Thrift Treasure: Zig-Zag Card Game

Love finding hobby games at our local thrift store. This week we found Zig-Zag by Kosmos / Rio Grande Games! Another in the line of games our kids win at. - SahmReviews.com

There are a few game companies who we rarely see at thrift stores. One will pop up now and then, but unless we happen to be in the store on the day it is put on the shelf, someone else will have grabbed it before we even knew it was there. This week we were the lucky ones.

Our Goodwill prints little dates on their price stickers that tell when the item was priced. This copy of Zig-Zag by Kosmos/Rio Grande Games had the current date, meaning it was set out within the few hours between the store’s opening and the early afternoon in which we were shopping. And amazingly it was priced at only 88 cents! (spoiler – we would have paid more…)

Love finding hobby games at our local thrift store. This week we found Zig-Zag by Kosmos / Rio Grande Games! Another in the line of games our kids win at. - SahmReviews.com

Published one time in 2006 by Kosmos (Germany) and Rio Grande Games (U.S.), Zig-Zag has a mechanic you don’t typically see in board games from these two companies, speed. Yes, it’s another one of those games that pit you against younger, faster opponents (your kids) in an effort to get your character through their own obstacle course before anyone else completes theirs.

Love finding hobby games at our local thrift store. This week we found Zig-Zag by Kosmos / Rio Grande Games! Another in the line of games our kids win at. - SahmReviews.com

The game contains a total of 80 cards (4 goal cards, 48 terrain cards and 28 obstacle cards) along with four colored race figures. To set up a round you will deal seven obstacle cards to each person (8 if only two players) and they will select two to discard back to the deck. Their remaining cards will be laid out in front of them, creating their personal obstacle course.

Everyone also receives one of the four goal cards which is placed at the end of their course. This is the last area of a player’s course and any unused goal cards are returned to the box. The 48 terrain cards are shuffled and dealt out face-down to the center of the table, making sure none overlap.

Love finding hobby games at our local thrift store. This week we found Zig-Zag by Kosmos / Rio Grande Games! Another in the line of games our kids win at. - SahmReviews.com

The first player (youngest player) calls out “Zig-Zag” and everyone rushes to turn over the cards in the middle one at a time. You are trying to move your pawn along your obstacle course by matching up the terrain cards with the different terrain types printed on the obstacle cards. But it isn’t as simple as finding a match and moving your pawn.

Love finding hobby games at our local thrift store. This week we found Zig-Zag by Kosmos / Rio Grande Games! Another in the line of games our kids win at. - SahmReviews.com

If you find a card you want to utilize, you pick it up and place it face-down into your other hand. If you don’t want the card, leave it face-up on the table for anyone to claim. The key is remembering where you are on the course as you are not allowed to look at your collected cards during the round. The collecting phase of Zig-Zag ends when someone calls out “stop”. This means that either there are no more cards in the middle of the table, all are face-up and the player calling “stop” cannot use any of them or that same person thinks they have the correct cards in their hand to complete their course by reaching their goal card.

Love finding hobby games at our local thrift store. This week we found Zig-Zag by Kosmos / Rio Grande Games! Another in the line of games our kids win at. - SahmReviews.com

Beginning with the person who stopped the round, each participant turns over their pile of collected cards and begins moving their pawn in order with the cards. Moves must be adjacent and can be backwards. However, whenever you move from one card to another, the move can only be directly forward (no diagonals). When you either run through your entire stack of collected cards, or get to a point where you cannot move because you have the wrong terrain, your turn is over. You pawn remains at that last movement point and all terrain cards are returned to the middle.

Love finding hobby games at our local thrift store. This week we found Zig-Zag by Kosmos / Rio Grande Games! Another in the line of games our kids win at. - SahmReviews.com

If after everyone has resolved their personal collection piles no player has reached their goal card, another round is played in the exact same manner. If you called out “stop” with the intention of reaching your goal card, but cannot, you are penalized by having to draw one additional obstacle card and adding it to the end of your course.

Most games of Zig-Zag take around 20 minutes and should be completed in 2-3 rounds. Supplementary rules included in the box have ideas for making the game longer and more challenging. Considering we are up against masters of any speed-related game, this base version presented us with more challenge than we needed!

You can still find brand new copies of Zig-Zag on Amazon from 3rd party sellers or take a chance on a used copy on eBay. But don’t play it with your kids – you won’t win.

5 thoughts on “Thrift Treasure: Zig-Zag Card Game

  1. My kids normally have the upper hand with speed-based games like this one. I’m sure I could keep my own with a little strategy. What they have in speed, I have in memory so hopefully memorizing my cards will help a little.

  2. That looks like a great card game. We recently went to a “Family Game Night” for our kid’s elementary school, and there were so many card games there that I had never heard of before that night. Card games are a great way to spend quality family-time together!

  3. This one looks fun. I like that it’s speed based, some games are too much about math. I prefer fast games and keeping everyone on their toes.

  4. Yesss, this is right up our alley!! My husband and I enjoy games like this that make us go against the kids with speed and memory, of course they win most of the time but, we do get our share of wins also! This game seems like a real memory challenge and to me those are the best to play!

  5. I love this find, Zig Zag card came sounds like something easy enough yet fun for the whole family. I Love finding old treasures in thrift stores to bring home and check out. It’s even more cool when I find an old favorite from my childhood. I thank you for sharing this!

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