(NOTE: I was given a free game from Playmonster.com to review but all opinions are my own.)
Everyone loves going to amusement parks, right? But what if you’re trapped inside the park? At night?
What if the park janitor is a zombie? What if he is out to get you? Will he capture you and turn you into a zombie?
Or will you be able to escape?
The only way to escape the janitor-turned-zombie is to find the gate key that is kept in a dark, spooky shed. The janitor’s shed.
Before you can retrieve the key from the shed, you need a flashlight. (After all, the shed is creepy dark!)
Can you find a flashlight in the park? Can you sneak to the shed to get the key?
And most importantly, can you make it out of the park without being turned into a zombie?
If so, then you win! Huzzah!
If the zombie-janitor zombifies you, you still have a chance to win. If you turn the last human in the park into a zombie, you win!
Now that you know a wee bit about playing the game, let me chat with you about some of the things that I like about it.
I think the game box is pretty cool. The flap on the front opens up and reveals the backstory for the game. I think that design element is pretty clever.
I also really like the playing pieces. The cardboard pieces have a picture of a person on one side. The other side has a zombified version of that person.
Players start the game with the picture of a regular person facing out. If she gets turned into a zombie, the player turns her playing piece inside out to show the zombified version.
In the picture below, the zombie janitor game piece is green. It’s on the right-side of the game board.
That other green game piece? To the left of the janitor? Well, that’s my game piece. I’ve been turned into a zombie. Sigh . . .
There is an interesting twist to each turn. There are 2 dice — a white one and a green one.
You roll both of the dice. You move your game piece the number of squares indicated on the white dice. Then, you move the zombie-janitor the number of spaces indicated on the green dice.
(Zombie slime is green so it’s fitting that the color of the dice for the janitor is green.)
I like that because you get a chance to somewhat control the zombie-janitor. If he is coming after you, you can move him in the opposite direction.
Or, you can send him after another player — especially if that player is close to winning! (My grandkids really liked this feature of the game!)
There’s another feature that I like. The game has cardboard tiles that are ‘shuffled’ and placed facedown on the game board.
This way, players don’t know where the flashlight tiles are. They don’t know where the (safe) cotton candy tiles are, or the zombie slime ones (that turn you into a zombie), or the manhole tiles (that take you directly to the shed).
If those features were printed directly on the game board, everyone would know exactly where they were.
But, having them on tiles that are place randomly on the red squares on the game board makes the game a little edgy. Players don’t know what’s on a tile until they land on it and turn it over.
While this is a strategy game, it isn’t difficult to learn. After reading the directions once, my granddaughters picked it up right away. They didn’t have to refer back to the directions at all.
My grandkids loved playing this game. We played it a couple of times straight in a row. They wanted to play it more but couldn’t because they had to leave. Rats.
The concept of this game is novel. It’s appealing because, come on, who doesn’t like zombies? It’s kid tested and kid approved (by my grandkids) so I know that families will have fun playing it. For sure. I highly recommend it!
It’s fun to play during October when ghouls, witches, and zombies come out.
It’s fun to play on a cold wintery day when it’s too cold to play outside.
It’s fun to play when it’s sizzling hot outside and it’s cooler to stay indoors.
In fact, I think ANY time is a fun time to play this game!
Zombie Chase is for 2-6 players ages 7 and up. You can get it from Playmonster.com or Amazon for $19.99.
