Paella Park

• Designer: Enric Aguilar, Eloi Pujadas
• Publisher: Zombi Paella
• Players: 2-5
• Age: 10+
• Time: 60 minutes
• Played with review copy provided by publisher

Welcome to Paella Park, Valencia’s most famous amusement park! Ride the paella-shaped Ferris wheel, dodge zombies, and try to snap a photo with the elusive Zombie Queen. Pack in as much fun as you can in the 8 hours before the closing fireworks. Map out your route, avoid the crowds, catch a few shows, and get ready for the time of your life!

Paella Park is one of the first games about theme parks in which the players don’t have to manage the park, but to visit it! The game is played in turns and lasts for 4 rounds, which represent 8 hours at the amusement park. The player with the highest score wins.

Game play is not clockwise or counter-clockwise. Each turn you will identify first the active player by looking at the Waiting Area. Players can only take ONE ACTION per turn. Every action consumes time and there are different strategies to win points. Available actions include: walking around the park, going on rides, seeing shows, visiting guest services, going shopping, taking photos with the park’s mascot, etc.

Most of these actions require planning an efficient point to point movement and taking risks with push-your-luck mechanics. The game includes a 3D wheel of Paella that players must spin when they visit rides and shows.

Place the board on the table – you’ll see a map of the amusement park on it with rides, shops, shows, restaurants, transportation options, etc.  Also place the waiting area board nearby which you use to track the time (duh) – this also has the round tracker as well as the Puke-O-Meter.  Assemble the Wheel of Paella and have it nearby. You can give the wheel a good spin or two to make sure it works.

Draw four time cards at random and placed in a facedown stack. Each show gets a time token placed on it.  Players get a player aid, a score sheet, and markers for the time tracker and Puko-o-meter.  Ther meeple is placed at the entrance to the park.  Each player also gets 2 Shopping cards – these can give you bonus abilities or victory points.  Players also get 2 Mission cards (must keep 1) and 2 Bonus mission cards (may keep 0-2)  Additional bonus missions are made available near each of the two Guest Services areas.

The waiting area board is the time track/turn order track for the game.  The player who is furthest back in line takes the next turn; moving forward a space for each 10 minutes on the track equal to the time of their action.  When you have reached the 110 section, you move your marker forward to the beginning of the 0 area; you are done for the round.  When all players have moved completely around the track and are back in the 0 area, the round ends.

At the start of each round, flip up a time card. This tells you the wait times for basic rides in each area of the part as well as the featured ride.  It will also tell you what section of the park is closed for maintenance (you cannot ride rides nor walk through there)

Possible actions are:

• Walk around the Park – move from one attraction to another; you can use either of the two transportation options as a single step.  Time spent increases as you walk by more attractions (10-30 minutes total)

• Go On A Ride – Check the time card to see what the wait time is. Then decide if you want to cut the line or not, and state a number (10,20,30,40 or 50) that you want to try to save. Spin the Wheel of Paella. If you get a Security Guard, you have been caught, and you add your stated time to the basic wait time.  If you do not get a Guard, you are successful and you subtract the stated time from the basic wait time.  If you were a good citizen and didn’t skip the line, just take the stated wait time.  Next, look at the puke value of the ride (on the board) and modify it with the puke inhibitor score from the wheel. If the puke value is still positive, you puke and you mark your own shirt and one of any other player. If you get to the end of the Puke Track, you have to go to First Aid, crossing it off your sheet and incurring a game end penalty. Finally, mark off the ride on your sheet so you remember to score points for it.  If you are the first person to see all the attractions in an area, score the bonus for that area.

• See a Show – be at a Show at the time matching the time token at said show. Shows last 20 minutes. If you arrive early, you can “wait” and move your time token forward until you get to the time the show is supposed to start.  Cross the show off your sheet. As a bonus for watching a show, spin the wheel, looking at the food side.  Name an ingredient on the wheel, and if the dude is pointing at it, draw a Shopping card.  If you are the first person to see all the attractions in an area, score the bonus for that area.

• Visit Guest Services – draw 2 bonus mission cards from the supply there and keep 1. This takes 10 minutes
• Eat at a Restaurant – stop at any restaurant, spend 10 minutes, but then reset your Puke token back to the start of the track
• Go Shopping – cross off 10 minutes, use one of the coins from your sheet, draw 3 shopping cards and keep 1, placing the unchosen ones at the bottom of the deck
• Take a Photo with the Zombie Queen – The location of the Zombie Queen is determined by the time card drawn each round. Score points corresponding to your location on the time track when you take the photo. Only one player can take a photo with the Zombie Queen each round.
• Watch the Fatal Fireworks – only in the final round, take the highest VP spot still available and your game ends.

