Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not as much fun as you'd expect, given how great ZOOBs are..., August 30, 2007
Durability:4.0 out of 5 stars Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars Educational:3.0 out of 5 stars
We love Zoobs, and I bought this game thinking my 5 year old would enjoy it. But it is pretty boring, honestly. My son played once with me, and then he said, "Don't we have a big box of these? Let's go build our own stuff with them!" I will be surprised if we ever play it again.
The game comes with just a few project cards, perhaps 15 or so, and not a lot of Zoobs. To play, you get a project card, roll a die, travel around a plain game board, land on a space, and pick up the color of the zoob you've landed on, and so on, until you've collected all the color Zoobs you need. Then you roll the die until you get to the finish line, at which point you try to build your simple Zoob project.
What could have improved this game?
1. More interesting and involved project cards. Most of the cards had simple projects made from 7-10 Zoobs. I think you really need projects with 20-30 to get anything kids will find cool. A couple of cards tell you which Zoobs to pick up and let you make whatever you want. It might be nice for some cards to provide flexibility but also some guidelines, such as, "Make a 4-legged animal using 18 Zoobs", and so on.
2. More variety in the game board spaces - most of them allowed you to pick up one zoob of a specified color, and a few allowed you to swap a zoob or take a zoob from another player. But that was it.
3. More zoobs!
If your child is interested in building things, I'd forgo this game and just get him a nice set of Zoobs.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A new favorite game!, July 15, 2008
Durability:5.0 out of 5 stars Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars Educational:5.0 out of 5 stars
I was a bit hesitant to purchase this game based on one of the reviews about it being boring, but I decided to give it a try anyway since I liked that it was a completely different way to play with Zoobs.
To summarize the game, you roll a die and move around the game board in any direction you want as you try to collect all of the necessary pieces to create the Zoob object on your creation card (of which there are 24 included with the game). You can land on a space with a specific color you take from the box or different action spaces which allow you to take a piece from another player, trade one of your pieces for another players piece, or choose any piece you want out of the box. There is also one "Zoob" space in the middle where you don't choose a piece, but where you are also safe from any other player taking or trading pieces with you. Since the board has many different paths to take, you can count out the spaces in different directions to decide where to move by which space will be of most benefit to you, or most disruptive to other players. Once you have all of the pieces you need to build whatever is on your creation card, you go to the finish space, then race to build your creation while the other players continue with the game and try to catch up. The instructions say to keep your creation card a secret from the other players, but we have played it with them showing, too. It can be a friendly game of gathering pieces, or it can be a very fast-paced game of strategy where you try to get the pieces you need, while trying to keep the necessary pieces away from the other players. Since there is a limited number of each color of Zoob pieces, it is not unusual for some colors to not be available in the box when you need them, and therefore have to start swapping and swiping from other players, which is where some luck and strategy enters the game. This isn't always very friendly, but completely within the rules of the game!
When my 4 year old plays, the winner is whoever gets to the finish space first, since she is still learning how the pieces go together. (Or if her creation card is of something that can lie flat on the floor, she can put the pieces out to match the picture, but doesn't have to have it fully assembled.) We also keep the cards showing so I can help her keep track of what she needs as the game progresses. She also loves that the creations on the game cards are a bit more manageable for her to build just for fun.
My 6 year old, who is really picky about playing games, loves being able to take and trade pieces and is already learning the strategy of the game. It is so much more than just wandering around the board collecting the pieces you need to complete a small creation. He quickly learned that he could sabotage the efforts of other players, and has so much fun with this idea, that sometimes he ends up messing up the pieces he is trying to collect in the process. (When the picture on the creation cards is hidden from each other it becomes more of a game of chance, but when each player knows what the other players are trying to get, it makes for a very different game of intentional sabotage!)
This particular set is meant to be a game where creating with Zoobs is just one part of the goal. It is not meant to utilize the full potential of creating with Zoob pieces. The game certainly has the potential to be modified in different ways by adding more Zoob pieces or even making up your own more complex creation cards. You could also make up your own wild cards with or without creation criteria as suggested in a previous review. For our family, it is fun just the way it is, but I like knowing that it has more potential! If you are looking for a creative building toy, stick with the larger sets of Zoobs. If you are looking for a game to introduce various levels of strategy, then this is a great start. The closest thing I can think of to compare it to is a very active game of Uno, but with a goal of collecting pieces instead of trying to eliminate all of your cards. It may be a bit of a reach, but if you think of the strategy part of that game, and how fast the game can turn around, hopefully that will give you a better idea. We very highly recommend this game!!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome Game!!, February 18, 2007
My 8 yr old son got this for Christmas and he played it non-stop!! We were looking for a fast paced game that his friends could play too. He is very smart and can play games designed for 12 yr olds and up but it is hard for his friends to play with him. This is great and can be played in the hour window of time my 2 yr old takes a nap!
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