Quick Review - Zombie Dice

Zombie Dice
Designer: Steve Jackson
Publisher: Steve Jackson Games

Quick Review - Zombie Dice

For my son's fifth birthday he got his own copy of Zombie Dice.  He's been asking for it ever since seeing it on Wil Wheaton's TableTop (which is also the same episode where he saw Get Bit and decided he wanted that, too).  This evening we played Zombie Dice for the first time.  We were at a campground and Zombie Dice was a great game to play with my in-laws at the picnic table.

The game was quite fun.  It wasn't the best game I've ever played, but as far as casual press-your-luck type games go, it was very enjoyable.  Like most press-your-luck games, there was very little strategy and a significant lack of control over the outcome.  In the game you take on the role of a zombie, out to eat brains and avoid getting shot.  Basically, you roll dice to see if you get brains, shotgun blasts, or runners.  If you get shot three times you lose whatever brains you've collected that turn.  So the object is to collect brains and stop once you get two shotgun blasts.  Usually this is fine, but sometimes you might have only one and then roll two shotgun blasts on your next roll, wiping out all your collected brains.  And occasionally you'll roll three shotgun blasts all in one roll (that happened twice during our game).  So the game is all luck.  But that didn't mean it wasn't fun.

My boys had a great time laughing at Busia (their grandmother) because she kept pushing her luck and rolling dice, even when she had two shots.  One time she had 9 brains and 2 shots and still rolled.  The boys thought that was hilarious, and they thought it was even funnier that she ended up the game with a big ol' 0 brains.  So we had a good time playing, and it was super casual and pretty quick to play, but I don't think the game will have a whole lot of staying power.  It might get pulled out occasionally, and might be fun to play a round or two of before or after a bigger game on game night, which is probably what it's mostly geared toward.  But the lack of any real control will keep this with the second rate games on our shelf.  Fun once in a while, but left on the shelf most of the time.  But, I could be proved wrong...  It is simple enough that my boys can play on their own, so we'll see if they play it together more.  They definitely had fun tonight!

Playing Zombie Dice at the campground.

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Preliminary Rating: 6/10

GJJG Game Reviews are independent, unpaid reviews of games I, George Jaros, have played with his family and friends.  Some of these games I own, some are owned by friends, some are borrowed, and some are print and play versions of games.  Where applicable I will indicate if games have been played with kids or adults or a mix (Family Play).  I won't go into extensive detail about how to play the game (there are plenty of other sources for that information and I'll occasionally link to those other sources), but I will give my impressions of the game and how my friends and family reacted to the game.  First Play Impression reviews will only get a single rating of 1-10 (low-high) based on my first impressions of the game during my first time playing.  Hopefully I'll get more chances to play the game and will be able to give it a full review soon.