Spoilers for Zombie Kidz Evolution
Okay, so you’re not worried about spoilers, and you just want to know what exactly you’re getting for your money? I’ll save at least a few surprises, but I’ll show you the types of things that you’ll find once you start opening up those envelopes.
Hero Powers
Each of the four characters will eventually get a hero power—the first one also includes a large sticker to put into the rulebook about using them. The great thing is that you’ll have a unique ability that helps you fight zombies. The bad thing is that you attract more zombies. Now, instead of just rolling the die and placing a zombie, you might place two zombies on your turn. The second zombie may be placed by rolling the die again, or with some kids, there are special rules for the second zombie.
Super-Zombies
The kids aren’t the only ones powering up: the zombies start getting new powers, too! Each zombie has a special ability that may move zombies or kids around when they show up. In addition, each zombie will have a lair in one of the spaces—if the zombie is in that space, it cannot be eliminated.
Each super-zombie comes with a card explaining its powers and two stickers, which are placed on the back sides of the corresponding zombies. The stickers have brightly colored backgrounds to make it easy to see which room is their lair. (Plus, they match thematically—the gym teacher’s lair is the gym, and so on.)
Clones
Bring in the clones! Each kid will gain access to a clone—that’s what those extra plastic stands were for. The clones look like cooler versions of the original kids, and they have a white background as well. If you’ve unlocked your clone, then when you roll a blank on the die, you place your clone in the same space as your kid. If you roll a blank again, the clone is removed.
When your clone is on the board, you still bring in two zombies each turn according to your hero power card, but you no longer have access to your hero power. Instead, you just move your two standees independently. You could even lock a gate by yourself with your clone.
New Missions
Each of the new features—hero powers, super-zombies, and clones—includes a new mission group, giving you more options for earning trophies, though some of them are particularly tricky! For instance, in the Clone mission group, one mission is to win a game after locking 2 gates during a single player’s turn—that means they have to have their clone active, and two other kids have to be at different gates waiting for them. It takes a good deal of planning, and a bit of luck.
When you’ve unlocked these new powers and abilities, you get to decide which ones you want to put into play each time you play the game. For instance, you might decide that you only want to activate two of the super-zombies instead of all of them. Or you may decide that you’ll forgo your hero power so that you only add 1 zombie per turn.
Final Challenges
If you reach the end of the progress chart and open the final envelope, you’ll find two cards that give you three more challenges to complete. Each one has special rules for setup and gameplay, and you’ll earn trophies if you win the game using specific combinations of kids.
Final Thoughts on Zombie Kidz Evolution—Spoiler Version
I mentioned in my spoiler-free section that I wasn’t entirely happy with the order of the envelopes. What I meant by that is that at first we got some hero powers and zombie powers, and I expected we’d unlock the rest of the kids and the rest of the zombies… but then some kids got clones, too. As it turned out, three of the kids got powers and clones before the kid on the bike even got a power. Most of my plays were with three players (myself and two daughters), so that worked out all right, but if we had been a group of four players, that would mean one player would have no power at all for a long time, while everyone else had two new options to play with. It just seems like strange pacing.
I do like the way that the various powers work, including the way that the kids bring in the second zombie once their powers kick in. Two of them just roll the die again, but one adds a zombie to an entryway, and another adds a zombie in the same space as the first. That can present some challenges but also some opportunities, knowing how you may be able to manipulate where zombies show up.
The zombie powers can also be used to your benefit, if you’re lucky. Before the kid and zombie powers kick in, once there are 3 zombies in a room, they’re stuck there: you can’t enter the room, so they can’t be killed, and you start running out of zombies in the reserve. There are zombies that let you move other zombies, though, so then you can draw a zombie out of a room that has filled up. There are also kids that can move zombies around or shoot zombies in adjacent rooms without entering them, and these powers will become necessary when you start adding two zombies per turn. I like how the difficulty scales up, but the hero abilities also scale up.
So, that’s a closer look inside the envelopes for Zombie Kidz Evolution! I’ve definitely enjoyed playing through the game with my kids, and I’d love to see more games of this sort for kids in the future.
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Disclosure: GeekDad received a copy of this game for review purposes.
