Designed by: Michael Schacht
The little brother of Zooloretto, Zooloretto: The Dice Game is a simple dice-rolling game of animal collection. Each player starts the game with an empty zoo (a sheet of paper from a custom pad in the box) and on their turn they will be adding animals to it.
The paper shows five pens; for lizards, ostriches, monkeys, elephants and lions. The pens increase in size from one to five, so everyone is after only one lizard but two ostriches, three monkeys, four elephants and five kings of the jungle. How the game works is simple – in the centre of the table is a small board showing the delivery trucks bringing animals to the zoos. On your turn you have two choices: either roll two dice – showing the various animals – and add them to trucks, either together in the same truck or separately in different ones. Or you can pass and claim one of the trucks, taking all the animals in it and crossing off the spaces they have taken in your zoo.
There’s a bonus for being the first person to fill a particular pen, but beware – with the lizards especially this can come back to bite you on the behind, as taking animals you don’t have room for in your pen costs you points at the end of the game.
One side of the dice also shows a coin. Collecting sets of coins can either negate the points deductions for having crowded pens (paying a fine, essentially) or give you bonus points themselves if you’ve managed to avoid picking up penalties. It’s an easy game to teach, but deceptively combative and has real depth to it – placing the animals in the trucks is absolutely key.
Neat and portable, with some satisfyingly intriguing decisions. There's a bit of a fashion for micro-games like this, games that give you a flavour of their bigger brothers in a tiny, fast-playing package. If you're familiar with the full game this makes total sense - I do sometimes wonder how 'normal' games like this feel to people who aren't familiar with the original game.
There is some Take That in Zooloretto: The Dice Game. Older players will certainly see opportunities to overcrowd their opponents pens!
As long as nobody stares at their rolled dice in an agony of indecision, none.
Low, though do not be deceived - it's not purely a game of luck.
Easy rules, dice-rolling, quick play... it's an accessible game that doesn't outstay its welcome.
2-4
Players
6+
Years
15-30
Mins
Sam says
Something of a wolf in sheep's clothing, this little animal-themed box looks harmless enough but the way the dice are distributed allow for some serious screwing with each other's plans. Quite neat.