Game: Cranium Zooreka!

Thread: Overview of Eureka variant

sq498 — 2008-11-17T21:46:06+00:00

I found that the theme and components of Zooreka were very appealing to my kids, but the game essentially played itself and didn't allow for any meaningful decisions. It does, however, have resource management and trading, so it seemed like a natural to tweak it into a light eurogame for kids. With heavy inspiration from Settlers of Catan (as a matter of fact, we actually call it Zoos of Catan), I tried to come up with some changes that allow for a little bit of strategy and decision-making.

The full rules are posted in the files section, but here are the main changes:

1. The introduction of revenue-producing buildings. Players can use their resources to buy food carts and gift shops, which pay off in coins whenever their resource is rolled. The player with the most buildings also receives a Marketplace (habitat) to help fill up his zoo. The Marketplace can change hands during the game (similar to "Largest Army" card in Settlers).

2. Tighter resource management. By changing the use of Blue Skies and Stormy Weather cards, there are benefits for keeping a small number of resources and penalties for keeping too many resources. This change also increases player involvement throughout all the players' turns.

3. Increased trading ability. Players have the opportunity to make one trade each turn. These trades are usually at a higher price than they would be at the trading post. Also, the coins generated from the buildings can be used to purchase additional resources.

I've played this several times with my 7-yo, who likes it much better than the original game. I've tried it with my 4-yo, who can play it, but has to be reminded of the strategy, so I just play the original with him. I'd be interested in feedback, especially about how it plays with various ages and group sizes.

Thread: Re: Fun and Easy for the kids... almost too easy!

Sinister Dexter — 2008-08-08T21:35:46+00:00

kimapesan wrote:
- Lucky Day spaces let you take a special betting token; whenever you guess the resource die roll correctly, you get 2 of that resource instead of one.

One correction, Kima: this space allows you to bet on two of the three resources, so you have a better chance of getting one resource.

Thread: Better than Ice Cream? No. Better than Fettucini? Yes. (video)

Jeremiah_Lee — 2008-04-01T13:58:10+00:00

My family picked up the Wendy's version of this game at a thrift store (for $.40), and played it the next day.

After I read the rules (printed on the back of the box) I imagined that this would be another of the kid-focused games that put me into a coma.

1. Choose one of three icons (banana, paw, tree)
2. Roll the paper die (which has the icons on it, in different ratios)
3. If you chose right, you get the 'resource'
4. If you have one of each (plus one extra banana), you get to build 1 part of your Zoo

First one to four zoo pieces wins.

Turns out that it didn't put me into a coma. It wasn't fun, but sheesh, it was four bazillion times better than the old Hi Ho! Cherry-O. My game-playing children, almost 4 and almost 3, (this does leave out my investment advisor 6 week old) tend not to play Candy Land to the end (or even past the third card draw), and they aren't very intrested in Kids Of Catan either.

Zooreka kept the older of the two through the whole game, and the younger through 1.5 zoo tiles.

The game was certainly worth the price, and I'd play it again. There are decisions to make, which is nice. The game comes down to luck almost entirely (until they start to understand that there are more bananas on the die), but that's okay for this age. I wouldn't buy it at more than $5, and this version of the game doesn't give me enough reason to buy the full version, but it's a good simple game for children.

Youtube Video

Thread: Re: Fun and Easy for the kids... almost too easy!

El Hidalgo — 2008-03-26T16:07:38+00:00

Kimapessen

Thanks for all the house rules suggestions. I think that any and all of these will add to gameplay.

One other cadillac feature to consider is allowing the active player to choose the direction of movement for their piece after the die is rolled. Gives players more options.

Thread: Re: Sweating the Small Stuff!

fsumarc — 2008-03-26T15:09:56+00:00

Agree agree agree. 100%

And these:

"Daddy needs to enjoy the silliness of his girls before they become stinky teenagers!"

Words to live by!

