REVIEW: Zombie Dice

I finally had a chance to play this game with a couple friends, and oh what brain-eating fun there was to be had. You wouldn’t think that such a simplistic game would be so entertaining, but sometimes those are the best I suppose.

Now a lot of this game is luck, but there is one huge strategy element, which can make or break the player.. Gameplay is simple enough: roll 3 of the 13 dice. Each Brain you get, you keep — you ate a victim (and get a point). Each Footprint you get, you can reroll — the victim ran away. Each shotgun you get, you keep — you got shot (and are that much closer to losing). After three shotguns, you’re dead, and you get NO points for that round. You can choose to keep rolling or stop rolling at any point. First person to 13 brains, wins. Of course, the strategy element is choosing when to keep rolling, and when to stop, passing it on to the next player. Of the 13 dice, some are colored green, with more brains on them; some are yellow, with less brains on them; and some are red, with only a couple brains on them. You of course take this into account when trying to decide whether to re-roll or not. Games don’t last too long, so you don’t get tired of the repetitive nature of the game (just rolling dice over and over).

The game consists of the 13 dice and a cylindrical shaker (with cap), which the instructions neatly fit into. It’s small enough to be portable; in fact, when we played it, we took it to a pool hall to play when not shooting pool.

For the MSRP of $13.13, I think it’s a good deal (ThinkGeek has it for $12.99). I was even fortunate enough to get it half off at a board game/toy store that was going out of business. The website for the game is quite comprehensive for a simple game like this one: YouTube videos, downloadable instructions, FAQs, Flash demo, etc. Apparently there’s also a free iPhone/iPad app, which I just downloaded, so if you don’t have the cash to buy a hard copy of the game you can at least get a feel for it that way (gameplay is exactly the same). It has amusing “brraaaiiinnns” sound affects and animation.

All in all, this is a fun, entertaining way to spend a half hour or so; not just for the zombie fan, but for game fans in general. I’d give it 5/5 brains. Go get the game and eat some.

Available at ThinkGeek!

Unboxing Video