Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
This review continues my series of detailed reviews that attempt to be part review, part resource for anyone not totally familiar with the game. For this reason I expect readers to skip to the sections that are of most interest.
If you liked the review please thumb the top of the article so others have a better chance of seeing it and I know you stopped by. Thanks for reading.
Summary
Game Type - Dice Game
Play Time: 10-15 minutes
Number of Players: 2-4
Mechanics - Dice Rolling, Set Collection, Push Your Luck
Difficulty - Pick-up & Play (Can be learned in under 10 minutes)
Components - Very Good
Release - 2012
Designer - <PERSON>( Aquaretto, Coloretto, Hansa, Mondo, Web of Power/China, Zooloretto)
Overview and Theme
As directors of a zoo each player is aiming...oh come on people...this is a dice game...there really isn't any thematic backdrop of note. Ok sure the aim of the game is to try and fill as many enclosures as possible with animals and avoid overcrowding, but beyond that this is about rolling dice with a few mechanical twists thrown in.
What I can say is that the dice game manages to do a good job of converting the board game( Zooloretto), into a dice based version, whilst still managing to maintain the central mechanic found within the card game, Coloretto.
So in essence this franchise is becoming something akin to a <PERSON> doll...a design within a design, based on a theme, wrapped in a franchise.
But is it any good and is it worth owning if you have any of the other genres? And is it worth having if you already have a good collection of dice games on your shelves...given that we are in a period where dice games are being inhaled faster than oxygen. I hope to answer that question for you by the end of this review.
The Components
The game is a really tight production in relation to size, managing to offer a small board, dice and thick score sheet pad all in the same size box as that of and the original .
Dice - The game comes with 10 dice in all. Each dice offers the same 6 unique faces which include; elephant, lion, monkey, emu, crocodile and coin.
The dice are wooden so they are light and each face is unfortunately printed rather than etched, although my copy hasn't shown any sign of wear as yet. The dice feature a white background coloring and I do wonder if they will grey up and get dirty as per my copy of .
Image Courtesy of itiswon
Delivery Truck Board - A double-sided board serves to illustrate the delivery trucks upon which each dice must be placed after a roll. Each truck has room for 3 dice and crates depict where the dice should be put, which supports the theme nicely.
One side of the board features 3 trucks and the other 4 trucks and these are used for games with varying numbers of players.
Image Courtesy of Hotbutton
Score Pad and Pencil - The final in-game component is the score pad. This features approx. 470
100 sheets in full colour. Each sheet is double-sided so the game offers good value for money in terms of how many plays can be completed before the pad runs out. Of course some people will prefer to laminate and do the china pencil approach.
The sheets themselves are well organised in rows to help support recording and scoring but it is the full colour that makes them really stand out and raises the perception of quality.
Image Courtesy of lacxox
Rules - Given that the game is pretty simple one would think it couldn’t be too hard to get the rules right. Thankfully they are really well written and the game is pretty easy to learn.
The only little pitfall I came across was in triggering the endgame and realising that the coin row is not considered an enclosure. Whilst the word enclosure does suggest animal, the rules are not explicit and it is actually a diagram on page 2 that made this point clear.
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Image Courtesy of <PERSON>
Overall the production of the game is very good and at the asking price it is good value for money. Best of all though is the small box and footprint that this game takes up. Hopefully with games like this and the standard has been set in regards to box shape and size for small filler games. Let's hope that the re-release of the big box is a thing of the past.
Set-up
As befits a dice game that falls in the lighter/filler category, the set-up is really very basic. Each player takes a page from the pad to track the progress of their zoo and they get a writing implement. 872