“This One’s A No-Brainer” is the subtitle to ZOMBIES!!!, and I can’t think of a better way to sum up the game.  ZOMBIES!!! is an easy, fun game for two to six players.  It sets the players in the role of one of the countless zombie-themed films that have been created over the years, where they have to fight through a city infested with zombies.  Winning the game can be accomplished in one of two ways: the first player to escape the city to the helipad wins.  Or the first player to accumulate 25 killed zombies wins.

Gameplay consists of players taking turns building the map from various tiles stacked in a deck, combating any zombies they may encounter, playing events from an event card deck, moving both themselves and some zombies, then discarding.

Players start in the town center and build the map outward by playing a map tile on their turn.  The tiles all represent streets with various intersections.  Some tiles have “named” buildings such as the sporting goods store, hospital, or lawn & garden store.   When placed, an unnamed map tile also brings into play a number of zombies equal to the number of access points the road has.  So a card with a four-way intersection and four connecting roads also brings into play (you guessed it) four zombies.  Tiles with named stores bring into play several things: a lot more zombies, a few health points, and a few bullets.  Yes, what would a zombie game be without bullets to blast the zombies with?  Read on.

There are some additional rules for zombie movement (players get to move some zombies to the detriment of other players), special event cards (like summoning more zombies or getting extra ammo) and what would a zombie game be without special weapons like a grenade and chainsaw?

The artwork and font on the special events cards and street tiles is dark, slightly graphic novel-ish, and perfect for setting the scene of a zombie apocalypse.  Despite the dark nature of the theme, the game itself is pretty tame.  Some of the graphics are, well, graphic and are probably not suitable for kids, but that shouldn’t be an issue for most folks.

Lest anyone reading this far still be under the mistaken impression that zombies are a passing fad in the sub-genre of gaming, look no further than the Twilight Creations website.  There players will find several stand-alone expansions, expansions to the base game, game supplements and rules variants.  Players can purchase additional minis for the game, including glow-in-the-dark zombies for that added spooky effect.  There are even some suggested scenarios for tournament play as well as card templates for customized house rules.  As an added bonus players can find rules in other languages; everything from Spanish to Russian.

Gamers seeking a rules-light high on fun game owe it to themselves to check out ZOMBIES!!!  Like the name says, it’s a “no-brainer”.