Banquet Royal
A visual feast that leaves you hungry
Designer: Alain Rivollet Artist: Vincent Joubert
If Banquet Royal teaches us anything, it’s that royals, even if imaginary, eat simple foods: burgers, salads, fruit and – to bring some fancy into the equation – trifles. However, what they lack in originality when it comes to choosing dishes, they make up for with quantity and presentation.
Although players are cooks in the game, rushing to fulfil the orders of capricious royals, the only time the game itself makes players work is right at the start, when all the dishes need to be popped out of cardboard and assembled together. This effort pays off as the dishes start populating the game board, creating a beautiful colourful three-dimensional forest and filling the entire spread by the end of the game. Look a little closer, though, and it isn’t hard to see where the artwork came off the cardboard through popping or pieces are just a little bit too wobbly.