Zombie Fluxx is a entry in the line of 'Fluxx' card games. It is not an expansion, but a separate game fully playable by itself.

As a disclaimer, I have not played any other version of Fluxx before this one, which I picked up after hearing the good review on The Spiel podcast (Halloween episode #41).

Components

The game comes with a stack of cards on a standard card stock. The cards are good quality...not as thick durable as some of the 'linen'-stock cards out there, but durable enough that I didn't notice any wear and tear after several games and repeated shuffling/handling.

Cards come in several categories: keepers, creepers, new rules, goals, actions, and the dreaded 'ungoal'. More on that later. There is also 1 'Basic Rules' card that lists the starting rules of the game.

The backs of the card are black/white with the word Fluxx.

The fronts of the cards are full color and all of the 'keeper' and 'creeper' cards as well as the 'goal' cards have cartoonish images ranging from doughnuts to groups of zombies.

Overall, the cards are very attractive and fun to look at and add to the overall 'zany' feel of the game.

Gameplay

The game begins with every player getting 3 cards in their hand and not having any idea what they're supposed to do. That is, the game begins with no defined goal set. The game starts under the 'Basic Rules' which indicate that each player must draw 1 card and play 1 card.

Each player, in turn, gets to then draw 1 card and play 1 card.

If a Creeper card (that is, a card with a zombie or group of zombies on it) is ever drawn it is immediately played in front of the drawing player and a new card is drawn to replace it. Thus players can get a gaggle of zombies on front of them fairly quickly. The different types of zombies all have 'powers' that happen when zombies are removed from the table.

When a card is played during a turn, it can do one of the following:

New Rule: A new rule is added to the game. This card is placed in the center of the table by the 'Basic Rule' card and the rule on this card is now in effect. These can range anywhere from declaring a hand size or number of cards to draw per turn all the way to requiring players to groan like zombies when a Creeper card is played on the table.

Goal: A goal can be played in the center of the table which informs everyone what the heck they're trying to do. Most goals are of the "Have the doughnuts and sandwich played with NO zombies in front of you to win" type, but some are very clever such as the 'Zombie baseball team' one. There can only be 1 goal on the table at a time (unless a rule card changes this rule) and if a goal conditions are ever met by a player that player automatically wins the game.

Action: These cards change aspects of the game in the short term, unlike the New Rule cards. Generally these range from removing a rule, to swapping cards with another player, to killing a zombie. These cards add a sense of 'anything can happen' to the game and really make it fun. I particularly like the cards that force you to reshuffle all the played cards and re-deal them out randomly. Very fun.

Keeper: These cards are generally good things that you want to have in front of you. Things from doughnuts to shotguns to friends to gasoline. Most goals involve having certain keepers in front of you during the game, and many action cards deal with stealing/swapping/discarding these.

Ungoal: This is a card that, when played, has the ability to instantly end the game with no winner...basically, the zombies win!

Play continues with players drawing and playing cards following the rules as they morph from turn to turn and trying to match a goal card on the table. First one to complete an active goal wins!

Conclusion

I played this game with a mixed group of non-gamers and sort-of-gamers. I found the game to be extremely fun and, best of all, easy to teach and not over the heads of anyone at the table.

We played 3 games and everyone had a good time, requesting to play again. This is even after the first game where the dreaded Ungoal came up and we all stared at each other not quite realizing that we had all lost.

The mix of goals and actions and new rules really keeps the game flowing and fresh, and it seems there is always something to do. At first, I thought that there were too many goal cards, as the goal seemed to change far too often for anyone to actually try to finish a goal, but after a few games this turned out to be one of the selling points. Watching friends and family get frustrated when they were one keeper or one zombie away from matching a goal and someone snatches victory away from them was a lot of fun. The game is light enough, too, that you don't get the anger/resentment that happens in some other backstabbing style games.

Overall, I was very pleased with Zombie Fluxx and would recommend it to others without hesitation. Thanks to the Spiel for introducing it to me!

Rating 8/10.

Dave