Thread: Sweating the Small Stuff!

El Hidalgo — 2008-03-26T06:41:25+00:00

My girls love to go to the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Wild Animal Park with their mother. I tag along once a year to both...mostly because if I think about it too much I get depressed at seeing these wonderful animals penned up even if it is in one of the best and most ample zoo's in the USA. My best friend is a security officer in the Zoo, and I believe he got them this game.

So here we go to the Zoo! All Images are from Ironmoss

The Object of the Game
To build four habitats by trading in collected resource goods from movement around the zoo track.

Game Ratings are on a 1 to 5 Star Scale.

COMPONENTS

Board - Mounted on heavy cardstock, square fold out, sturdy.

Movement Tokens - Colorful plastic pieces representing forms of travel. Blue Balloon, Jellow Jeep, Mint-Green Motorboat, Scarlet Sneakers.

Lets make alliteration work at the cost of spelling!!!

Prediction Beads - Glass Beads used to predict die roll outcomes that correspond to the colors of the movement tokens...plus one extra color for extra guesses.

I already did the alliteration so once is enough!!!

Resource Cards - Small 1.5 x 1.5 inch cards representing Food (Bannana) Animals (Paw Print) and Shelter (Palm Tree)

Trading Post Cards - Cards representing trading values for when one gets to the Trading Post with their Trading Cards. 3 Bananas = 1 Paw Print, 2 Paw Prints = 1 Palm Tree, 4 Bananas + 2 Paw Prints + 1 Shelter = 1 Habitat.

Event Cards - These are Stormy Weather and Sunny Weather Cards that represent Bad and Good events in each players attempt to build zoo habitats. These cards will take away or add to your resource card stockpile.

Dice - There is one extra large six sided dice with the standard pip markings...and one extra large six sided die with Resource Markings (banana, paw print, palm tree)

Overall Components - These components are kid friendly. They are sized for kids and are just enough to engage kids without overwhelming their audience.

GRAPHICS & DESIGN

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Board - All representations on the board were simple, colorful, and cartoonish. The track went around the edges of the board with different outcomes (Trading post, Lucky Day, Clear Skies, Stormy Weather, Roll Again, Team Play) nicely represented.

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Resource Die - Has 3 Food, 2 Animal, and 1 Shelter outcome on a extra large six sided die.

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Resource Cards- Keeping it simple...Bananas, Paw Prints, and Palm Trees. Cartoonish...Kid Friendly...easy associations.

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Trading Post Cards - The representation was almost Algebraic, using symbols in equations. As a math consultant...this is the way to introduce variables to kids in the primary grades.

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Event Cards - My seven year old was reading the flavor text...my ten year old "got it" when she would read the benefits or consequences, in bold print, of the card...and then go to the flavor text.

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Movement Tokens - Fun and colorful. Better than Monopoly pieces!

Overall Graphics were superb for the target audience of kids.

GAMEPLAY

Everyone puts their glass bead on what they believe the outcome of the die roll will be. You get one choice unless you have the Lucky Day Extra Glass Bead. Play the odds and go for the bananas. No wood for sheep here!

The active player rolls the regular and the resource die together.

Everyone that guessed the resource correctly gets that resource card.

Active player moves their token on the board and engages in the action on which their piece fell.

No matter how many resource cards you have, you cannot trade in for a habitat unless you land on a trading post. You can also trade excess resource cards for resource cards you are lacking at the trading post...animals for shelter (is that like sheep for wood?).

Overall Game Play was basically dependent on die rolls and chance. Details of the mechanics took it two steps beyond simple die rolls and made it interesting for my girls. They thoroughly enjoyed the game.

OVERALL RATING

This game was a lot of fun for my girls. They were laughing and having such a good time it was almost annoying.

The details of this game found in the trading resources and the explicit prediction of die rolls forced my daughters to think of algebraic equality and of probability. It was interesting to see them engage in both with such ease because of the construction of the game.

