Designers: Molly Johnson, Robert Melvin, and Shawn Stankewich
Player Count: 2 to 6 players
Play Time: About 5 minutes per player
Rules Complexity: Very simple
Retail Price: $25
Upsides
Extremely simple to learn and widely accessible gameplay for kids and adults
Quick to set up, quick snappy turns, quick to tally up and score
Broadly appealing theme makes it a welcoming and inoffensive game for all groups
Downsides
Sort of plays itself due to a nominal decision space and too much of a luck factor
Flat overall game arc without any exciting highs, devastating lows, or engaging tension
Stale replayability that feels repetitive across multiple game sessions
Box too large for its small gameplay, plus card quality doesn't feel like it will hold up over time
In a nutshell...
Point Salad isn't a bad game, but it's impotent. A lot like a bag of chips, it's empty calories that taste good in the moment but leave no lasting fill or satisfaction. Too much luck and a flat overall experience make it forgettable. While it's a fine time killer if I had nothing else to do, I never reach for it over other games.
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It's surprisingly hard to find simple card games that are easy to learn, quick to play, widely appealing, with unique mechanisms, engaging gameplay, and addictive replayability. Hundreds of new card games come out every year, and most of them barely make a splash, let alone deliver a strong enough punch to remain fun and relevant for years to come.
Point Salad looked to be one such game when it came out in 2019, with widespread acclaim across the board gaming hobby. So simple! So fun! So fresh and interesting! But five years after release, Point Salad has run out of steam. A flash in the pan, as it were. It was a pioneer in some ways, but it didn't have the lasting power it needed to stay up there.
I recently revisited Point Salad to give it a proper review. Here are my experiences with it and everything you need to know to decide whether or not it's still worth adding to your collection.
This review is based on my own personal copy of Point Salad, which I bought new from Cardhaus. Not a free review copy.
Point Salad is a darn simple card game. Players take turns drafting cards from a central card market to collect Veggie cards and Point cards that form your final score when the market empties.
Veggie cards come in six types: Cabbage, Carrot, Lettuce, Onion, Pepper, Tomato. No Veggie is necessarily better or worse than another. It all depends on how many you're able to collect (or avoid), along with the particular Point cards you're able to gather.
Point cards have scoring rules that grant you points for collecting certain types, amounts, and sets of Veggies. Every Point card has a unique scoring rule, and that scoring rule only applies to whoever owns that card. One card might grant you a smooth 2 points per Pepper, another might score 8 points per set of Onion + Tomato + Lettuce, and another might grant 5 points for every Veggie type you don't have at the end of the game.
What makes this interesting is that every card in Point Salad is double-sided—one side is a Veggie card and the other side is a Point card. This means every time you draft a card, you're sacrificing whatever's on the other side of that card. To understand why that's important, I have to explain how the card drafting and turn actions work. But don't worry. It's simple.
When a Veggie card is taken from the market, the respective Point card at the top of that column flips over to become a Veggie that refills the market.
The central card market in Point Salad starts with three stacks of Point cards. For each stack, two cards are drawn off the top and flipped to their Veggie sides, for a total of six available Veggie cards. Whenever Veggies are taken from the market, Point cards are drawn and flipped from their respective stacks to replenish the Veggie market back up to six cards.
One possible action is to take two Veggies from the market. In this example, I'm taking both Onions. The respective columns' Point cards would then flip over to refill the market.
So, how are Veggie cards taken? On your turn, you have a choice between two actions: you can take any two Veggies from the market or you can take any one Point card from a stack. Whatever you take is placed on the table in front of you as your personal tableau.
Here's an example collection of Point and Veggie cards mid-game. I can flip Point cards over to their Veggie sides, but never flip Veggies back over.
There's one more rule in Point Salad: after you've taken cards, you can optionally flip one of your own Point cards to its Veggie side. (Every Point card has a little indicator in the corner that shows which Veggie is on its opposite side.) But you can never flip a Veggie card to its Point side.
And that's it! Players take turns doing this until the central card market runs out of cards, then each player tallies up their own score based on their Point cards and Veggie cards. Whoever has the most points wins.
Setup and Table Footprint
Point Salad is fast to set up, especially at a full six players. You just take the entire deck, shuffle it up, split it into three stacks of Point cards, flip over two Veggies from each stack, and you're good to go. About 2 minutes.
With fewer than six players, it's a little slower because you have to count out or remove a certain number of each Veggie type depending on how many players there are. For example, with three players, you count out nine of each Veggie type for a total of 54 cards.
Table footprint example for a three-player game in progress.
