by moving your peg up and down the board.  Additionally, the game comes with 5 nicely laminated sheets with all of the charts you need to play the game.  Each chart has a symbol that identifies them for easy reference.  There are also many dice to use, all color coded and even size coded.  Finally, the game comes with a stat sheet tablet so that you can track your team’s statistics if you want to.

My son and I set this game up in two minutes, read the rules for three and started playing a full professional game.  There are four different game options included depending upon how long of a game you wish to play from 5 minutes to an hour.  In truth, the professional game took us almost two hours, but of course it was our first time.

To begin, there is a kickoff and return chart.  Roll the dice and refer to the chart to see where the offensive team starts play.  After that, for each down the defensive player selects one of three dice in secret (plus a white die) depending upon whether they will be defending against a run, short pass, or long pass.  Hiding the die in your hand, you tell the offensive player that you are ready.  The offensive player tells you which play they selected, then you roll the defense dice and refer to the defense chart to see what (if any) modifiers are applied to the offense’s own die roll.

The offense then rolls and refers to the offensive play chart based upon which play they selected and which defense was selected.  The results usually consist of a number of dice to roll to get yardage.  It is not really quite that simple, there are many results that can occur, from sacks to fumbles, quarterback mishaps, breakaways, bonus yardage, all referred to by symbols on the chart.  It did take some fiddling to figure out each result at times, but keep in mind we spent 3 minutes reading the rules.

The rules are just like regular football, you can score touchdowns, extra points, field goals (there is a field goal chart), safeties, and two-point conversions.  There are punts and on-side kicks too.  All throughout, you just keep moving the peg and the first down marker up and down the board to track location.

There is a way to track time as well.  In the professional game, there is a chart that shows how long each play selected takes although it is not by any means complex.  It is either 4 units, 1 unit, or no units.  You track this with a peg in the time area of the board.  you can call timeouts, and there is also clock-stoppage at the two-minute warning.  It is fairly easy, as long as you don’t forget to do it.

Surprisingly, the game ended with a pretty realistic score: 21-17 (I lost).  It was a lot of fun, but the game we played went a little long, so maybe we’ll try a different version next time.  There are expansions to the game which give a new play chart for each team in the NFL, adjusting the charts depending upon the strengths and weaknesses of each team.  The last I found online was for the 2008 season, but I did not see it available anywhere.  I am not sure if  On The Line Games is still publishing them or not, but it doesn’t look like it.

There is a downloadable league scoresheet available at the company’s website if you register, so you can run a full season with your pals if you wish.

This game was fun, and it was simple to play.  We played a game while watching the Sunday games on tv, and it was perfect.  The kind of game that you could play while drinking beer and eating snacks (remember, the charts are laminated).  So if you like football, it is a great buy.  If you don’t then you probably didn’t read this review anyway.

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Elliott Miller

Elliott is well versed in all tabletop gaming subjects and brings his expertise mostly to bear on strategy, family, and Euro-style gaming.

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