A review of Zombie Dice by Steve Jackson Games
Zombie Dice is a Press your luck dice game. you are a zombie. Not the mindless TV watching kind, but the rotting flesh likes to eat brains type. Your goal is to eat as many brains as you can. If you get shotgunned, that’s ok. Just as long as they don’t hit you three times, because if they do your dead. Well, more dead then you already were.
- Publisher: Steve Jackson Games
- Designer: Steve Jackson
- Number of players: 2 or more
- Run Time: 5 or more minutes
- Retail Cost: $9.99
How do you play?
You roll dice. That’s enough for me. Sign me up. Dice are my favorite!
There are three kids of dice. (Awesome! Three kinds of Dice! It’s like three kinds of heaven. Next you’ll tell me that the dice have weird symbols to represent body parts.)
They Do? WHAT!?! That’s perfect for my “weird symbols that represent body part” obsession! Okey, so I don’t really have an obsession that narrow, but I do really like dice.
This game has dice.
And they are really cool dice.
The general mechanic of the game is to randomly pull three dice out of the dice cup, which is also the container the game is already in. Then you roll all three dice and see what happens.
The dice come in three different colors Green, Yellow, and Red. Each dice represent a different victim for you to attack (you know because you want to eat their brains.) When you roll the dice you can get one of three possible results.
A Brain (which means you eat the one belonging to that victim.)
A Shotgun blast (Which means that victim shot you!)
And feet… or footprints (which mean you get a foot massage. Or that the victim got away. Something like that.)
You need to collect as many brains a you can. (We typically play to 13 brains, but you could play to whatever number you like.) At any point on your turn you may stop rolling dice and collect you brains.
If you get the Footprints you will have to reroll that die the next time you roll.
If you accidentally get three shotgun blasts your dead and you lose all the brain you’ve collected this turn.
So what do you do? Stop with the four brains you have? Or press your luck and risk getting shot to get more brains. You opponents will be making the same decision. Maybe they’ll get less brains then you or maybe they will go all the way and win. This could be your last chance to win, but if you get shot again you’ll lose everything. That is the dilemma at the heart of every turn in Zombie dice.
Is it difficult to Learn?
The rule book isn’t really a rule book. It’s really more of a rule page. It has around 350 words total. This means you have already read more words in this review, then there are in the entire rule page. After you read the rules once you will never need to read them again.
This is a very simple game.
I’ve taught it to my 2 year old how to play. (Yes, that means my two year old already knows about Zombies. But in my defense he didn’t learn it from me. It was the Bubble Guppies Halloween Special. Now you could blame me for letting him watch Bubble Guppies, but really that’s more my wife’s fault. If you’re one of the people who don’t let your kids watch TV, then congratulations you won’t have to watch bubble guppies or decide who’s fault it is that your 2 year old knows about zombies. But you will have to decide how you are going to tell your kids about zombies. That’s not a parenting talk I would wish on anyone. If you want my advice I would recommend the Bubble Guppies Halloween special.)
Okay so I lost my train of thought there for a second. But the point is that this game is super simple. Next Section!
How Thematic is the game?
It Zombies… Next Section!
What comes in the game?
You get the rule page.
A cylindrical container with a pop top lid and a really gaunt looking one eyed zombie printed on the side. You will use the container during the game, which means it’s one of the most practical game boxes ever. It is also surprisingly durable. I’ve had my copy for several years and it still holds its original shape, despite spending a large portion of its life riding around in my wife’s purse.
And 13 dice (6 Green, four Yellow, and 3 Red), the dice are black with colored images. They have a nice wait to them (their few things I like less the really light dice.) Each of the different colored dice has a different arrangement of Brains, Footprints and Shotgun Blasts. The greens favor brains, the yellow are perfectly even, and the red favor shotgun blast (stupid reds).
Overall it’s an impressive set up for such a cheap game.
Is it any good?
I’m really board with Zombies right now. Actually I’ve never been much of a zombie guy. I read the Walking dead comic but I was always kind of irritated that the zombie stuff go in the way of the romance.
Regardless of my disinterest in zombie (note the complete lack of writing a “theme” section for this review.) I still highly recommend this game. it is simple fast and fun. The price point is supper low and I still regularly play it years after I picked it up. It’s not the kind of game you’re going to invite your friend over to play. But if your friends are over for some… other reason, like do stuff… (if they’re not at your house to play games, then why would they be doing at your house?). The point is it’s a good time killer. It fills in the gaps between bigger games. Or you can play it on commercial breaks while you’re watching Bubble Guppies. Because it come sis such a small durable container it’s a great game to take with you when you go places. Like the airport, or the Supermarket. Just don’t ask the checkout guy to play with you, Or the TSA. I don’t think they like that kind of thing.
How is it available?
It’s probably at the supermarket. No seriously. You can get this game almost anywhere. It’s at Walmart or Target and of course you can (and should) get it at your local game store. You might also be able to get it from the Confiscated Materials room at the Kansas City Airport. But you need to get the keys from a TSA Agent.
There are several Expansions that add additional dice and extra rules. I have never played the expansions so I don’t know if their good… but I can guarantee they exist.
Okay well the review is done. You may go now.
Thank you.
Deeper Than Dice 