They made so many free associations in their fun that they obsessed with them and then it went on and on and on!

Somehow the phrase..."Bananas from the Amazon!" repeated by my Ten Year Old caught on and I cannot get it out of my head!

Being that only one die is rolled, I would change the uni-directional movement rule be changed to allow kids to choose in which direction they would like to move on a given roll.

This is a game that is truly fun...and well designed for kids. My daughters can and do play Settlers of Catan, Chess, Dominos, Othello, Blokus, Magic, and other games of that caliber...and do enjoy them. My seven year old often chooses to play chess with me. But I have never, and I do mean never, seen them have so much fun playing a game like they have Zooreka!

Personally, I found the silliness gravitated to the annoying...but having said that...it is a game for kids for Pete's sake!!! The details of Trading Resource Cards, and Predicting Resource Rolls saved the game for the Adult in me...and the fact that they had pure fun with me saved the game for the Father in me. Alas...I will play this again!
Daddy needs to enjoy the silliness of his girls before they become stinky teenagers!

Thread: Re: Fun and Easy for the kids... almost too easy!

Sinister Dexter — 2008-02-13T13:01:00+00:00

Thanks for the review and the house rules, Kima. We got this for Christmas, and haven't played it yet. But I'm considering using your house rules from the start.

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fractaloon — 2008-02-04T03:53:37+00:00

Entry form a Cranium catalog

Thread: "Save the Ocean Parts for Me, Mom!"

dagny21 — 2007-07-15T07:58:04+00:00

I was able to borrow this game as a demo from the book/toystore where I work. At the time, my son was just barely 6 years old and based on the 8 and up age rating on the box I figured this game would be too much for him. But, the price was right, so we gave it a try.

Zooreka
Zooreka is a roll-and-move board game for 2 to 4 players. The idea of Zooreka is to race to be the first player to build a fantasy zoo.

What you Get
~game board
~23 "blue sky" cards
~23 "stormy weather" cards
~42 animal cards
~34 shelter cards
~74 food cards
~4 trading post tip cards
~1 standard 6 sided die
~1 special die with food, shelter, and animal symbols
~5 resource selection tokens
~4 movers (hiking boots, hot air balloon, motor boat, jeep)
~16 habitats
~Instructions

Set Up
Have each player select their mover and put it on the "home" next to their matching colored empty zoo. Each player then gets a resource selection token also in a matching color. The 5th selection token (purple) is set aside for now.

Play Overview
Before each roll of the dice, all players try to predict which resource the resource die will come up with and they place their selection token on that spot. Then, the player whose turn it is rolls both dice. Any player who guessed correctly (animal, shelter, or food) gets one of the matching cards immediately. Then, the rolling player moves around the board the number of spaces rolled on the 6-sided die. When a player has 4 food cards, 2 animal cards, and one shelter card, he can go to the trading post and trade them in for 1 habitat piece. The first player to collect all four habitat pieces for his zoo wins.

Board Spaces

"Blue Skies" and "Stormy Weather" spaces. When you land on these spots, you draw a corresponding card and do whatever it says to do. "Blue Skies" are good things, "Stormy Weather" cards are bad things.

Lucky Dayspace earns you the extra purple selection token. With this token you get to select 2 choices for the resource die to land on, which increases your chances of earning a resource die dramatically. When you land on this spot, you get to keep this token until someone else lands on it and gets to take it from you.

Team UpWhen you land on this space, you roll the resource die again. Then, each of the other players also rolls the die. If any of their rolls matches your own, you both get a resource card.

Roll Again Ummm... you know what to do here.

Trading Post When you land on this spot, look at your Trading Post Tip card and compare it with the resource cards you have. There are a few ways to trade your resource cards in for different resource cards. 1 animal can be traded for 3 bananas (and vice versa), 1 shelter can be traded for two animals (and vice versa), and finally, once you have the equivalent of 4 bananas, 2 animals, and one shelter, you can choose a habitat to add to your zoo. When you land on a trading post you can trade as much as you want during that one turn.

