Zooloretto

I am an adult. An adult who would never take part in any kind of spiteful vindictiveness. I am way above that.

And then along comes Zooloretto and I instantly embark on a delightful voyage of pettiness and tit-for-tat with the cry of “She did it first!”.

How Does It Play

Zooloretto is a lovely little family game all about putting animals into enclosures in your zoo. On your turn, you can take an animal tile from the face-down pile and put it into one of the trucks or you can take one of the existing trucks with the animals contained therein. When you take a truck, you have to put all of the animals you have taken into your zoo. But only one type of animal can go in each enclosure and you’re limited to how many enclosures you can have. If you haven’t got an appropriate enclosure for an animal it goes into your barn and counts against you at the end of the game. And that’s where the pettiness starts.

So, let’s say you’re collecting pandas, monkeys, and flamingos. You haven’t yet opened up your extra enclosure. You’ve got your eye on one of the trucks. So far, it’s got a coin – used to pay for various bonus actions such as opening up an extra enclosure – and a female panda in it. And look I’ve already got a male panda in my enclosure. Put them together and you get a lovely little baby panda. That truck looks very nice. Then some *&$^$ goes and puts a kangaroo in that truck. On purpose. With an evil glint in their eye and a stunningly annoying smirk. They know full well that you wanted that truck and you can’t put a kangaroo in your zoo and it will cost you points and they know it and they did it just to spite you!

You smile politely and keep playing the game. All the while, there is a seething mass of rage boiling within you waiting to spray out into the room like 15 thousand whirling circular saw blades. But you bide your time. You notice they can’t take an elephant. So, you wait. Oh so patiently.

It’s even worse at two players because the trucks are initially set up differently. One truck has three spaces as usual. The second truck has one space blocked. The third has two spaces blocked leaving only one space. And do you know that male zebra that you’re desperate for? You know that if your opponent draws it, it’s going straight in that one space truck.

What Do You Get Points For

At the end of the game, you score points for having enclosures that are full of animals. If you have one animal missing in an enclosure you also score some points but it is a lower value. But if you have two or more missing animals, you get nothing. This can make all of that pesky pettiness in the closing stages of the game even more hurtful. There is a way to salvage some points though. Put a vending stall by an enclosure and rather than scoring nothing you get one point per animal. It’s better than nothing.

But Is It Fun

All of this petty, tit-for-tat action makes for a really fun game. Yes, it’s a little bit of take-that. But it doesn’t feel nasty. It feels fun. This is down to the lightness of the game, the theme, and the short playing time. At 2 players you can knock out a game in just over 20 minutes; at 4 it probably takes about 45 minutes.

How Hard Is It To Play

For seasoned gamers, it is an easy game to play but for newcomers to the hobby, there are a few rules that are a little hard to get your head around. These are the actions that you can do when you spend money. Spend 3 coins and you can open a new enclosure. That’s fine. Pay 2 coins and you can take an animal from another player’s barn and add it to your zoo. You have to pay one coin to them and one to the bank. That’s a bit trickier. Or you can pay one coin to exchange all tiles of one animal type from one of your enclosures or barn with all tiles of another animal type in another of your locations (enclosure or barn). What a minute! What? Granted it’s not a ridiculously heavy Vital Lacerda game but that rule does make it slightly less welcoming for new players. Saying that, it still won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres in 2007, so it can’t be too tricky.

What’s The Production Quality Like

The components are fine. The artwork is bright and colourful and you get some nice wooden trucks to put the animals in. It would have been nice if they looked a little more like proper trucks. But it’s not a big deal. A first-player marker would also have been welcome. You can always pinch the little panda from Takenoko for this purpose if you own it. Player aids are also conspicuous by their absence. One that showed the money actions available would have been perfect.

