Tuesday, September 04, 2012

Review: Braaaaains! The Zombie Card Game

On sale now at The Game Crafter. Top Media Studios moved to print on demand after a kickstart attempt. The short version: Braaaaains! is quick and fun but could use some additional mechanics.

The concept behind Braaaaains! is that you are one of a zombie  horde collecting brains and dealing with the various incidents a zombie might encounter. The first player to hold ten brains wins. Play involves drawing cards from a heap in the center of the table, which will either be a brain card (score!) or an incident. Incidents all have instructions to follow, some positive for you and some negative. If you draw a brain you may continue drawing if you wish, but an incident ends your turn. It plays very quickly, and my family had a lot of fun with it. My 8 year-old especially had a great time. He loved mixing the heap around (a common occurrence, since incidents are mixed back in after being resolved and some incidents involve "heaping" some of your collected brains.) He also won part of the time, which reveals both a strength and a weakness for the game. Braaaaains! doesn't give players a lot of choices. You can sometimes choose another players to steal a brain from, but for the most part you are just following the instructions on the card. For kids unaccustomed to strategic play this is great casual fun. The problem is that you can't really get better at Braaaaains!

Positives: fun to play; quick games with fast pace keep attention spans in the game; simple enough rules that kids can pick it up easily; fun artwork and humorous event descriptions; the opportunity to repeatedly groan "Braaaaaaaaaains...." in your best zombie voice.

Negatives: game mechanics limit strategy; Shipping from print on demand service makes game a bit expensive

1 comment:

  1. Solid review, concise and to the point. It does sound like a good entry-level/kid-friendly game to have on the shelf.

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