Jasper & Zot -- Pumpkins Against Flaming Zombies

[Gerald]

Due to the extreme popularity of Plants vs. Zombies, it doesn't come as a great surprise to see a game built upon a similar premise.  In Jasper & Zot, you play Jasper, a White Mage who is trying to protect his award-winning pumpkin patch from the undead horde sent by Zot the Necromancer. 

Jasper & Zot is a print-and-play solitary game that recently won a BGG PnP game design contest.  It is available for download thru here and since you only have to print ONE page worth of components, you might want to check it out. 

COMPONENTS:
As previously stated, the game is print-and-play, meaning the components will be as good as you make them to be.  I simply printed out the ONE page, pasted the "board" onto a piece of illustration board, cut out the counters and mounted them on cardboard and I was done.  The entire process took about twenty to thirty minutes.

The design itself is quite colorful and I personally like the cute art.

GAMEPLAY:
The gameplay is very similar to old-school games such as Galaga, wherein a vessel (in this case Jasper), moves left-to-right on a limited track (in this case six columns) shooting the enemies (in this case the zombie horde) that come ever closer each turn.

There are four steps to each turn.  The first step moves zombies and special tokens alike two spaces closer to the player.  The second step is where you roll the dice to determine the number of new zombies and where they spawn.  The third step is where the player gets to move and cast spells.  Jasper has two spells... one that turns a zombie (and every zombie adjacent or chaining to it) into a flower patch.  The other spell is a fireball that incinerates flower patches.  Finally, the last step is where a zombie would smash your pumpkin(s) should it happen to be standing next to one.  As you have probably surmised, some steps might not be performed every turn, so you skip those and go back to step one.

You score points depending on the number of flower patches/zombies you incinerate and on the number of pumpkins you lose.

Of course, there're some more nuances to the game, but that's basically the gist of it.

COMPARING IT TO OTHER SIMILAR GAMES:
I haven't really played a game quite like Jasper & Zot... on the one hand, it seems so painfully simple... but on the other, its so hard to get a decent score.  Another print-and-play solitaire game I have played is D-Day Dice, but both games are not similar at all.  I feel that Jasper & Zot is more of a puzzle compared to D-Day Dice, and a lot less luck-dependent. 

FINAL THOUGHTS:
If you find yourself with fifteen to twenty minutes to burn, you can do alot worst than playing Jasper & Zot.  Its fun, quick and engaging... plus its cheap and easy to produce. 

If you're a grumpy sourpuss who can't enjoy light-hearted puzzle games, look elsewhere.  Otherwise, give this delightful little gem a spin.