PARASITES UNLEASHED (Zygote Games, 2-4 players, ages 8 and up, 20 minutes; $9.95)
The world of creepy crawlie critters has a new representative in Parasites Unleashed, a colorful and light game about these denizens of the animal world and their life cycles.
Parasites Unleashed, designed by James L. Cambias, comes in a small box to hold
its deck of 55 cards and a colorful rulebook. Cards come in four basic types: 4
Hatch cards, 4 Mate cards, 36 Host cards and 11 Specials. A characteristic
shared by the cards is that ALL have
colored east/west borders. Red, yellow,
green and brown are the colors used and the Hatch and Mate cards have identical
colors on their borders. The Host card borders, however, do not match. Specials
have purple borders so they are easy to recognize.
One Hatch and one Mate card are randomly chosen by all players and they are placed face up on the table. (Extra cards of these types are removed from play.) The Host and Special cards are mixed together to form a draw deck. Everyone is dealt three cards which are kept hidden until played. The object of the game is to build a complete life cycle which, in game terms, means building a line of cards where the Hatch and Mate cards are included that match border to border (with at least ONE card separating the Hatch and Mate cards).
Each turn follows a set procedure. First, you draw enough cards so that you have four in your hidden hand. Then you may play TWO cards to either build or attack.
Building involves playing a card, either moving the open Hatch or Mate cards to start or extend your life cycle OR playing a card from your hand to extend the cycle. And that's where those border colors become so important.
A card may only be played to the cycle IF one of that card's borders matches the
color at
either end of the cycle. So, for example, if you have a red border at the end of
your cycle, you may now add another card to the line
provided that it, too, has a red border. (It is tempting to play a card upside
down so that colors meet. This is, however, NOT allowed.) Special
cards, easily distinguished by
their purple borders, grant players special (hence the name)
abilities that can make it easier to accomplish your goal. For example,
one Special will allow you to cover your Hatch card so you won't need it to
complete your life cycle, another acts as a Wild Card and will match ANY color.
Or, you may attack.
Attacks involve playing Host cards onto an opponent's line, the idea being to make it more difficult for your opposition to complete their life cycle. (This is problematical, however, as you have no way of knowing what cards are hidden in an opponent's hand or what he/she will draw. It is actually just a way to free your hand from cards that don't fit into YOUR plans.) What makes more sense is to play those aforementioned Specials to make life difficult on your competition. For example, one Special allows you to steal a Host card from an opponent's life cycle. Of course, there is a Special that will cancel any Special played against you! (Should you suffer an attack, you may play any Specials in your hand to neutralize or minimize the attack IMMEDIATELY.) The game is purely tactical; long range planning or strategy is simply not possible.
Finally, a player may discard as many cards as he wants from his hand to create room for his next draw. But it should be noted that you don't draw until the START of your next turn. Should you find yourself faced with another attack, you will be defending with less (or maybe no) cards. .
The first player to complete his life cycle wins!
At its core, Parasites Unleashed is a color matching game of weird science with cute artwork (by Fred Zinn) to mesh with a few scientific facts. I suspect the gross nature of the game (the game's subtitle " A Totally True, Totally Gross Card Game" is certainly on the mark) will attract more customers than its educational value. While the box recommends an audience of ages 8 and up, the combination of subject and easy learning curve skews the age range of the true target audience towards the younger end of that spectrum and makes this a natural for even younger players. The quick play time of the game also adds to its effectiveness with younger gamers as the game doesn't wear out its welcome. (The low retail price doesn't hurt either.) A perfect stocking stuffer in this Holiday Season. - - - - - Herb Levy
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