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Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza Card Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza Card Game: Rules and Instructions for How to Play

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza How to Play Quick Links: | Objective | Setup | Playing the Game | Finding a Match | Card Meanings | Penalties | How to Win | FAQ | Components |

Objective of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

The objective of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza is to be the first player to play all of the cards from your hand while slapping the pile at the appropriate times.

Setup for Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

  • Shuffle the cards. Deal out all of the cards face down to the players. All of the players should receive the same number of cards. Players should gather their cards into a face down draw pile. You cannot look at your cards though.
  • The player to the left of the dealer starts the game.

Playing Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

On your turn you will flip over the top card from your draw pile. Place the card in the center discard pile. You will flip the card so it faces away from you. You will do this so you can’t see what is on the card before the other players.

As you are flipping over the card you will say a word. The word you will say will be the next word in the following pattern: taco, cat, goat, cheese, pizza. This pattern repeats when you get to pizza, so the next player will say taco. For example the first player will say “taco” as they play their card. The second player will say “cat”. This will continue as each player plays a card.

After you play the card, all of the players will analyze the card and what you said. If the two things do not match, nothing happens and the next player takes their turn. For example you say pizza and a cat is pictured on the card.

Playing a cheese card
The first player flips over this card and says the word “taco” as they flip it. As the card was a cheese and the player said taco, they did not play a match. The next player flips the top card from their draw pile.

Finding a Match

If the picture and the word match, all of the players will race to slap the center discard pile as quickly as possible. For example the player says taco and a taco is pictured on the card.

Playing a matching card in Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza
The current player flipped over this cat card while also saying the word “cat” out loud. As the card matched the word they said, all of the players will race to slap the card as quickly as possible.

The last player to slap the cards takes all of the cards from the center discard pile. They will add these cards face down to the bottom of their draw pile.

Taking the cards from the center discard pile due to slapping the cards last
The last player to slap the cat card takes all of the cards from the center discard pile and adds them to the bottom of their draw pile.

The player that had to add the cards to their draw pile, continues the game. They will flip over the top card from their draw pile and say “taco”.

The Cards of Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza has a number of different cards in the game.

Normal cards

Most of the cards feature a taco, cat, goat, cheese or pizza. These cards have no special impact on the game. When the card matches the word said, the players race to slap the cards. Otherwise these cards have no special action.

There are some unique special cards in Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza that require you to take a special action when they are flipped over. You must take the corresponding action and then slap the center discard pile as quickly as possible. The last player to slap the center discard pile after taking the action, has to take all of the cards from the center discard pile. If you slap the pile after taking the wrong action, you also must take the cards from the center pile. If you perform the wrong action but correct yourself before you slap the pile, you don’t have to take the center pile (unless you were the last to do so).

Gorilla card

Gorilla

When a player flips over the Gorilla card, all of the players must race to beat their chest like a gorilla.

Groundhog card

Groundhog

Should a player play a Groundhog card, all of the players need to knock on the table with both of their hands.

Narwhal Card in Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

Narwhal

When a player plays a Narwhal card, all of the players need to slap their hands together above their head to form a horn.

Penalties in Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

There are a couple of reasons why you may have to pick up all of the cards from the center discard pile. In each of these cases you will add all of the cards to your draw pile, and will then play the top card from your draw pile while saying the word “taco”.

If you are the last player to slap the pile when a match is made, you will pick up the entire center discard pile. This includes when one of the special cards are played and you are the last to take the corresponding action.

Should you ever slap the center discard pile when there wasn’t a match, you will add the center discard pile to your draw pile. If you go for a slap but stop before you slap the cards, this counts as slapping the cards and you still have to add the cards to your draw pile.

Players should play their cards at a steady rhythm. If you break the rhythm by taking too long to play your card or say your word, you will add all of the cards from the center discard pile to your draw pile.

Finally while flipping your cards you need to do so in a way that you don’t see what is on the card before the other players. If you flip a card where you can see what is shown on the card before the other players, you are forced to pick up the center discard pile.

How to Win Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

The goal of the game is to play all of the cards from your draw pile. After you have played all of the cards from your draw pile, the game continues.

On your turn you won’t play a card, but you will still say the next word in the sequence. If this should create a match, the players will slap the pile.

When you have no cards left in your hand, you are still on the lookout for matches or special cards. If you have no cards left in your hand and you are the first to slap the center discard pile correctly (there is a match or you have completed the corresponding action), you will win the game.

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza FAQs

If you have any questions about how to play Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza, leave a comment below on this post. I will try to answer any questions asked as best and as quickly as possible.

Components for Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza Components

  • 64 Cards
    • 11 Taco Cards
    • 11 Cat Cards
    • 11 Goat Cards
    • 11 Cheese Cards
    • 11 Pizza Cards
    • 3 Gorilla Cards
    • 3 Groundhog Cards
    • 3 Narwhal Cards
  • Instructions

If you would like to see my thoughts on the game, check out our Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza review.


Year: 2018 | Publisher: Blue Orange Games, Dolphin Hat Games | Designer: Dave Campbell

Genres: Card, Family, Speed

Ages: 8+ | Number of Players: 2-8 | Length of Game: 10-30 minutes

Difficulty: Low | Strategy: Low | Luck: High

Where to Purchase: Amazon, eBay Any purchases made through these links (including other products) help keep Geeky Hobbies running. Thank you for your support.


For more board and card game how to plays/rules and reviews, check out our complete alphabetical list of board game posts.

Jon

Friday 8th of December 2023

If a player plays their last card and the hand comes back around to them and the player before them says taco and puts down a cat, the player without any card says cat but does not have any cards to put down. There is already a cat on top of the pile from the prior player. Do the players put their hand on the pile because of the matching word and card or do you not put hands down because the word matches a card played by the prior player?

Eric Mortensen

Monday 11th of December 2023

The official instructions do not specifically address this situation. All they say is that a player that no longer has cards left still has to say the next word in the sequence. The rules do not say what happens when there is a match with that word. I can only see there being two reasons why the player would have to still say the next word even if they have no card to play.

It could be that it was meant to just move the pattern forward one word.

The more likely scenario is that it was meant to create matches. This is why I would personally treat it where the player who is out of cards can match the card played by the previous player. In this case the last player to slap the pile takes all of the cards. If a player with no cards left slaps the pile first, they win the game.

Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza Review - Geeky Hobbies

Wednesday 21st of June 2023

[…] you would like to see all the rules and instructions for the game, check out our Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza How to Play […]