Zoo Ball (Osprey Games)

We are in the thick of sports seasons at the moment. It's that time of the year when baseball is wrapping up (World Series), basketball is starting, and football is starting to separate the contenders from the pretenders. With that in mind, it seemed like a good time to review Zoo Ball: The King of Sports! Zoo Ball is a game for 2 or 4 players, ages 8+. It takes about ten minutes to play and retails for $30.

Setup
1. Lay out the felt board and flatten is as best as possible.
2. Place your orange disc (Scorer) on the star in the circle and three white discs (Blocker) anywhere on your half of the board. Your opponent will do likewise on their half of the board.

Game Play
On your turn, you may either flick your Scorer or any/all of your three Blockers. The first player to get their Scorer completely into the other players circle (goal) scores a point and the board resets. The first player to three points is the winner. In a four player games, players start in separate corners, and must score in the corner diagonally opposite to their starting position. The first player to score is the winner, so this is more of a chaotic free-for-all in that you aren't only guarding your goal but all the other goals you don't want scored in.

Review
When I first received this game to review, I wondered if there was anything in the box honestly. It felt super-light so I was surprised upon opening it. The game board is a 30" x 30" piece of folded felt that looks like a typical sports field. It creases easily and I would have preferred a neoprene mat, but that would have raised the cost of this game dramatically. The discs have a nice weight and feel to them and slide well across the table. The stickers are well-illustrated and have a nice variety of animals on them. With eighteen white stickers and six yellow stickers, you can customize your team to suit your fancy and have some leftover. The rulebook could have been condensed to one sheet of paper, but Osprey Games added some fun theme with sports commentators talking about how to play the game. As for the game play itself, I found the game to be simple and quick. You can teach the game in about than five minutes and play it in another five (or ten if you're horrible at dexterity games like myself). It is a nice introduction to the dexterity mechanic and suitable for kids and casual gamers.

This game was provided to me for free by Osprey Games in exchange for an honest review.