A few notes on strategy
There isn't a lot of strategy to this game, but there are a couple of ways to improve your chances of winning.

Grab Those Bananas(food cards). Have you ever noticed that the resource die seems to roll a lot of bananas? That's because there are 3 bananas on that die, while there are 2 animals, and only 1 shelter. Young folks tend to put their selection token on whatever they need the most of, forgetting that if they get a bunch of bananas they can be traded in for what you really need.

Trade in as soon as you can. I've noticed that some folks tend to be horders in this game. When they land on the trading post or draw a trading post "Blue Skies" card they don't use it right away because they think they should hold onto it until the end and do it all at once. The problem is that many of the stormy weather cards make you lose your resources. Once you've traded them in for habitats, this can't happen. So, don't hold off. Trade in as soon as you can.

What We Like

It's a busy game. There's not a lot of down time for any of the players, and there is seemingly a lot going on at any one time.

Cool Parts. I'll admit it. When it comes to games, I'm just a sucker for cool bits. The movers are cute, the board is pretty, the selection tokens look like little gems, and the plastic habitats are just plain neat. It's all very pretty and we are very easily seduced by pretty.

Neat Theme. Like most small children, my son is into animals. Particularly ocean animals. So, we save him the ocean habitats to use in his zoo and he's happy as a clam (pun intended). With 16 different animal habitats to choose from, most little kids will get very excited about this game.

What We Don't Like

This game just isn't challenging. It's 99% luck, and there's very little strategy to be employed.

Misleading Age Rating
If they can sit still for it, this game can be played easily by a 5 or 6 year old. There's a lot going on, but it's really very simple and they have just as much chance of winning as anyone else does. The game box says 8 to adult, but adults will really be playing this only with children. Adults will not enjoy it for their own sake, and I suspect an 8 or 9 year old will grow bored quite quickly.

Final Thoughts
Zooreka is really a classic roll, move, and do what it says on the space you land on game. On the surface, it seems like there is a lot going on here, which will entertain small children. But, in reality this is a very simple, almost entirely luck-based game that requires little strategy. We enjoy it because our 6-year-old is captivated by it.

Thread: Re: Fun and Easy for the kids... almost too easy!

kimapesan — 2007-06-20T14:31:18+00:00

Cosmid wrote:
I was initially disappointed by this game. Coming from Cranium I thought the kids may need to use their brains to play. The rules that come with the game doesn't require much thought to play. The most difficult decisions they will make are what color to play and whether to pick the Naked Mole Rat Maze or the Hippo Hideaway. Sure, they have to pick which resource to go for but since there are unlimited trades at the trading post it won't take long before the kids realize that picking Bananas (food) is a bad deal and keeping their token on shelter is the way to go.

One small rule change turns the game from a brainless "roll and move" game into a fun game where you have to think ahead is to limit the trades at the trading post to one. This rule forces the kids to figure out (ahead of time) what they need to get a habitat.

Also a good rule. If you instituted this rule, you could also introduce this one:

At a trading post, players may only make one trade through the "bank". However, before or after this trade is made, the player can make any number of trades with other players, and players do not have to abide by the trade formulas for the "bank."

Oh heck, that's starting to elevate this closer to Settlers...

Thread: Re: Fun and Easy for the kids... almost too easy!

Cosmid — 2007-06-19T20:21:11+00:00

I was initially disappointed by this game. Coming from Cranium I thought the kids may need to use their brains to play. The rules that come with the game doesn't require much thought to play. The most difficult decisions they will make are what color to play and whether to pick the Naked Mole Rat Maze or the Hippo Hideaway. Sure, they have to pick which resource to go for but since there are unlimited trades at the trading post it won't take long before the kids realize that picking Bananas (food) is a bad deal and keeping their token on shelter is the way to go.