Point Salad's table footprint is also pretty modest for a tableau-building card game, but it's far from a compact game. The central card market is a nine-card square, and each player needs enough personal table space for six Veggie stacks plus a handful of Point cards.
On my standard 3-foot-by-3-foot card table, I can comfortably fit a three-player game and maybe fit a cramped four-player game. If I wanted to play with five or six players, everyone would have to make accommodations and it wouldn't be as smooth or quick to play.
Learning Curve
Point Salad is really easy to learn. Take two Veggie cards or a Point card. Anyone can understand that, and the concept of set collection is so basic that even non-gamers know how it goes.
The only real hiccup is that every Point card has a unique scoring rule and some of them are easier to explain than others. Non-gamers might balk at having to process so many Point cards, but anyone who has even a fleeting interest in games should have no problem with it.
Game Experience
Decision Space
Point Salad has a decent amount of decision space, which is to say that it isn't completely mindless. You have enough to assess every turn that it isn't boring. But at the same time, you only have so many good choices mixed in with clearly bad choices, so it does kind of play itself at times.
Should I take one Point card or two Veggie cards? This is your main decision. Maybe there's a Point card that fits perfectly with all the Veggies you've already collected, instantly earning you big points. Or maybe there are Veggies that fit perfectly with the Point cards you have, feeding you a few more points. This is all you really do about three-quarters of the time.
But early on, you don't have enough cards collected to know what's going to score you big points, so you just have to pick something and hope for the best. Often that means taking Point cards and setting yourself up with opportunities to score in the future, and you can usually tell which Point cards offer the best bang for your buck.
What Veggies are still out there? There are six Veggie types and a fixed number of each type in the deck. You need to pay attention to which ones have come out and been drafted, as that will inform how likely you are to fulfill the Point cards you have and which Point cards to avoid. If all but one of the Carrots have been taken, it's best to skip all Carrot-related Point cards going forward. You basically have no chance of completing them.
Should I flip a Point card into a Veggie? As the game progresses, you might realize that one of your Point cards can't be completed anymore, or it may end up not scoring you as many points as you'd hoped, or it's actively hurting you with negative points, or you need the Veggie on its opposite side to score big points with a different Point card.
Here's an example of complementary Point cards. With these, every Pepper and Lettuce I collect contributes to both Point cards, amplifying my scoring potential.Here's an example of clashing Point cards. Cabbages are needed for one while the other penalizes points for every Cabbage in my collection.
Knowing that you can do this lessens the risk of taking Point cards (you aren't stuck with picks that didn't pan out) and it gives you a way to get Veggies when the card market isn't in your favor (opt to take a Point card and immediately flip it into a Veggie). It's not a huge move, of course, but it's one to always consider and it's nice to have the option.
Ultimately, Point Salad is a lightweight game and these decisions are neither tough nor involved. While there are things to think about, it's not an analysis paralysis sort of game because you only have so many viable choices. It's breezy and accessible, without much to get bogged down in.
Luck Factor
There's a ton of luck in Point Salad. It is, after all, just a shuffled deck of cards that randomly spits out Veggies as other Veggies are taken. You have no control over which Veggies come out and which Point cards you'll be able to choose from on your turn. You also have no way to influence the deck or change up the market if you don't like it.
If you're going all in on Peppers but no Peppers show up, you're screwed. If Peppers do show up but they're snatched before it gets to your turn, you're screwed. If you have Point cards that penalize you for Onions and Carrots but the card market is only Onions and Carrots, you're screwed. In essence, you're presented with a random mess and you have to make the best of it.
Sometimes you need Peppers and there aren't any in the market.
Fortunately, you do have a little bit of mitigation with the ability to flip Point cards into Veggie cards. Don't like the card market? Take a Point card instead. Don't like any of the Point cards? You can at least see what Veggies are on their opposite sides and take one that works for you. It's not as good as taking two Veggies, but it's better than taking two bad Veggies.
Overall, I'd say Point Salad is about 75% luck and 25% strategy. You can make the best decisions on every turn, but some turns will naturally be better than others for reasons beyond your control.
Fun Factor
Point Salad isn't really a "fun" game. It's a relatively flat experience without many highs or lows. I don't really find myself hoping for certain cards to show up or excited that I'm able to grab a particular pairing of Veggies. And even when I want those Veggies in the market, if someone else happens to grab them, it's more of a "Oh well" than a "Darn it!" feeling.
It just is what it is and I'm going with the flow. Point Salad doesn't stir up excitement or frustration or table talk. It's a passive game that doesn't demand much of you, making it a pleasant way to kill time when there's nothing else to do but not an experience I actively seek out.
