The Game of Life zAPPed

Will you take the Risky Road or the Safe Path?  Will you get married?  Have kids?  It's The Game of Life!  It’s time to embark on that great journey known as Real Life. Will you go to college or straight into a career? Want to have lots of kids or even more schooling? Hasbro’s new “Zapped” edition of The Game of Life introduces a new twist: it uses an iPad as the spinner and for various game effects, but at its heart it’s still mostly the same game you know and (maybe) love.

At the beginning of the game, you get to customize your peg person (avatar).  You can choose the hairstyle and color, hats and even an accessory such as a purse, a dress, a t-shirt, etc.  You even get to type in your own name for your peg avatar.   

Then you are given $10,000 to start your "game of life".  The person who spins the highest number starts the game and the game plays much like the original board game with a new twist.  Some of the spaces you land on may have simple instructions like "You take a Caribbean vacation ~ Pay $30,000" while other spaces you may have to tap an app icon (see the icons on the right hand side of the Ipad screen) for further instructions.  

STOP button:  You will make a major decision (college or career, risky or safe)

Life (all color) Bar:  You watch a clip from America's Funniest Home Videos and earn life tokens that you cash in at the end of the game.

Green $ Bar:  If you land on a payday you play a bonus game to earn extra salary

Purple Family Bar:  Add a baby to your life

Spinner Bar:  Gamble by playing "Spin to Win" or opt out if you want to save your money

Scales Bar:  Sue another player for $100,000

You still get to choose a career that is based upon the path of life you took:  career or college. As you move throughout the game and choose various occupations, you will also earn additional accessories based upon your occupation.  For example, a doctor can choose an x-ray, a movie star can choose an Oscar award or an expedition adventurer can choose a map.  

The game forces you to stop and get married.  I do have one problem with the wedding selection.  It lets you choose either a man or a woman to marry.  Now, I have already told the game my gender at the beginning when I chose my peg avatar and it knows I am a girl so I should not have had the option to choose a girl to marry.  Once you choose a "partner", you get married and it even shows the pegs kissing (as well as pegs can kiss). As a Christian, I do not like that the game promotes and offers lesbian/gay marriages through this choice.  Even our 6 year old said "Well, I don't want to marry a boy so I'm picking the girl one."  Anyway...The Ipad app lets you even choose what type of wedding you'd like to have.  I got to choose from an underwater wedding, a traditional wedding or a pirate wedding. As tempting as the pirate wedding was, I choose traditional and had my "dream" wedding. 

A few turns later, I got sent on the honeymoon of my dreams in the Caribbean and got to dance barefoot until the sun sets. I think this was obviously a very romantic trip because less than a quarter mile down the "road" (board), our family grew by one little peg.....

When you add a baby, you get to choose boy or girl gender (you can add up to 4 kids during the game play).  You don't get to name them or anything but it has a cute little video about you adding a baby to your family everytime you add a child.  

There are several fun mini-games throughout the board play as well.  When you land on a green payday square, you get to play either a matching game or a game where objects are hidden under one of three cups and as the cups are moved around you must keep your eye on the "prize" and then choose the cup with that prize inside it.  I liked the mini-games because they were challenging yet helping the kids learn too.  

The game ends when all players arrive at the retirement home.  In true "The Game of Life" fashion, you must choose between Countryside Acres or Millionaire Estates.  If you choose Millionaire Estates, you can still gamble when other players land on their spaces.  At Countryside Acres you simply sit back and wait on other players to "retire" also.  

Even though you do have to use paper money throughout the game when it is payday, or when you gain or lose money I love how the end of the game calculates your winnings.  You simply add up the number of each bill of different denominations that you have in your possession at the end of the game and the Ipad app automatically calculates your game earnings for you (yeah, for people like me that are mathematically challenged).  It also gives you a random dollar amount for each Life token in your possession at the end of the game and you get a "child credit" of $10,000 per child as well.  The player with the highest total wins the game!  A cute addition to the zAPPed game is that at the end of the game, each player gets to see a cute little photo of their "family" from the game.  

We own both the original board game of Life and the Ipad Life game (not zAPPed edition) and thoroughly enjoy playing the Ipad version.  I do have to say that whoever is the banker during the  zAPPed game has to really be on their toes not to miss a payday and to make sure each player is gaining or losing money as they should.  I think we were spoiled to the non-zAPPed game of Life on the Ipad where all the banking is electronic.  Overall, we all enjoyed the game and it is one we will continue to play.  The Game of Life zAPPed is for 2-4 players and geared for ages 8 and up (although our 6 year old played it with limited assistance from me).  It retails for $24.99 from Hasbro games and does require that you own an Ipad to play.  The Game of Life zAPPed Ipad app is free in the iTunes app store.  

Disclaimer:  I was given The Game of Life zAPPed edition for review purposes only from Hasbro Games.  No monetary compensation was received.  These opiniosn are my own and reflect our own family's opinions of this game and its game play.