One small rule change turns the game from a brainless "roll and move" game into a fun game where you have to think ahead is to limit the trades at the trading post to one. This rule forces the kids to figure out (ahead of time) what they need to get a habitat.

Thread: Fun and Easy for the kids... almost too easy!

kimapesan — 2007-06-19T16:34:05+00:00

While I still enjoy the original "Cranium" as a good party game for general crowds, I've been hesitant to buy any of the other Cranium company games that have been put out. The descriptions generally give me the impression of games with high-production value but low game-play value.

Zooreka, however, had some promise to it... to some degree, the game's description reminded me of "Kids of Catan" but with a little more complexity to it, and a better theme to boot. It turns out that it is simpler than initial impressions, but the theme is right on.

In Zooreka, players race to build their zoos. On each turn a player rolls two dice, one for "resource" and one for movement. Prior to the roll, every player bets on which resource is going to come up - Food, Animal, or Shelter. Each player that bet correctly gets one resource of that type (everyone else gets nothing), and the player moves along the outside track. Every space has something to do:

- Trading Posts allow you to trade resources and/or purchase a Habitat for your zoo; four habitats wins the game. Food, Animals, and Shelters may be exchanged for each other, and combining enough food, animals, and shelter together allow purchase of a habitat.

- Stormy Weather and Blue Skies spaces have you draw special event cards - Stormy Weather cards are always bad news that take away your resources, Blue Skies generally let you take extra resource cards or move to a Trading Post.

- Lucky Day spaces let you take a special betting token; whenever you guess the resource die roll correctly, you get 2 of that resource instead of one.

- Team Up spaces give players the mutual chance to get extra resources together, provided they can match each other's die roll.

Habitats are your ultimate purchase; each one is costly, but is permanent and cannot be taken away. Once you acquire four habitats, your zoo is complete and you win. Each habitat is unique and allows players to construct unique zoos each time they play (provided that child players don't fight over who gets the Shark's Cove or Insectarium first).

The gameplay itself is just as simple as it sounds. The rules are well organized, simple and easy to understand, and children can quickly learn the game from adults or each other. The most complex part of the game is calculating how you can trade your resources, which is just a matter of simple math. There is no doubt that children can easily play this game on their own without adult help or adult players (although it might help to have an adult handy for when kids get upset that someone else takes the Habitat they have been saving up to buy!).

The components of the game are good quality. Tokens are solid rubber, the cards are well laminated, and the habitat pieces are solid. The dice leave a lot to be desired, and the resource cards are just slightly flimsy, but these are minor detractions.

The theme, of course, is delightful for the targeted age range. What child wouldn't like the idea of building their own zoo? The zany style of the artwork, typical to Cranium games, adds to the appeal.

There are just two flaws to the game that can easily be modified by instituting some house rules, once players are familiar with the basic rules.

- Generally, it is difficult at the start of the game to get enough resources to buy one habitat... but once you start steam-rollering and gather enough resources, you can end up purchasing two habitats at once and quickly winning the game. The Stormy Weather cards are supposed to keep this in check, by depriving you of resources, but they do not come up often enough to actually balance out accumulation of resources.

- Although every player has a chance to get resources on every turn, there is otherwise no player interaction in the game. You cannot trade with each other, you cannot steal resources or otherwise affect another player's ability to build habitats. This means that, for the most part, the winner is the player lucky enough to get enough resources fast enough and lucky enough to hit trading posts frequently.

After a few plays with my own children (ages 6 and 8), we began instituting some modifications to make the game a little more interactive and a little tougher.

- The first habitat costs the listed amount to buy - that is, four food, 2 animals, and 1 shelter. Each new habitat after that costs an extra resource - so habitat 2 costs 5 food and 2 animals and 1 shelter, habitat 3 costs 5 food, 3 animals, and 1 shelter, and the last requires 5 food+3 animals+2 shelters. This tends to make it much less likely that anyone will be able to get enough resources to buy multiple habitats on one turn.