Pacing
Point Salad plays fast, doesn't outstay its welcome, and it's even easy to tally up the points at the end despite it being a "point salad" calculation.
Downtime is not an issue in Point Salad. Sure, some players may take more time than others when assessing the card market and deciding which cards they want to take, but even the longest turns are still tolerable. There isn't that much to process, and your next turn swings around quickly.
Your tableau continues to build every turn, so there's forward momentum.
I also appreciate the game arc, if only because it does feel like your tableau is building toward something. You're constantly balancing Point and Veggie cards, playing them off each other, evolving your score upwards with (almost) every turn. If nothing else, it's a feel-good arc.
Player Interaction
There's minimal player interaction in Point Salad. You can never directly affect another player's tableau. The most you can do is draft cards that others might want to deny them points, but that's rarely the driving force in what you choose to draft. It's just better to maximize your own tableau for points—and if you just so happen to need the same cards as someone else, denying them those points is a fortuitous bonus on top.
Player Counts
As with most open drafting games, Point Salad is more strategic with fewer players and more chaotic with more players. But at least here, the pacing is pretty consistent and snappy enough at all player counts.
With two players, you have more control over the card market and what you can get out of it. You can sort of plan what you want to do on your next turn and act accordingly on your current turn, using your opponent's tableau to predict what they might do in between. Despite this, Point Salad is still pretty chaotic, and honestly I find it boring at this player count.
With four or more players, it's just a full-blown chaotic mess. The entire market changes between your turns, so you can't predict anything or plan ahead. It's entirely tactical, where every turn essentially presents you with a random assortment of cards and you just have to figure out which ones best fit your growing tableau of Point cards.
Replayability
Point Salad has a lot of variability in its deck, comprised of 108 unique cards with no repeating Point scoring rules. The order in which these come out and the possibility of claiming them is different from game to game, so in a sense, no two games are ever alike. You always have a unique game state—the card market of Point cards and Veggie cards—to assess and decide what your best action is for any given combination of cards.
But does that mean replayability? I'm not so convinced. I've played more than a dozen games and I come away from it every time thinking that it's pretty shallow and repetitive. A lot of the decisions tend to make themselves, and the heavy luck factor makes it feel like you don't have much control over victory even with the best decisions. You go through the motions and see who just happens to rack up the most points by the end.
What this means for me is that I see Point Salad sitting on my shelf but never feel like pulling it out. I appreciate what it is—a very light set collection game with wide appeal and decent decision space—but it's more of a time killer than anything. If I were stuck at an airport and had no other games on hand, I'd be happy to play this. But in any other scenario, I have a dozen other simple games that play as quickly with more replayability.
Production Quality
I'm neutral on Point Salad's production. It's passable, but also has some quirks that annoy me. It could be better, but it isn't terrible.
Artwork and aesthetics have broad appeal. I've yet to meet anyone who's offended or turned off by fruits and vegetables as a theme. Kids and adults alike can enjoy it, and the mobile-game-esque art style is inviting. You can bust this out with any group and people will accept it.
Iconography and graphic design are intuitive. The cards are generally easy to read at a glance, even from across a table. The scoring rules for Point cards mostly make immediate sense, and I love that each Point card clearly shows which Veggie is on the other side by the corners. As for the Veggie sides, they're unambiguous and delightfully aesthetic.
The only real issue I've run into is that Tomato and Onion cards can sometimes be confused for each other. The colors and icons are surprisingly similar, and I wonder why they didn't switch out Onions for, say, Eggplant (which could've been a black-ish color). Fortunately, the large "Tomato" and "Onion" text is there to clear up misunderstandings.
Card quality is decent. For the price, I'm surprised Point Salad's cards aren't more durable. They're thin and flimsy, prone to warping if you aren't gentle with them. And though they have a linen finish, it's so faint that they feel far from protected. Given how often these cards are shuffled and handled, I recommend sleeving them. (And I'm not even an avid sleever!)
I'm disappointed in the box size and insert. I've really grown to dislike simple card games that come in larger-than-necessary boxes, presumably so they can stand out on shelves and increase sales. But there's too much air in the box for what's nothing more than a 108-card deck, and I don't want it taking up so much space on my shelves.
The Bottom Line
Point Salad isn't a bad game by any means, but it's somewhat impotent. It's very much a bag of chips: empty calories that taste good in the moment but leave no lasting fill or satisfaction. There's too much luck and a flat overall experience that makes it forgettable. While it's a fine time killer if I had nothing else to do, I'd never reach for it over another game.
