Age: 6+ (box says 8+)
Players: 2-4
Playing Time: 30 Minutes
Category: Card
Gameschool Area: Math
Price: $9.50 on Rainbow Resource
Publisher: Gamewright Games
We have lots of math games and use many every week to practice math skills in a fun, non-academic way. Games are great for helping kids see the real-life value of having math facts memorized and being able to quickly add, subtract, multiply, and divide.
Out of all the math games we own and play regularly, Zeus on the Loose is our #1 favorite. We love everything we’ve tried from Gamewright Games, and this game is no exception!
The cards are illustrated to perfection, and that’s a big deal to me! These days games are art and I love the art in this one – it has inspired my kids to do some of their own drawings of Greek Gods, and that’s what I love about Gameschooling. We’re practicing math, but we’re also getting inspired through the game themes, questions that come up during play, etc.
This game is just so much fun – here are the basic rules:
- Deal every player 4 cards
- Each player plays a card on his turn and adds the value of his card to the previous value of Mt. Olympus (the discard pile).
- Draw a card to replace the card played, keeping the total hand count at 4
- Players whose card make Mt. Olympus’s value equal a multiple of 10 get to Steal Zeus
- Whoever has Zeus when Mt. Olympus reaches 100 wins the round.
- Additional rule: Any player can play the exact number card that was just played, out of turn. If he does, he gets to steal Zeus and play continues on from him.
- Greek Gods cards have special abilities to change the value of Mt. Olympus and allow players to steal Zeus, etc.
Every player has to do his own arithmetic, so he has to pay attention and be quick with his addition. My kids have gotten so much faster at adding all numbers up to 100 because of this game and I see it affecting how quickly they are able to do their math curriculum work, which is exactly why we use Gameschooling as an educational tool!
This game has been known to go on for…a very long time at our house. The value of Mt. Olympus can easily be decreased, thwarting other player’s attempts to reach 100 while in possession of Zeus.
It’s so interactive, uses tons of great math skills, and is just such a great game and not just for its math value. It’s just a fun game! Zeus is constantly changing hands, and I think this game creates the most energy and laughter of any game we have, which warms my mama’s heart.
