Old pun, I know. But there’s no better way to explain the chaotic fun!

Panda Party has already established itself at the top of the party games list for our end-of-year Summer Solstice Celebrations. Last year, we had table tennis championships and water bombs (reusable balls–highly recommend). The year before was badminton and football/soccer. This year, we’ll add a table of card games for extra haphazard joy! I mean, who wouldn’t want some awesome pandas at their party?! And Panda Party absolutely deserves a crowd (and an audience). This is the kind of party game that works well with adults and children alike. The more the merrier! When paired with Oh, My Pigeons! and Exploding Kittens, you collect a menagerie of partygoers! Could it possibly get any better?

Hold my panda pint glass. We’re about to find out. 

What is Panda Party?

Another treasure found at PAX Aust 2025, drawing a crowd in the highly admired PAX Indie Showcase section. Panda Party is created by the team at Cheerfolk, based in Canberra (Australia), inspired by their collective love for party games. It combines set collection and hand management with additional deck intervention and ‘take that’ maneuvers. Panda Party shows up with moderate gameplay lasting anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, depending on how strategic/destructive you play. The box says 8 years and older, though I expect experienced 5-year-olds will easily kick butt. The base game suggests 3-6 players, though I have found the sweet spot to be 5 or 6; it is definitely a more-is-better kind of game. There are additional booster packs to add to the fun, but more on those later. 

The core concept of the game is around attracting pandas to your party with food–do not recommend in the wild, but around the game table, anything goes! The first to attract/collect five (5) pandas to their party wins the game. Pandas are known to eat bamboo, but these party pandas also love pizza and doughnuts. As each panda comes out of the deck, players must attract the pandas with food points; the player with the most points in each round ‘wins’ the panda. Sounds easy? Well, that’s just the start. Players also have a range of Action Cards, for their own advantage or to disadvantage others. And The Game won’t help you either: randomly placed Shocks also come with their own forms of good and bad news to upset the gameplay. You really need to be ready for anything. 

What’s in the Box?

Essentially, it’s a box, a divider, a rule book, and 154 adorable cards, split into two decks: Panda Deck and Resource Deck (plus reference cards on the side).

• 74 Food cards (Resources)
  • 39x bamboo (1 point)
  • 25x pizza (2 point)
  • 10x doughnuts (3 point)

• 40x Panda cards
  • 6x individual gold pandas
  • 9x individual silver pandas
  • 25x bronze pandas (mix of characters)

• 21x purple Action cards 
• 6x soft red Paws Off! cards
• 7x soft red Shock cards
• 6x Reference cards

It all packs away neatly in a size-suited box; that, in itself, is an achievement. It’s too easy for the box to be slightly too small or slightly too big, creating the wrong kind of chaos when packing away. Panda Party packs away easily and neatly, so we’re already off to a great start. 

The cards themselves are fairly durable, standard gloss finish sturdy cardboard with bold, bright colours. The writing is absolutely fine in both size and colour–white font against coloured background doesn’t cause any issues for our EG colour-blind members. I especially love the comic characterisation of the pandas, breathing life into the art and giving players pure joy to connect with. The silver and gold pandas have brought a laugh to us, and I can’t wait to go through the new pandas in the Bambooster packs. For something that seems so simple and basic with what’s in the box, the magic is, indeed, in the method

How to Play Panda Party:

I love how straightforward the rules are for this game! Quite simply, cards from the Panda Deck (white back with black panda silhouette) stay on the table. Cards from the Resource Deck (black back with the words Panda Party) can be held in your hand–not all at once!