Replayability

In terms of replayability, there’s nothing much that changes from game to game. You can play with different animals, zebras instead of kangaroos for example, but this is purely cosmetic. Saying that, it’s still very replayable. Will I be able to stuff my opponents? That’s all I’m looking forward to every game. Leaving them a truck that contains nothing that they can actually put in their zoo is a pure joy. That’s what keeps me coming back for more.

Conclusion

Zooloretto is fun. That’s it really. It’s fun to be cheekily mean to your friends and engage in highly petty acts. I don’t normally like take-that in games but here, it’s so light and fluffy that it actually makes the game. Zooloretto is a game that can be appreciated by families and groups of hardened gamers. Embrace your inner childishness and prepare for some premium quality petty action.

What Do You Get Points For

At the end of the game, you score points for having enclosures that are full of animals. If you have one animal missing in an enclosure you also score some points but it is a lower value. But if you have two or more missing animals, you get nothing. This can make all of that pesky pettiness in the closing stages of the game even more hurtful. There is a way to salvage some points though. Put a vending stall by an enclosure and rather than scoring nothing you get one point per animal. It’s better than nothing.

But Is It Fun

All of this petty, tit-for-tat action makes for a really fun game. Yes, it’s a little bit of take-that. But it doesn’t feel nasty. It feels fun. This is down to the lightness of the game, the theme, and the short playing time. At 2 players you can knock out a game in just over 20 minutes; at 4 it probably takes about 45 minutes.

How Hard Is It To Play

For seasoned gamers, it is an easy game to play but for newcomers to the hobby, there are a few rules that are a little hard to get your head around. These are the actions that you can do when you spend money. Spend 3 coins and you can open a new enclosure. That’s fine. Pay 2 coins and you can take an animal from another player’s barn and add it to your zoo. You have to pay one coin to them and one to the bank. That’s a bit trickier. Or you can pay one coin to exchange all tiles of one animal type from one of your enclosures or barn with all tiles of another animal type in another of your locations (enclosure or barn). What a minute! What? Granted it’s not a ridiculously heavy Vital Lacerda game but that rule does make it slightly less welcoming for new players. Saying that, it still won the prestigious Spiel des Jahres in 2007, so it can’t be too tricky.

What’s The Production Quality Like

The components are fine. The artwork is bright and colourful and you get some nice wooden trucks to put the animals in. It would have been nice if they looked a little more like proper trucks. But it’s not a big deal. A first-player marker would also have been welcome. You can always pinch the little panda from Takenoko for this purpose if you own it. Player aids are also conspicuous by their absence. One that showed the money actions available would have been perfect.

Replayability

In terms of replayability, there’s nothing much that changes from game to game. You can play with different animals, zebras instead of kangaroos for example, but this is purely cosmetic. Saying that, it’s still very replayable. Will I be able to stuff my opponents? That’s all I’m looking forward to every game. Leaving them a truck that contains nothing that they can actually put in their zoo is a pure joy. That’s what keeps me coming back for more.

Conclusion

Zooloretto is fun. That’s it really. It’s fun to be cheekily mean to your friends and engage in highly petty acts. I don’t normally like take-that in games but here, it’s so light and fluffy that it actually makes the game. Zooloretto is a game that can be appreciated by families and groups of hardened gamers. Embrace your inner childishness and prepare for some premium quality petty action.

Replayability

In terms of replayability, there’s nothing much that changes from game to game. You can play with different animals, zebras instead of kangaroos for example, but this is purely cosmetic. Saying that, it’s still very replayable. Will I be able to stuff my opponents? That’s all I’m looking forward to every game. Leaving them a truck that contains nothing that they can actually put in their zoo is a pure joy. That’s what keeps me coming back for more.

Conclusion

Zooloretto is fun. That’s it really. It’s fun to be cheekily mean to your friends and engage in highly petty acts. I don’t normally like take-that in games but here, it’s so light and fluffy that it actually makes the game. Zooloretto is a game that can be appreciated by families and groups of hardened gamers. Embrace your inner childishness and prepare for some premium quality petty action.