Board With Each Other
A podcast that looks at Board Games / Tabletop Gaming through the lens of playing as a couple or with a regular gaming partner. Hosted by Al & Hannah, We review a game each episode.
Board With Each Other
Board With Each Other Bite Size: Episode 6 - Cryptozoology for Beginners
In this edition of Bite Size, we take a look at the card drafting / pass your hand madcap experience that is Cryptozoology for beginners. Not one to overlook despite its small profile -listen in to find out why and join us on this (inexplicable) field trip.
Hello everybody and welcome back to another episode of Board with Each other Bite Size, the spin-off podcast from the main Board With Each Other podcast, where we look at shorter, lighter more sparkly. More sparkly games. And expansions to larger board games. These are meant to be uh short, sharp reviews. We don't go into our usual full, full-on deep dive scoring criteria. But just to sort of give you a flavor and a taste of these games so we can get some more content out of you. If you like what you hear, obviously you have our main monthly podcast, which does a deep live on a board game per month and gives it the full review. I'm joined as ever by my player too, my lovely wife, and my co-host, Hannah Kelly.
SPEAKER_01:Hi guys.
SPEAKER_00:And today we are reviewing CryptoZoology for beginners, because everybody's got to start somewhere, right? Or to give it its full title, The Natural World, CryptoZoology for Beginners, the game. This is a essentially a play and pass Sushi Go like with a lot of extra bells and whistles on it. So if you ever play something like Sushi Go, the concept is you get a hand of cards, you play a card from that hand, and then you pass your hand to the left. Right? Or the vice. I mean, I don't know if it's politically related, but maybe we should sense that if we'll scroll it.
SPEAKER_01:You're just passing it back and forth. That is the game.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it is the game, yeah. We're playing with two. Um, if we digress. So the the the you you play in past of your the your hands played, and then usually in these type of games you just sort of score what you've what you've put out. This is a little bit different. So at the start of each round, or each of the three. Yes, of which are there three, you are dealt two assignment cards. One of those cards you put in your play area, the other one you put in a public play area, and they all have specific requirements. So, for example, collect three Loch Nessas and two Chupacabras. When you complete an objective, either from your private, your play area, or the public play area, you take it and you you basically score it for the end of the game. Um, and they vary in difficulties and they vary in in points costs. So that's one side of sort of the different.
SPEAKER_01:And sometimes your scoring allows you to take a secret hidden token from a main pool and you keep that hidden, so it's not always possible to know how other people have scored.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, there's a whole stack of sort of scoring chits that range, I think, from between three, it might even be two and six points, and those are sort of randomly distributed, and you don't know until you you pick them up. The other way this differs is after you you have basically drafted a hand, you then play that hand taking turns. So you put cards down in front of you. And these cards then have effects if you stick them up. So, for example, if you have two Loch Nesses, you can draw more cards from the deck to continue playing that round. You have things like Chupacabra, which allow you to discard a card from either your area or opponents, and then they draw you or they draw a new one. You have uh set collection ones like the Mothman, where if you have the most of them, you get uh scoring chits at the end of the round. And you also have special cards that have special actions. So, for example, there's one that you can basically steal a card from your opponent's play area. So there's quite a lot going on in comparison to your sort of run-in-the-mill, play and pass kind of game. And um yeah, I mean, we we picked this up because I just love the off-the-wallness of it all. It's not that sort of zany stupid edge that I just love in things. Um, it's art style, it's basically sort of magic school busy, like 1970s after school special.
SPEAKER_01:What's also really cool, guys, is it comes with a 3D school bus. Yes. Because what I like to think is back in the 80s, when there were no rules, we used to take our children on to the you know, wood somewhere where you would encounter a Bigfoot with a chip cabra um and a Loch Ness monster, all in the same little village.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, it's a class trip to ask questions.
SPEAKER_01:Um your parents die the way up.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, I have no idea why this involves taking a bunch of kids on a criterious.
SPEAKER_01:For beginners, obviously, do you take university students?
SPEAKER_00:Start them young, start them young, yeah. Get get them, get them finding chip cabra.
SPEAKER_01:Um but yeah, so you've got a little mini 3D school bus, and that's your your first your your first pair of tokens.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but the the art style is uh delightful. I love it. I I guess it's got that proper sort of after school special like cartoon feel to it, and it's just it's it's just fun. It's very, very fun. Um that's what sort of leapt out to me about it without even knowing what the game was like. Your first thoughts?
SPEAKER_01:Um, so my first thoughts as we bate when we were too drunk and I didn't have the mental capacity to put that with that. I thought it was gonna be really easy and straightforward, but it requires an awful lot of memory and actually a little strategic planning that I wasn't quite prepared for. Um but um yeah, I think straight off the bat, there's a lot of things in this that um sort of build on sushi go and kind of make it that much more fun.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I think all of the extra bells and whistles on it to what is essentially, as we said, sushi go. I I think I think they work. Yeah, they really work. And I think the idea of sort of drafting a hand of cards and then going through typical sort of card game playing off each other kind of thing. I I really enjoy. I think it's really, really good fun. And there's a surprising amount of strategic depth to it.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think that comes from having the private and the public assignments because you can everything's still open-faced, faced it's it's played up so you can still see what's in your opponent's private scoring area.
