Zombiji. Hodajući mrtvaci. Ljubitelji realityja. Kako god da ih zovete, nemoguće im je pobeći bilo da upalite televizor, PC, konzolu, ili otvorite neku društvenu igru. Od kako su ušli u pop kulturu, postalo je veoma kul napraviti priču o zombi apokalipsi i ‘’šta bi bilo kad bi bilo’’ scenarijima. Ja lično znam da bih se ukopao u mestu od straha, ali to nije tema danas.

Kada pogledate tipični dizajn zombija, znate da je u pitanju neki košmarni prizor. A šta ako biste videli osmobitnog chibby zombija? I da taj isti zombi umesto vaših prstića želi da smaže kelerabu ili parče torte? Upravo to je ideja male igre Feeding Zombies, koja je došla na Kickstarter, a redakcija sajta Pitchwise je dobila priliku da zaigra prototip ove igre. Dva igrača se tako nadmeću ko će bolje nahraniti gladnu hordu i time odvući zombije ka protivniku. Jer, vidite, zombiji u ovoj igri su vrlo izbirljivi oko toga šta danas žele da pojedu.

Red od 5 karata koji vas razdvaja na stolu je početna horda. Naizmenično ćete onda igrati karte sa različitim vrstama hrane i tako poslati nekog od zombija korak bliže drugom igraču. Šta koji zombi voli da jede videćete na njegovoj karti (hamburger, luk, pivo, vino…), a čim se prvi zombi pomeri, iza njega se pojavljuje novi i tako stvara kolonu. Kako igra odmiče tako raste broj zombija na tabli, pa igrači moraju da planiraju koju kolonu će kada aktivirati jer, a ovo je veoma bitno, uvek hranite zombija na čelu kolone i on povlači svoje kompanjone sve od sredine. Kada kolona načini četvrti korak, igrač je ugrižen. A situacija se komplikuje jer postoje i specijalni zombiji koji preskaču red u koloni, ali i nindža zombiji koji se pomeraju na vrh susedne kolone ili čak preskoče na drugu stranu.

Naravno, ni kuvari nisu bespomoćni, pa u špilu mogu naći noževe kojima eliminišu najbližeg zombija, ili mogu da spreme posebne recepte koristeći više karata i dalje njima uticati na kolone – uklanjanje više zombija odjednom, pravljenje džoker karte i sl. Takođe, ne mali broj karata u špilu su kombo karte koje pokrivaju dva tipa hrane, doduše iz iste kategorije, pa je lakše iskombinovati poteze i npr. uzeti protivniku kartu menija ispred nosa.

I to je manje-više cela igra, sa opcijom da igrate na 1 ili 3 poena predstavljenih namrgođenim francuskim kuvarima, kao i varijantom za jednog igrača. U svakom slučaju, Feeding Zombies nije komplikovana niti naročito duga igra, pa ćete lako zainteresovati i prijatelje koji inače ne igraju igre na tabli da sa vama odigraju koju rundu. Slatka je, mala slagalica, taman za opuštanje uz kaficu, a iskreno vidimo sebe i da je nosimo sledeće godine na neko letovanje.

Feeding Zombies se trenutno nalazi na Kickstarteru, odakle možete preuzeti PDF fajl sa pravilima i print and play verzijom igre.

[ENGLISH VERSION]

Zombies. The walking dead. Reality show fans. Whatever you call them, they’re impossible to escape whether you watch TV, play video games or sit down at the table to throw some cards. Ever since they shuffled into the pop culture, it became rather cool to make the stories about zombie apocalypse and “what would happen if…” scenarios. I, personally, am sure I’d just get frozen in place if I saw a real zombie, but that’s not our topic today.

When you look at your typical zombie, you know you can expect a nightmarish sight. But, what if that zombie was an 8-bit chibby character? And, for some reason, it prefers to eat broccoli and cake instead of your toes? That’s exactly the premise of Feeding Zombies, brand new Kickstarter game, and the crew of Pitchwise got a chance to play around with the prototype of this cute card game. Two players will go head to head feeding the hungry horde and drawing it towards their opponent. Because, you see, zombies in this game have a rather strict diet plan.

A 5-card row separates you and your opponent and represents a starting horde. You’ll take turns playing different food cards and sending those zombies slowly towards the other player. Each zombie’s food of choice is represented on its card (burgers, leek, beer, wine…) and, whenever a zombie moves, a new one appears behin him creating a column. As the game moves on, the number of zombies grows, so you’ll need to think carefully what to trigger as, and this is important, you can only feed the headfirst zombie that pulls his buddies along. When the column makes the fourth step, the player is bit. What makes this even more of a pickle are special zombies that skip over their buddies and ninjas that move to the top of the columns and can even hop to the other side of the table.

Of course, the chefs aren’t helpless, so their deck hides knives for elimination of the nearest zombie, or they could cook special menu recepies by spending multiple cards. Then, they can affect the board in more severe ways – remove multiple zombies, create wild cards etc. Also, some cards are combo cards with two types of food, from same category though, so you get more ways to combine stuff for lethal moves and, for example, take menu card before your opponent manages to.

And that’s pretty much the whole game, with an option to play to 1 or 3 points represented by moody French chefs, as well as playing solo with a special singleplayer variant. In any case, Feeding Zombies isn’t a complicated nor a lengthy game, so you can easily get your non-gamer friends to play a round or two with you. It’s an adorable little puzzle, just quick enough to sneak during a coffee break, or even take with you on a summer vacation.

Feeding Zombies is live on Kickstarter, with the rulebook and print and play version available for free as PDF file.