Pyramid Review
Cannibal Pygmies in the Jungle of Doom
Published by Z-Man Games
Written by Stephen Tassie
Illustrated by Steve Bryant, Tom Castillo, and Jason Millet
120 cards; $19.95
A favorite card game from last year, at least with our gaming group, was Grave Robbers From Outer Space, published by Z-Man Games. In that game, players had to build their own B-movie, using Character, Prop, and Location cards while sending Creature cards to destroy the other movies and fend off Creatures sent by the other players. The theme, as the title implies, was taken from the best -- and the worst -- of the B-movie science fiction and horror films made during the fifties and sixties.
Unfortunately, Grave Robbers From Outer Space had a number of slight flaws. One of these was that you never got the feeling that you were actually creating a movie during play. Much of this was down to the simple game play that came down to matching a Creature card's "Attack Strength" against the "Defense Strength" of the movie. Fortunately, Grave Robbers From Outer Space had one big thing going for it -- a sense of humor that so firmly stuck tongue in cheek, it warranted its PG-13 certificate! The game worked because it poked a very sly and knowing finger at its inspiration, and if you knew the unwritten rules of the genre, then Grave Robbers From Outer Space was all the more funnier.
The author employs the same format and game play for the sequel Cannibal Pygmies in the Jungle of Doom. Again drawing upon B-movies for . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: October 25, 2002
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