SPEAKER_00:And you know, you're just gonna say private area then.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, I was gonna um but that I think allows you to then think, well, I'm just gonna be a dick and play this because I'll take this because I know that he needs it.
SPEAKER_00:Um, and there's always also that that race to be able to get those public scoring cards as well, or chucking the ones like, oh, that's nigh impossible into the public scoring area, but then you get screwed up because your opponent actually manages to do it. Yeah. Um, yeah, the just little things about the order that you play your cards as well when you actually play them because there are cards that can either like delete or or in one case neck your opponent's cards, and you need to be careful that they're not going to play that and do that when you ultimately need, you know, they see you heading for a set. So if you're paying attention and applying your brain to it, there's a lot going on here. But surprising for for what it is. Um the play is nice and quick and snappy, but it is quite brain burdy. Yeah. Um, which again took me by surprise. I was expecting sort of complete dumb fun, and it's a bit more than that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it's the kind of game that you keep wanting to go back to as well, I find.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's quite Moorish.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um yeah, and it again it fits it fits the bill for that, you know, either start of the night, get brain flowing, or something was finished finished off with, like it fits quite neatly in that.
SPEAKER_01:In terms of it being um, you know, sort of quite solid as a two-player game, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00:I think I think it works at two players a lot better than most of these games because of that strategic element. And I'd actually go so far to say that playing it at two makes it a little bit more strategic. Yep. Because trying to try and keep track of three plus in this, I think, yeah, sure you could do it if you were a smarter person than I am, but I think I'm I think it would make it all a little bit more random.
SPEAKER_01:Random.
SPEAKER_00:Um, whereas the I'm going to mess with you quotients in the two-player uh configuration actually works quite well. And you do have those gotcha moments, and you do have those moments where you were you're intentionally messing with your opponent quite effectively. Yeah. Um, so I I I I rate it too much more than a lot of these type of games. Like I think it I think the extra bells and whistles really make it work, and even somebody sing as a two-player game. So, yeah, I mean, anything else you you want to add on it?
SPEAKER_01:So I think the other thing to mention is that it is a really light, easy game and it's really, really quick to pick up. You could teach people in about five minutes. Most of the detail is on the cards. Yeah. And again, that makes it a really lovely play experience for everyone. And I don't think it matters if you've played quite a few hands, nobody else hasn't.
SPEAKER_00:The people can get up on the same plate, yeah. Same plane field quite quite easy, same level quite easily. Yeah. Um, one of the things, one of the mechanics that I really like about it is the tomes. So one of the cards, you one of the card types is uh is a tone on cryptozoology, because of course it is. But basically the mechanic is if you end up with only one, you get a scoring chit. And I find it one of the more fun strategic parts of it because you when you when you start and you've got one in your hand, there's always my other temptation to just grab it because if there's only one in that hand, and you know there's only been one, uh you almost guaranteed that you're gonna get that scoring chit at the end. But then if you get a couple of hands with loads of not loads, well, it's loads a bit of a moot point, but you get like three, it then becomes a little bit of a sort of standoff about who's gonna take the one and try and keep the one. And are you not taking cards you really need just to try and avoid taking? I I find it really interesting mechanic. Um, I think it's quite uh quite brain burning in that sense that you and and there's a little bit of almost bluffing with the passing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Like, oh no, I don't want that.
SPEAKER_01:You also get those, and you mentioned them before, like those random one-off cards that all have a special function, and again, they're gonna be really powerful and really change the way the course of that game goes, but it's about having the I guess confidence to know what's in the deck and what's in other people's hands to make to sure that it's gonna work.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:And I'm always last to play it because I'm not quite sure.
SPEAKER_00:I'm not sure it's gonna work to do. And it's also you're taking them as a sacrifice, they they very rarely uh go towards the assignments, for example, and they you take one of them, you're also potentially sacrificing something you really need. Um, because a lot of the cards effects only take effect if you have sort of enough multiples on them, like two or three, usually. And um, yeah, you you can be quite loath to sort of give up a space or slot for something that's actually going to have an effect that you know is going to work. And take one of them. But sometimes the risk lays off. Yeah. You take it and it's uh winds either round. So yeah, that's it, it's yeah, it's just a really fun, zany experience with just enough strategic debt to keep me going coming back for more and more, really.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, what's it retail for?
SPEAKER_00:About£50-ish, which is fairly standard for a small box game like this.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I also think that's also exceptional value because you've got your 3D pop-up model, you've got your little tokens. Yeah, I think that's really, really good and a really good price point. Yeah. Um, for a game that I think uh actually can last you a really long time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, no, I think I think it's great. Like I unreservedly say picking up. We've seen it, you know. Uh I think we were lucky enough to get this in the game's gone insane sale of 2024.
SPEAKER_01:Um most of which was shit.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, but this is this was this was a gem in amongst the a diamond in the rough. Um, but yeah, I I I would give this a very, very solid positive seven.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was gonna go with a seven as well, maybe possibly pushing on an eight.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I don't think it quite gets to an eight for me, but it's definitely a seven. It's a very good game. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you for joining us on another uh quick snappy episode of Bite Size. We hope to see you soon for our deep dive content. And until next time, have fun, be good to each other, and play lots of board games.