1. Shuffle each deck separately, thoroughly mixing up all the cards in that deck. 
2. Table set-up is shown in the centrefold of the rule book. 
3. Each player receives seven (7) cards. They can look at their hand but do not show it to others. 
4. Place the Resource and Panda decks face down in the centre of the table next to each other. 
5. Flip over the top card of the Panda Deck and place it face-up next to the Panda Deck. 
6. Play starts with the youngest player and moves clockwise around the table. Every turn consists of two steps.
7. First, draw a card from the Resource Deck
8. Next, take one (1) action from the following:
   1. Attract the face-up panda using food in your hand, spending points equal to or greater than the panda’s value: bronze = 4, silver = 5, gold = 6. OR
   2. Play a purple action card from your hand. OR
   3. Use a power from a gold panda at your party (if you have one). OR
   4. Pass to the next player – no action played. 
9. There is no limit to the number of resource cards in your hand, and running out of cards doesn’t allow you to instantly restock either. 
10. The winner is the first to have five (5) pandas in their party. Don’t allow yourself to be distracted–smart players will slip under your radar!

Take Action and Conquer

Okay. Here’s where the fun begins.

• At Any Time: any player can use a red “Paws Off” card to stop another player’s action. That can stop you from using your Food cards to tempt a panda, playing an action card, or using a gold panda’s power. Now for the brutal part–all resource cards that were offered to feed a panda are discarded. FORFEIT!! But you can always use a Paws Off card against another Paws Off card, and there’s no limit on how many Paws Off cards can be used, or how many players can be caught up in this fiasco. 

• Outbidding: During your turn, you have the first right to attract the face-up panda with food cards from your hand. Then any player can outbid you by offering more food points. There’s no limit on who can bid or how much; however, all resource cards offered in the bidding (even failed offers) are discarded and forfeited! Playing a Paws Off during the outbidding doesn’t automatically win you the panda either, unless you offered the next lowest food points. 
• Silver Panda: If you attract a silver panda or steal them from another player, you immediately take two (2) cards from the deck. Gameplay resumes next in turn.
• Gold Panda: If you attract a gold panda or steal them from another player, you must immediately use their bonus power. If the panda was stolen, gameplay resumes from the player next in turn. While the gold panda remains in your party, you can use their bonus power during your turn–but only one gold power per turn, so choose wisely. 

Open Party for All Ages

This game is absolute chaos, but loads of fun, and so easy for any age. Yes, it is very similar to Exploding Kittens, Oh My Pigeons!, and Sushi-Go! And yet there is still something about it that stands out for me. It might be the character of the pandas, where they really do feel like individuals you see at a party. 

I genuinely like the balance of strategy and random-card-generator. Panda Party is easy to learn; even the youngest or newest players can jump in without feeling overwhelmed. We played this game with one of EG Zaltu’s quietest friends (sweet kid; he is usually lost in our chaos). He absolutely SLAYED in this game. I swear, he sharked us completely! When I asked him for his review, he loved how Panda Party gave space to take action without feeling overwhelmed by other players. The Shock cards often levelled the playing field, taking action out of players’ hands. The action cards were self-explanatory in their use and benefits. But most of all, he liked being able to play his own way–there are multiple ways to win and different ideas work for different people. 

For gameschooling elements, there is nothing in this game that meets any syllabus requirements across Australian education. It’s basically a lot of fun mixed up with lateral creative thinking. 

Where to Buy Panda Party

The best place to buy Panda Party is directly from the developers on their website here: Panda Party. The base game sells for AUD$35, with two additional ‘bambooster’ booster packs for AUD$8 each. I haven’t personally looked at the Bambooster packs, Halloween Party and Beach Party. However, as soon as I publish this review, I am ordering both. The Pawseidon Panda did it for me. How can I resist that?! I have also spotted the game in other game stores; however, if you purchase through the developers, they will donate AUD$1 from each game sold to support pandas and other vulnerable or endangered animals. At the time this review was published, they had donated $910 to Zoos Australia and the World Wildlife Fund. That’s a nice little extra incentive. 

Score: 4.5 sugar-heavy doughnuts. Yeah, that usually brings me to the party too. 

Evil Genius Mum received a review copy of Panda Party for this review. No payments or further incentives were received. All views are my own, with input from the EG Family and friends who played with us. For more information, check out the official Panda Party website here. 

Categories: Curriculum of Evil Gameschooling

Tagged as: Australia board games card games children family games games indie games kids pandas party games PAX Aus review reviews spawnlings tabletop tabletop games

Evil Genius Mum

Evil Genius Mum
- Taking over the world, one blog post at a time