Deadfellas Review
In DeadFellas you play one of the leaders of the Zombie Mafia. Your goal is to recruit Mooks and equip them to whack your enemies before they do the same to you.
Components:
The game is basically 110 cards separated into two categories.
Mook Deck – These are the Zombies you’ll be recruiting and equipping. Each Mook is unique and has a funny name. Even though the only difference that matters is how many bullet holes are in the top right it’s nice to see the developers go the extra mile and create original artwork for each Mook.
Mafia Deck – This deck contains your Disguises, Weapons, and Vehicles. it also contains special cards that can give you shortcuts to getting your Mooks ready or protect them from getting whacked.
Everything comes tucked in a nice little box.
Gameplay:
Each player starts with 3 face up Mooks and 3 hidden Mafia cards. These are your starting Mooks. You gotta be careful with them because you can only have cards in your hand (at the end of your turn) equal to or less than the number of Mooks you have in front of you.
On a turn:
- Draw a Mafia card.
- If you recruited a Mook on a previous turn you get him ready for play.
- Play Mafia cards (as many as you like).
- Take one of these actions:
a. Whack
b. Draw a Mafia card
c. Recruit a Mook
5. Discard extra Mafia cards (if you have more cards than you do Mooks).
Each Mook has a number of bullet holes on the top right. This is how strong they are/how many points they are worth if you whack them. When one player has whacked enough Mooks to have a total of ten bullet holes, they win.
Thoughts:
I played plenty of Deadfellas with two and with four players (didn’t try it with three though). Most of those plays happening one right after another. Deadfellas is one of those quick games that never overstays its welcome. Once a game is finished all you have to do is reshuffle the cards and deal out another starting hand. Friends of mine who normally shy away when the gaming starts really enjoyed it and we were laughing and teasing each other whenever someone took a whack action. When I asked them if they would play again the answer was a quick “yeah, I’d play again”.
Part of the fun of having a website focused on smaller games is that once in a while you come across something like Deadfellas; a game that’s just really fun and very silly. The kid in me enjoyed Deadfellas quite a bit. Little touches like the fact that every zombie has a unique (and quite funny) name tells me that this was a labor of love. It’s a fast and easy to teach set collecting game with streamlined rules that work well with the theme. It’s funny to imagine the zombies actually collecting all the silly items and taking each other out. Deadfellas is the only game that allows you to dress a zombie in a hula skirt, have him whack another zombie with a sock monkey, and then flee the scene on a tricycle.
