Flashback: Zombie Kidz Cooperative Game Overview
I am the type of person who goes all in when I find a new thing. It could be a hobby or research about a product or topic. Recently I started playing pickleball, which is the fastest growing sport in the US for the 5th consecutive year. I consider myself a sporty guy so I’m baffled that I just learned about this sport within the past year. If you haven’t played pickleball, you should definitely check it out. It’s welcoming to all ages and ranges of abilities which makes it very easy to get into.
Similarly, about 10 years ago, I had been enjoying board games so much, I wanted to immerse myself more into the hobby. I started writing board game reviews, moved into making some videos and now I continue to be all-in on board games. I mention this, as it’s a personality trait of mine that Ev might have inherited. I’ll get back to that in a minute, but it requires some backstory first.
Hachette Boardgames provided a copy of Flashback: Zombie Kidz by Scorpion Masque. The design, the mechanics, and the art work very well together, and this combination has very much impressed us. The game isn’t complex, you slowly learn of the story as you reveal cards in the game to answer questions about what is going on in the scenes.
In Flashback: Zombie Kidz, zombies have taken over the school and plan to conquer the earth. The Kidz developed a Gizmo that allows you to travel into memories. This is a cooperative game where players work together to investigate memories, discover what has happened in the past and hopefully save the planet.
There are three chapters in the game, and you will play them consecutively, separately. You start with the first card in each chapter, then travel to another point of view by flipping over the card number listed next to that character. Since everyone is looking at different things going on, you will soon see the scene open up, and figure out what is happening. As you go from card to card you receive special cards that might provide additional gizmos to discover more clues. Some special cards will be mysteries that you will need to solve.
After flipping over all the cards in a memory, you will have everything you need to solve all the mysteries. You will read all the questions, and as a team, answer them. Check the solutions in the rulebook to confirm how well you did.
Some mysteries are easy to put together, while others require teammates to discuss everything everyone sees and work together to resolve. There are several surprises that everyone will enjoy. After playing through the three memories, you can also find additional mysteries to continue playing the game a little longer, revisiting each memory again.
Back to my comment about my all-in trait. Ev was so impressed with Flashback: Zombie Kidz, that he decided to make his own version of the game. This included drawing pictures of people and things, putting numbers next to them to show their “point of view”, and crafting question cards. Our entire family played “Zombie Fights”, his version of Flashback: Zombie Kidz. As if that wasn’t enough, he even included surprise packages, including a mirror and a rock, that would be used to unlock other cards in his game.
This was a very fun experience to play through with the kids. You know the designer has done something right when it inspires long-term creativity in the players and Ev is the perfect example of this. We’re looking forward to playing other games in Scorpion Masque’s Zombie Kidz line, including Flashback: Lucy! You can learn more about this line online at Hachette Boardgames or Scorpion Masque. Even better, stop by your local game store and get in-person feedback from their staff.
What is something you’ve gotten hyper-fixated on once discovering it?
