Though the blurb makes Selfish, in all its variants, seem much more tactical and in-depth than it really is, it can still be a reasonably fun, undemanding game in the right company.

Yet the mini editions, which strip the game back even further, barely qualify as games; they’re over before you know it, and the lack of meaningful decisions or strategies is remarkably stark.

So, what’s this particular version of Selfish about?

Each player is a survivor of the zombie apocalypse…for now.

All of you are trying to get to the chopper and escape the zombie hordes, but it appears that there’s only room for one survivor.

So on each turn, you draw a card from the game deck (which can be supplies or one of a few types of action card), then decide whether to play any actions.

These will often hinder your opponents, usually by forcing them to move back a space or perhaps causing them to use or discard supplies.

Then, you make the decision whether to move towards the helicopter by discarding two supplies, or staying put and discarding just one of your supplies cards.

If you move forward, you draw a Wasteland card to place in the space you’ve just vacated and follow the instructions on it; sometimes it can give you extra supplies, force you to spend more supplies, do nothing or, in the case of one card in the deck, get you bitten by zombies, at which point you become a zombie yourself.

If you run out of supplies to spend when you need to, you also become a zombie; at this point, you no longer have supplies and your turn consists of you using two actions: moving or biting an opponent.

If you manage to get to the helicopter space as a human, with at least one supplies card, before anyone else, you win.

That description perhaps makes the game sound more interesting than it actually is, however. With only four spaces to get through and the chance of that unlockable zombie bite Wasteland card in the deck, you’ll likely either make it to the end with no problem at all or become a zombie completely randomly, through no fault of your own.

It’s also terribly unbalanced and doesn’t seem to have undergone any playtesting; though playing with more than two players allows you to play any number of action cards on your turn and does liven the game up somewhat, the only restriction in a two player game is that you can play only one action per turn.

As the hand size of cards remains the same in games with any number of players and everyone always starts with six supplies, quite often two player games are simply won by the player who took the first turn.

Unless that aforementioned zombie bite is drawn.

It’s all a bit of a shame, because the cards are made of a really nice quality cardstock, the illustrations have a really lovely, amusing cartoon-gore style aesthetic and it’s a nicely portable game too.

The full size Selfish games seem to have spread into new areas, with a Shipwrecked edition, a Space edition and even Marvel and Star Wars versions, along with a bigger Zombie edition too.

Are they any more in depth or interesting than this streamlined version? I’d hope so, but can’t comment as I haven’t played them.

This mini edition really isn’t great, but it can be fun providing the cards behave themselves. It is at least very easy to learn, play and teach, but also doesn’t demand a great deal from its players, as it’s also incredibly light on actual gameplay.

It’s very cheap and self-contained too; if you want a little palate cleanser after weightier games, something unchallenging that you can play with younger players (though there’s some gore on the cards, it’s all humourous and inoffensively rendered), or perhaps something that the non-gamers you know won’t roll their eyes at, this zombie game might just fit the bill.

Though it might be the case that you’ll only enjoy it if you’re an actual zombie.

You can buy A Little Selfish: Zombie Mini Edition from Amazon here.