Game of Life zAPPed Edition

The Game of Life: zAPPed Edition
From Hasbro Canada

About the game

A family gaming experience like never before. With THE GAME OF LIFE Zapped Edition, you can enjoy a whole new way to play! Add your iPad to the unique gameboard for a truly interactive family experience. The free app brings your game to life as you move around the board. You still get to move your car from space to space and select your path to retirement, but now you spin, get paid, sue other players and make important decisions all on your iPad. Don’t want to be just a plain peg? Go ahead and customize your peg character and add a peg-sessory!

Quick to set up, easy to play No assembly necessary! Just download the free app, hand out cars and cash, place your iPad on the board and you’re ready to go. Just follow the on-screen instructions and move your car around the board.

Exclusive multimedia content Real life is full of funny moments and so is THE GAME OF LIFE Zapped Edition. Land on app spaces to unlock more than 100 hilarious clips from America’s Funniest Home Video. Find out if these videos bring you good fortune or bad luck.

Includes gameboard, 4 car movers, 52 pegs, money pack, 4 rubber pads, Quick Start Guide. iPad not included but required to play the game.  For 2 to 4 Players

Our Thoughts

I first saw the Game of Life zAPPed Edition after watching some videos of the NY Toy Fair earlier this year.    I was curious about the possibility to include technology on a popular board game.   So when I saw it was announced on the Hasbro website, I emailed my contacts to request the possibility to review it.    They agreed and within two days I received the game.   So that evening (tonight to be precise), we got the game out, brought the iPad on the table and played with the kids.  The kids were ecstatic to try a new game.

Close up view of the game board.

Here’s the kids playing with the game with mom and dad.

Watching one of the numerous videos include in the app.

A better view of what the screen in the game look like.

The game went well though we got caught by surprised in a specific area – marriage.   I will explain about this when I will provide specifics on my highlights and disappointments on the game.  

I applause Hasbro to have thought of incorporating technology – in this case an iPad – with tradition board games.    It is ingenious and very interesting.   For example, when you graduate from your studies, you get to watch funny videos of people graduating.    We even saw one of adults getting in a playstructure and breaking the slide.   I suspect that these adults were not the owners of the playstructure though…        When you stop to get married, you can choose one of the three suggested weddings including some like getting married under water and such.   However, when you start a family, your spouse still has the same “outfit” as the wedding day.  For example, if you got married underwater, your spouse would have goggles in the face for the rest of the game.  When taking the family road, you can be surprised with one, two or three babies.   I suppose have quadruplets could be possible too.   Jérémy completed his family in two shots with one child first and then triplets.    He thought it was hilarious…  

In a nuttshell, here’s my highlights and disappointments for The Game of Life zAPPed Edition.

Highlights:

• A button at the top of the screen allowing you to flip the image so that the current player can see it better.
• Over 100 hilarious clips from America’s Funniest Home Videos to celebrate life events like graduation, playing with kids and so on.
• Bonus Payday games which allow you to receive more money when you stop on the Pay Day section on the board.
• Incorporating different app sections throughout the game board.
• Cool characters that you can design though my oldest son wished that you could pick more than one thing for each character.

This game is definitively out of the ordinary but unfortunately we encountered some big disappointments.

• Disappointment #1: We are missing one of the rubber pads which I have to call to request a new one.
• Disappointment #2: There are only 4 players on this version which is a bummer when you have a family of six.    My suggestion would be to allow to have more players – up to six at least – so that everyone can play.  
• Disappointment #3: This one is a touchy subject of discussion.   Though I respect Hasbro with incorporating possibilities for same sex couples in this game the company needs to remember that not everyone agree with this.   As a Christian family, I was surprised to see the possibility of marrying another person of the same sex.    Even the iPad version of the game doesn’t have this possibility.    I would like to suggest that Hasbro gives you the possibility to specify that the game has only traditional marriages on it with a password to avoid the selection to be modified.   This could easily be done by including a setting button in the options section where the user can select different things to personalize his/her version of the game.
• Disappointment #4: The game crashed in the middle of it and when we went back to it, it was not possible to return to our current game.   It would be nice to save a game in progress if the device shuts it down.

As a family we had a good experience with the game.  Would I let my kids play by themselves?  More than likely not because of some issues we have with the app itself.    If we could personalize and block some content then I wouldn’t have problems letting my kids playing with The Game of Life zAPPed Edition.   Having the opportunity to incorporate the iPad in a tradition game if fantastic I find.   It is definitively out of the ordinary.    However, I consider it is my duty to warn other Christian families considering purchasing the game that the wedding part is different than the previous versions of The Game of Life.  However, if some modifications can be done in the app to allow the user to choose the type of marriage they would prefer, I think the game would be very interesting for any families.   

The App is available for free on iTunes. Note that the App is in English only and the iPad is not included with The Game of Life zAPPed Edition.   The App will work with iPad and iPad2.

On another note, the Monopoly version of the zAPPed Edition is coming this June. Though I was taken by surprised by The Game of Life version, I suspect that the Monopoly Edition will be fun to check out.    I wouldn’t be surprise either to eventually see an Battleship version…

Disclaimer: Thanks to Hasbro Canada for sending me the above mentioned products for review purposes and for the giveaway . I was not monetarily compensated for this review. Please note that the review was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.