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O Zoo le Mio |
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Who wants to
run their very own zoo - raise your hand!
Ok, that may have worked better for you younger gamers out there, but for you old-timers, listen up - I may have a game here on my desk that's worth your time, especially if you play with some of those younger gamers that I mentioned previously.
Sitting here, looking rather odd with it's box-art is O Zoo le Mio from Rio Grande Games & friends. Admittedly, when I first came into contact with it, I was rather - shall we say - put off by the look of it. Boy, if ever there was a poster child for "never judge a game by it's cover", this is it.
In O Zoo le Mio, you are the director of your very own zoo. That sounds all fine and all, right, but there's a catch. There are other convenient zoos in your area that are competing for the same customers that you are! In this world, zoos are all the rage, I guess.
In order to compete, you have to create new attractions, and keep the populace interested and returning for more - spending their hard-earned cash along the way. Not only do you need to diversify your animal attractions, you need to consider the general aesthetics of your zoo as well - hey, no one wants to visit a boring zoo!
At the start of the game, each player starts with one starting zoo tile and a zoo entrance. Ok, I have to mention the names of each available zoo - "Porky Park", "Villa Gorilla", "Aqua Shark" and my personal favorite "Crocodome." (It has that Mad Max sound to it, ya know...). Each player is also given some "zoo coins" - the currency in O Zoo le Mio. These coins will be used for bidding on new attractions, and you will keep them hidden in your tiny little zoo entrance.
After setup, someone will take the 25 zoo tiles and shuffle them up randomly, then stack them in one single pile. These zoo tiles are 1 and 7/8 inches by 3 and 3/4 inches, and have zoo attractions on them, as well as paths and possibly trees that will add value to your zoo. Each attraction shown on the tiles (and there are 2 attractions per tile) are given a ranking, shown as stars. The more stars shown, the more it appeals to people who like those kind of attractions (apes, mammals, birds, etc.) and as a result the more money you may earn for further development.
Once this stack has been created, take the first 5 tiles and lay them face up - this is where the auction phase begins. The auction phase of the game is a silent auction, so players have no real idea as to what other players are going to bid, and the highest bid wins. There is a tie-breaker system in place - each zoo entrance has a flag that corresponds to it. There is a flag pole tile that comes with the game, and the flags are chosen at random to go on the flag pole in vertical order. The player at the top of the pole has the highest priority, and priority descends from there. In a tie, the player who is higher on the flag pole wins the tie. After a player wins a tile, that player then takes their flag from it's position on the pole and places it at the bottom - the lowest priority.
The strategy of the auction phase is to take what attractions you can, and pay as little for them as possible. With a silent auction, this is a little difficult, of course. Oh, and don't forget that you can't see what coins your opponents have, either. (A good memory helps here.) The attractions with the higher ratings will go for higher bucks, of course. Priority on the flag pole helps, and the auctions are shown face up and executed in order, so keep that in mind while you play.
When you do win a new tile, you place it with the path on the tile linking up with a path on your starting zoo tile. A path can never end in a grassy space, so you need to match path-to-path every time. Another monkey-wrench in your plans, eh? Yeah.
When you create a path that comes full-circle, so to speak (has a beginning and an end) you get to take a park bench and add it to your zoo. These babies earn you points, and can never be taken away. Also, keep an eye out for trees on tiles as well - when you have a bunch of these in your zoo, you attract more people and earn more money!
After all of the tiles have been auctioned and placed, players total up the value of their attractions, by color/type. To increase the value of an attraction, you place attractions of the same type next to each other. This creates a larger attraction, increasing it's value and draws more interest from the zoo-visiting public. The attractions with the most points earn visitors to the attraction, 2 for the 1st place attraction and 1 for the 2nd place one. Do this for each type of attraction, as well as for the total amount of trees in the zoo.
Now, before you end this first year (oh, the game takes place over 5 years - each containing an auction phase and a scoring phase) you score the points - oh, I see that I just said that in the parentheses. At any rate, you count up the total number of visitors, park benches and tree tokens in your park and earn points for them. These totals are multiplied by the year in which you are in - x1 for the first, x2 for the second, etc. You then write these numbers down on the sheets provided or use another type of paper/scoring method if you are out of sheets or don't want to use them up.
How do you get money, you ask? Well, for each tile you have (not including the starter one) you earn one coin. Use your coins wisely, as you can see that you won't be pulling in any serious money at the start of the game and in the early years. After all of the points have been scored and the coins earned, you flip over 5 more zoo tiles and start a new year.
Ok, so that's the game in a nutshell - is it any fun to play, you ask? Resoundingly, yes! I have to admit, I was a little unsure about the game until I went through the rules. I played the game with my son (9 years old) and we both had a blast. So, I figured that I had a great kids game on my hands. Not true. I took the game to play with some "older" people (20-45 year age span) and nearly everyone enjoyed the game, with some a little hesitant, and here's why:
One complaint is that it seemed like the "rich get richer and the poor get poorer." I have to admit, in some games that we played this seemed the case, but in others things were pretty balanced, and players could rebound from a bad year. This is something to consider if you intend to purchase O Zoo le Mio. Personally, I wouldn't let it stop me from playing it again and again. If you see this situation evolving in the game, I think that it's up to all of the other players to do what they can to stop it. It's as simple as this - don't let any of the players get a big jump on the tiles being auctioned. If you wait for the "right ones" to come up, you will hurt yourself in the overall points, and that's what wins games! Remember, only 5 are revealed each year, so the number of tiles each player will get their hands on may only be one or two, depending on the number of players involved in the game. Also, make those big rich guys pay dearly for the tiles that you think that they will want. It may hurt you in the early rounds, but later on they'll know that you mean business and will bid accordingly.
To summarize, what we have here is a game that has various game mechanics involved that's fun to play for gamers ages 9-99. The tiles are colorful and depict various animals, as well as other background images. The rules are clear and concise, so no problems there. Just a little caution factor for the "rich players win" situation, and the minor issue of a limited resource in reference to the scoring sheets. You definitely should come up with something a little more reusable. Cardboard-backed, laminated sheets with dry erase markers could come in handy for this.
Upon reflecting on the score that this game deserves, I would have to go with a 4.25. It's a 4 all of the way, but my gut tells me that it needs a little more than just a straight 4, hence the additional .25 added on. At either score, it's definitely worth a look for any gamer, young or old.
Written by Gene Vogel
(Posted 08-23-2004)