On the heels of the big fright fest which is Halloween, Diversions is proud to bring you yet another Zombie filled game review. Oddly enough, this one isn’t from the zombie-meisters over at Twilight Creations. The Looneys at Looney Labs have taken their frantic rule changing game Fluxx and introduced it to the undead – enter Zombie Fluxx. Does Fluxx rise from the grave to find new greatness or is this just another tired horror sequel?

Mechanics: Take the basic rules card (draw one / play one) and set it in the center of the table. Shuffle the deck and deal three cards to each player. Unlike standard Fluxx, Zombie Fluxx has a pregame setup – if you have any Creepers in your hand, you must play them before the game starts and redraw them. A Creeper is a card, which must be played in front of you when drawn. In the base Zombie Fluxx deck, these will be a variety of Zombies. These cards MUST be played, do not count towards your plays per turn, and the cards played are immediately redrawn. This goes for the Creepers thoughout the game. After that, the first person to call it may go first.

Play of Fluxx is very easy. Simply follow the rules on the table. The base rules are draw one/ play one. Until changed, that will be the standard play. But through card plays, the game state will change. The following types of cards may be played:

New Rule: These rules alter the base game state. They range from more draws, more plays, hand limits, bonuses for having specific game conditions such as having an appropriate keeper, and the like. Cards that grant bonuses are done immediately, If you play draw 5 on your turn while draw 1 is in effect, you draw an additional four cards immediately. Negative effects happen to everyone else immediately and to the active player at the end of turn. If Hand Limit 0 is played, all non active players discard their hands while the active player discards their hand at end of turn. Any card that overrides a previous rule causes the previous rule to be discarded and the new one to take effect.

Keeper: These items normally are just object you find laying around. In standard Fluxx, these items are needed in specific combinations to win the game. In Zombie Fluxx, certain Keepers also have innate powers like the Shotgun killing zombies or the Zombie Repellent sending zombies to an opponent.

Creeper: As mentioned above, these are bad Keepers. While some conditions exist where you can win with them, usually these are a bad thing. They must be played when drawn, unlike Keepers, do not constitute a play, and are redrawn until non-Creepers are found. The Creepers in the base Zombie Fluxx and come in four varieties. Single zombies just die when killed – back to the grave! Pair Of Zombies Creepers are a bit smarter. When you kill any other zombie and you have one, they scamper to another player – your choice. They may also just be killed undead – BANG! Zombie Trios have an arrow n the bottom of their card. When killed, they shamble off to the next player in the direction of the arrow. And Zombie Quartets just can’t stop making an appearance – killing them sends them back to the top of the deck.

Action: What’s a game without a little spice? These cards can do anything from shuffling all Keepers and Creepers and dealing them out, allowing a dive through the discard for retrieval, or even another turn. Each action constitutes only one play even if the card requires multiple cards to be played as a result.

Goal: No win condition exits until one of these played. Each goal lists a series of conditions that just be met for the game to end – any player who meets this goal wins automatically, even off turn. Unless a rule states otherwise, only one goal is in play at any time.

Ungoal: If Creepers are evil Keepers, Ungoals are evil Goals. If these goals are met, the game ends with the game, in this case the zombies, winning. Unlike Creepers, Ungoals do not have to played. But if bitter players exist or rule conditions dictate, these Ungoals may be played and the Zombies might feast.

Play contnues until a Goal (or Ungoal) is met. The player who meets this condition wins instantly. If the deck ever expires, reshuffle and continue.

Presentations: This game is done in full color zombo-vision! The game is shipped in a slip top box with a longer, narrow footprint than scene previously. I informed Andy Looney, that as a retailer – I loved the new look. Slimmer, sleeker, and more importantly, more visible – this box is good stuff. The cards are made of the typical great cardstock that this line of cards in known for. The cards themselves follow the more recent iterations of Fluxx and are very easy to read and know what type of card they are at a glance due to colored bars and symbols. Zomibe Fluxx is also in full color and features some great shambling zombie artwork from Derek Ring. (plus any game I can make the Looneys zombies and kill them might just be a plus!). The rules expand from the back of a card to a full rule sheet with plenty of illustrations and examples – much appreciated, guys!

Replayability: Much like other Fluxx’s – the same concepts for replay and strategy live here. Turns where you can drop rules that give you plenty of cards and extra plays before reseting the rules or lowering them WAY down are a must. Remember to balance the cards you play versus those you are keeping for the win. An early played keeper towards your goal is sure to get killed while too many cards in hand with evil chuckling is sure to set up a low hand limit. Play will be a bit longer as many of the goals require much more specific conditions than before, such as having nine zombies and a baseball bat (Zombie Baseball Team) or having the car, no friends, and everyone else having a zombie (I Alone Survived). Play goes from frantic and fun to a little more strategic as you become more familiar with the deck and the goals. Keeping people from insta-win combos such as having one of each type of Zombies is a must.

Overall: Looney Labs just goes to show us here that you can teach an old game new tricks. Zombie Fluxx might be one of the best games to come out of their studio since the original Fluxx. I love the new Zombie Fluxx simply because it has more interactivity with your fellow players. Besides being able to shimmy Zombies all over the table through zombie slaughter, rules, and action cards – many more of the goals require you not only to have the appropriate cards, but your opponents as well which makes for a deeper game. The addition of the Creepers and the Ungoals are brilliant as well. I certainly hope we more of this style show up for a regular Fluxx expansion. Also, I really dig the addition of keepers that do things such as the Shotgun and the Zombie Repellent. Again, and I can’t stress this enough, this Fluxx feels more cohesive and thought out than that many of the others they’ve given to us before. The cards have more synergy with each other without losing the frantic Fluxx flavor. Moonwalk to your local gaming store and pick this one up because these zombies are a thriller.

Final Score: 9 out of 10.