Continue through four rounds.  At the end of the fourth round, calculate all your points – this is easily done on the score sheet.  You score points for the rides and shows you visited as well as any medals you earned and photos with the Zombie Queen. Reveal your mission cards – score positive points if you completed the mission, but take a negative point penalty if you did not complete it.  Shopping cards and leftover coins score points. Finally take penalties for any puke stains on your shirt and any trips to First Aid.  The player with the most points wins, ties broken in favor of the most points from rides/shows. 

My thoughts on the game

Paella Park was a game whose theme attracted me.  I have a soft spot for amusement park games, and I always want to try them.  I’ll admit that they often don’t meet my lofty expectations – but like soccer games – I’m pretty much always going to play them to find out.

Here, in Paella Park, the gamer has a different role; instead of planning the park (which is what usually happens) – here the players spend their turns experiencing the park and puking all over the place.   Otherwise, you spend the day just like you would in an amusement park – spending time walking to all the different locations, consulting your app to see where the lines are shortest and trying to get to those rides, riding rides, seeing shows, eating food, etc.  It did seem weird at first to spend your whole action walking – but it does fit the theme, and it does allow for some turn order shenanigans depending on how you go about it.  [Pro Tip – never walk exactly 8 spaces in a turn. It’s quicker to walk twice 4 steps each, and your turn order can never be improved with the single 30 min walk over the two 10 minute separate walks]. 

You’ll get a few goal cards at the start, and this will help you come up with a plan on what to do during your stay.  If you like more direction (and victory points), you can always stop at Guest Services to get more goal cards – though of course, you always run the risk of a penalty if you cannot complete the goal.  So, I’d suggest getting there early, picking up an extra goal or two and then spending the rest of your day efficiently double dipping where you can to meet those goals.

For some, the theme here is overwhelmed by the fact that you might puke EVERY time you ride a ride.  There is a puke-o-meter, which I initially thought would cause you to puke when you reach the end; but nope, you puke every time you move on the track, and you have to go to the first aid station when you reach the end.  By the end of the game, it’s not uncommon to have a dozen or more puke stains on your shirt.  It is what it is.  But man, prepare for it!  Also, there was a bit of a disconnect with the fact that each time you puke, you also puke on someone else – even if they are clear across the park.  If we’re going to try to be thematic, maybe it should be that you puke on the closest player, or at least someone in the same area of the park (who was maybe unfortunate to be hit by flying puke off a coaster), etc.  To allow players to target anyone else just felt off…  In the end, we usually just asked who had the least and gave it to them. Well, unless someone reminded a player about puke, then they got it..  I also got puked on for a few rounds because I offered up some honestly awful tasting Shrimp chips as a IRL snack; and until everyone got that taste out of their mouth, I was the puke target.

OK,  no more complaining – the game otherwise is rather whimsical and lighthearted.  You laugh everytime someone tries to skip the line and they fail, you cheer when someone goes to a show and correctly calls a Snail to come up on the Wheel of Paella.  You chortle, despite your best intentions, when someone else gets puked on.  As one of my fellow players noted; the overall feel is so whimsical/funny, it feels right to just go do things that make you laugh here – even at the cost of playing the game as seriously as possible.  

The game does feel a tad bit long at 4 rounds, but it’s hard to see a shorter way to play as the criteria for the goal cards are calibrated for that expected amount of play time.  In my games so far, the game has felt great through 2.5 to 3 rounds, but kinda samey by the fourth and final round.  Of course, the fourth round can sometimes go a bit quicker as the 10 and 6 point bonus for going to the fireworks show early might be enough to tempt people to exit the round early – but I’d say you’re looking at just more than an hour for a 3p game (in my experience) and closer to 90 for a 4p game.

Paella Park has a lot to offer gamers. If you like amusement park games, you’re covered.  If you like route planning and efficiently solving goal cards, you’re covered.  If you like pushing your luck (skipping the line to save time), you’ll get your chance to do that.  If you like getting puked on, well, you’re covered too….   The artwork and theming is pervasive, and for awhile, you can be transported to this morbid and pukey amusement park.

Thoughts from other Opinionated Gamers:

Joe Huber (1 play): Being a fan of amusement parks, I tend to pay attention to games set in amusement parks – and most often find myself disappointed by them.  I fear Paella Park is not an exception to this – the choices are a bit too obvious, the pace a bit too slow, and the fun of an amusement park is missing.  The choice of every ride potentially making you nauseous is off-putting, and worse isn’t realistic – not that it never happens, but it isn’t constantly happening, and even when it does the person affected doesn’t have much choice as to where it goes.

Ratings from the Opinionated Gamers

• I love it!
• I like it.
• Neutral.  Dale Y, John P
• Not for me… Joe H.