Zoo Run
Overall Rating: 8/10
Age: 4+
GLAM Age Range: 4-10
Number of Players: 1-5
Playing Time: 10 min
Publisher: LOKI
Complexity: Low
Available At: Amazon.com
Quick Take: Two games in one! You can flip the board to choose between cooperative and competitive games. Both have the same general game play. You're trying to make the most matches possible on the cards you're given. The first game, Free the Animals, is cooperative and for ages 4+. The Race of the Year is a competitive game for ages 6+. Both are really fun, we end up playing the cooperative one more (friendship!) but both versions are pretty great.
How to Play: Free the Animals (cooperative game) rules: Each player is given three cards per turn to make as many animal matches as possible. You're trying to free all the animals in the pen before the zoo keeper arrives. It's rather challenging to accomplish this, we appreciate that they have a rating chart for the end of the game giving varying levels of praise for the number of animals freed because ending with 0 animals is quite the achievement.
Race of the Year (competitive game) rules: Flip the board to the race track side. Each player picks an animal and on your turn you are given four cards to make as many matches as possible. You move one spot for each match, except for matches that are of your animal, for those you move two spaces. You also get to keep one card at the end of each turn and draw three new cards to make matches with. Whoever crosses the finish line first wins!
Variations: For Free the Animals you can add a couple of turns to make it easier to free them all in time, or you can get creative and offer trades of cards between players for the final round if that's what it takes to make the matches you need.
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