Advert: We were gifted Beaks by Ginger Fox Games. All opinions are ours and our reviews are always honest.

Have you ever dreamt of running your own Michelin-starred fish & chips restaurant on the beach? Well, Beaks is probably the closest you’re going to get! It’s time to serve up our review.

👥 2 to 6 players
⌛ 10 to 20 minutes
🧠 8+ years

Gameplay overview:

In Beaks, you squawk, scrabble and scrap your way to victory as seagulls fulfilling orders at Beaks Takeaway. Various food pieces are piled in the middle of the table in easy reach of all players, and order cards are dealt around the food (2 per player). Each order card lists a number of food items and a value, just like a receipt (e.g. 1 Sandwich, 4 Chips,  4.00). Each player is armed with a ‘beak’, a pair of tweezers, which is their only instrument of war. 

When all players are ready they raise their beak, and wait for the lead player to ‘SQUAWK!’ and start the round. On the sound of the squawk, all players use their beaks to grab whatever food items they want from the middle of the table, one at a time, and place it in front of them in an attempt to complete one of the available orders. 

When a player completes an order they raise their beak and SQUAWK! In response, all other players stop squabbling, put back any food they’re currently holding and SQUAWK back. The order is checked: if the order is completed correctly, the successful player keeps the order card and returns the food to the table. But if there’s a mistake, they have to put the food back and start from scratch!

In some cases, more than one player might finish an order and SQUAWK at the same time. If this happens, both get to check and keep their successful orders – unless they went for the same order, in which case no one gets it and both players put all their food back!

New orders are drawn to replace any completed orders. Then the player who completed an order SQUAWKS to trigger the new round. Play continues in this fashion until the first seagull collects orders totalling 10.00 or more and wins!

Our thoughts:

Beaks is a real-time, chaotic game where players are lawlessly scrambling for food items for their orders. Seagulls are ruthlessly opportunistic and as a player you have to embody this and everything is fair game: grab food from the table, steal from other players’ beaks or food piles – but don’t forget to defend your own. It’s light hearted and laugh-inducing, and it’s clear that silly fun at the game’s heart. The enforced squawking rule adds to the hilarity, and we had a great laugh. Although, you’d have to be pretty confident to do it with enthusiasm if you play in a public setting!

Beaks is a real-time, chaotic game where players are lawlessly scrambling for food items for their orders…it’s clear that silly fun is at the game’s heart!

If you’re really confident with gull impersonations, Beaks might give the practical experience you need to take on the Gull Screeching Championships. 

But it’s not all silly fun, there’s a strategic choice you need to make: do you aim to complete a lot of easier, simpler orders, or go for fewer, more complicated orders. An order with complex shapes like pizza or a cornish pasty are worth more than an order of simpler shapes to pick up, like chips or sausages. Or there’s always secret option number 3: cause absolute gull-grabbing havoc for other players. All valid choices!

Beaks isn’t just a good time, it’s challenging. We found picking up the pieces with our beaks wasn’t as easy as we thought it would be – there’s a definite ‘knack’ to it! – and the pressure of racing for food compounded the challenge. After a few games we were better at picking up the pieces. That said, we did find that the trickier pieces – pizza, pasties, sandwiches – were easier to pick up off a neoprene play mat (or thick tablecloth) as opposed to a naked wooden table. So if you have a rustic dining room table like us you may want to chuck a play mat down to reduce any frustrations, or just lean into the food-flying chaos.

Everything is fair game: grab food from the table, steal from other players’ beaks or food piles…the enforced squawking rule adds to the hilarity, and we had a great laugh!

I loved the bold design on the tin and the game components feel of good durable quality. And I’m not sure whether it was intentional, but I appreciated that there was limited use of plastic (only the tweezers) – the food pieces are wooden and stored in a brown paper bag that feels thematically appropriate.

What we like:

• Simple rules & light-hearted (chaotic) gameplay makes Beaks a good game to play with both experienced & non-experienced board gamers. It’s sure to be a favourite at family game nights!

• It’s clearly designed with fun at its heart. We particularly enjoyed the silly squawking and we had a lot of laughs – especially the tense anticipation waiting for the SQUAWK to trigger the new round.

• I love the box artwork and appreciate that the only plastic was the tweezers (e.g. paper bag for the food).

Considerations:

• A real-time dexterity game is like Marmite, you’ll either like it or not. But Beaks is such a quick game so if it’s not your thing, it’s over quickly.

• The food can be tricky to pick up, especially on naked tables – a neoprene mat is best if you have it. A tip from our friend Alex (Pink Meeple on Instagram) is to let younger players use their beaks to ‘tap’ food to their player area to make it easier for them.

Final verdict:

Beaks is hilarious competitive havoc that embodies the British Seagull down to a tea. Its super quick and light-hearted nature make it a perfect palate cleanser during a gaming session, and we’ve loved playing it with both family and friends. If you enjoy games like Tinderblox, Snatching Pears or Ghost Blitz, we think you’ll enjoy Beaks too. Just remember that the bigger the flock, the bigger the chaos!