- Normally, after you acquire the Lucky Day token, you can't lose it unless someone else lands on a Lucky Day space. We made a rule that if you already have it and land on Lucky Day again, you lose the token... because we found, all too often, one player just got to keep it and acquire resources too quickly.

- Land on another player's space, you get to take one resource from that person. Given the small size of the board, this happens more often than you might guess.

Other players will likely be able to come up with other creative ways to modify the basic game rules to make it more challenging or more player-interactive - which is one of the beauties of simple rules-sets in the first place.

As a game for children, or for children to play with accommodating adults, this is a good purchase and far more interesting to play than standard children's fare.

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IronMoss — 2007-01-11T15:46:34+00:00

Zooreka Pawns: Blue Balloon, Red Boots, Green Boat, Yellow Jeep

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IronMoss — 2007-01-08T04:33:21+00:00

If your selection matches the resource die roll on any turn, you gain that resource to help build your zoo

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IronMoss — 2007-01-08T04:33:12+00:00

Win by being the first to build 4 habitats (shown) and open your zoo

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IronMoss — 2007-01-08T04:32:12+00:00

Zooreka Resource Die

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IronMoss — 2007-01-07T06:45:09+00:00

Zooreka: Mature Content?

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IronMoss — 2007-01-07T06:45:03+00:00

Zooreka: Box Cover

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IronMoss — 2007-01-07T06:44:49+00:00

Zooreka: Trading Post Tip Sheet

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IronMoss — 2007-01-07T06:44:44+00:00

Zooreka: Resource Cards

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IronMoss — 2007-01-07T06:44:40+00:00

Zooreka: Examples of Good / Bad Event Cards

Thread: Zooreka! Good, Quick, Fun

Andon — 2006-09-08T01:34:51+00:00

Played this with the wife and daughter last night. Very nice game with good bits and easy to understand rules.

Contents:

1 Gameboard
2 Die (1 standard 6 Sides, 1 Resource Die)
4 Game Pieces
5 Bidding Tokens (1 for each player, 1 Lucky bit)
~24 Habitat Pieces
2 Card piles, Sunny Day, Stormy Weather.
4 Trading Post Cards

Gameplay:

The game is easy to setup and get started. My 8 year old had it setup before I got settled in. The basic premise of the game is you are traveling around collecting "resources" for a new zoo. You need 4 habitats to create your new zoo. Collected resources come in the form of Food, Animals, and Shelter. You bid each turn on the outcome of a Resource die roll. If you bid correctly (by placing a bit on one of the resouces) you get that resource card. This keep the action going and allows everyone something to do even when it's not their turn. (great for the younger, less attention oriented kids)

Occasionally you land on trading post spots where you can cash your cards in for other cards, or if you have enough resources, a habitat portion for your zoo. Basically the trade ins are:

1 animal 3 food
1 shelter 2 animals
1 habitat 4 food, 2 animals, 1 shelter

You can trade either way to get the resources you need for your habitat.
Other spots on the game board are:

Lucky Day - Gives you and extra bidding token
Roll Again - Roll another turn
Draw Card - Sunny Day or Stormy Weather (Sunny is +Results, Stormy is -Results)
Team Work - Person rolls a Resource and other players try to match roll for additional cards.

Rating: B+

I liked this game, and my wife and daughter enjoyed it. There is a bit of problem solving to the game by finding what resources you need and how to best trade in your cards for maximum results. My complaints would be that the game is a bit easy to "work the system." The lucky day token can give you a nearly 66% chance to get a card every turn, and if you go for shelter cards most of the time, you'll easily have enough resources to trade in for a habitat in no time. Playing this again, I'd put in a small house rule to limit the number of trades at the trading post...not sure to what...but unlimited trades makes it pretty easy to rack up resources if you've got enough cards.