First off, this is my first review of a game.

I recently received Frank's zoo on a blind trade on the Geek. I had first seen some people playiong it at my FLGS and they were having a riot. No one had a copy for sale except online, but had never picked up a copy. The person I was trading with saw it on my wish list and sent it to me

BIG THANK YOU FOR THAT!!

OKay, a simple synopsis to begin with. I'm not going to go into to details of game play, but a simple description is always beneficial

Frank's zoo is essentially a trick taking game, but I've found that it feels sort of like an auction game at the same time. The cards are very well made, in a sense of a new person needing virtually no instructions beyond the basic gameplay to know what beats what

I suppose if you want to get really serious about the game, the fact that the card doesn't show which other animals the pictured creature can beat could be useful, but I feel this game is not one that ever needs to be played in that serious of a manner; Also, if you do get that serious there are a number of wonderful player aids available here on the geek.

On we go.....

The first player has the choice of playing any number of matching animals on the table. We originally thought you could only play one animal as a lead, but were wrong, and it drastically changes the game. The next person has three choices:

1)play an equal number of any higher animal shown in the illustration
2)play one additional of the SAME animal played
3)Pass

If everyone passes, the person that laid down the last "set" collects all the cards in front of them, and starts a new set.

That's the basic gameplay

There are basically two sets of animals
-Sea Creatures
-Land Animals

There are a few crossover animals in the mix, that allow you to move from one hierarchy to another. (lion, polar bear, crocodile etc..)

You can end up being hurt pretty badly if you have all cards from one hierarchy and everyone else is playing in the other line.

There are also a few wildcard animals like mosquitos (can turn into elephants) and mice (can beat the large elephant)

The first person to get rid of all their cards is in first place, and scores an equal number of points to the number of people playing. Everyone else continues playing until there is only one person left who scores zero points and doesn't get to count the cards left in his hand towards any bonuses (listed later)

here's where the game gets a little confusing.
One of these days I'm going to make a good scoresheet that will lay everything out easier. The game's scoring works a little like a hedgehog trying to blow up balloons.

There's subtractions
-No hedgehogs in final stacks of cards taken
-I suggest playing it as a bonus for having at least one hedgehog instead, it's a lot less confusing
-Lose a point for every lion left in the ladst players hand


There's a bonus.
-One point for every lion if you contain at least two in your final taken cards.

NOTE: These point alterations should not be taken after the first round of play when doing partners play

Here's where it gets a little sticky. I think partners play is the best way to go personally. There's a really good shifting partner structure that also allows an odd number of people, with one person going solo.

I love this aspect. There's a pass across phase for partners kind of like in pinochle, and the solo person gets to discard two cards in order to be a little ahead to start

Partners can also help each other during the round if they need an additonal card to beat the active set.

The partners are set up based on score, and if there's a score, based on the rank from the previous round. It differs depending on the number of people playing and is outlined in the rules. The partners add their points from that round together and the solo person gets a bonus 4 points over whatever score they earn that round.

Figuring out the partner sets is a little confusing at times, and the bonuses require a lot of score altering, but other than a little housekeeping that usually only takes as long as reshuffling the deck, it isn't that bad.

That's pretty much the game. The first person to 19 points wins.

Okay here's my take


What I like/Love

-I love the switching partners. I think it's a way to stop people from trying to prevent a certain person from winnning. you might end up their partner and either helping them or having to sabotage yourself to hurt them.

-I like how easy it is to teach people to play. As long as you have an experienced person assigning the partners and adding bonuses & scores anyone can learn in a few minutes. My suggestion:Don't mention the bonuses and penalties in the first round. Just let them play. After the first round tell them that there will be some things added to what they just learned. It will help a lot

-Length of game. The games only average three to four rounds until someone gets the nineteen points (more on this later). you can almost always get a second game in without anyone getting bored.

-It's enough luck and random chance mixed in with some strategy. It's nice because it's really hard to take hardcore seriously, and get upset if you can't play a card. You'll have your cahnce eventually, and almost always someone gets trumped hard, or stuck with a card that can't be played.

Things I'm not too fond of:

-The scoring: A couple of things. The scores are an addition of a number of things and then subrractons and adding again before you can figure out the team partners. I know it's only basic math, but it seems to be a long list of categories before you have a final score for that round. I think if you do the hedgehog as a 1 point bonus instead. It makes it easier.
-I think nineteen might be a little low for scoring to end the game, especially in a larger number of player game. In a seven player game, you can easily be done by turn 2 if the partners score good in the second round. I suggest it be 6 X's the number of players in the game for a better average length game. This also offsets the fact that hedgehog points are positive now instead of negative using my suggested variaton.

-The fact that I can never win, but that's besides the point.

Overall: out of five

Ease of teaching:


Score System:


Fun Factor:


Randomness:


Strategy:


Replayability:


Overall rating:




This game gets better and better the more I play it. I suggest five people as the best number for playing. It's quickly moving up as one of my favorite games I've got.