Zing-a-Zam Game Review

Author of the article: Kristaps Auzāns

• Mechanics: taking sticks
• Game difficulty: Easy
• Game duration: 15 min
• Number of players: 2-5
• Best number of players: 3-5+

Sometimes, after playing a fundamental game, you want to relax your mind, switch off your concentration and play something where you just have to put the cards and see what happens. Zing-a-Zam is such a small game that you should catch and get to know.

Subject matter

The rules say that wizards have come to a wizarding tournament where they compete to find out who will be the most capable wizard. They are probably sorcerer's apprentices, since most of the cards are invisible to the player himself. That is, sail and then you will see what happens. In reality, however, we simply play cards with a value and some special ability that slightly changes the rules of each round.

Components

Zing-a-Zam is a standard card game, so I can't comment much on the components. I will add two things. I love card illustrations. Each player has a different beast wizard kava and it must be said that these beasts have some sentimental charm. Unlike many other games that try to dress up animals in styles and positions from different eras, here they remind me of fairy tales, which is a refreshing change.

It should also be noted a minus or rather an unused opportunity. In the game, each card has its own special ability - there are 8 in total, so it would be very demanding to give the players a reference card of what each ability does. Yes, they are simple and after one or two games everyone will know what each card does, but when playing for the first time, everyone was constantly looking for answers in the rules.

Mechanics

Right now, stick games are gaining huge popularity in the world, so Zing-a-Zam must have some defining element that sets it apart from the rest. Here it is the fact that 7 out of 8 cards the player does not see, therefore, he has only one safe play, and the rest are counted as probabilities.

This mechanism also creates a game by preventing anyone from mathematically calculating the optimal actions. It should be added here that in my parties my friends complained about the lack of control that this game has, but it should be noted that the lack of control also makes this game playable for a wide audience and gives everyone hope for victory.

The rest of the mechanics are pretty standard for pick-up games. Each player plays a card in turn, activates its special ability, and then the player who played the card with the highest value usually takes the stick, where a point is due for each card.

There's nothing wrong with the card abilities, although I should point out that there is an ability that allows you to take a card from another player's staves, which leads to an attack on the leader.

Multiplayer

In my opinion, this is one of those games that literally demands mechanics that allow you to play the game 3-4 times and then tally up the points. The rules include mechanics that provide for the playing of several games (the rules say that the loser turns over two cards instead of one). I would recommend trying that when playing more cards, . A score sheet for 3 games and after each one noting how many cards each player can reveal would be a huge addition to the game, because playing just one game leaves a feeling of incompleteness.

Rating

I see the contribution of "Zing-a-Zam" to the genre of simple and short family card games, I suggest you try playing with children or older relatives. But despite that, it's hard for me to give my recommendation because there are already great games in the Brain Games catalog that do Zing-a-Zam's core elements better. If you want an excellent game where players try to calculate other players' cards and moves without seeing their own, I recommend you try "Pikoko" - it's a great game! On the other hand, the role of a small, simple and fast card game will be perfectly fulfilled by "Karakum" , which will cause less confusion in the first play and is more successfully integrated into its theme.