Somehow, over the last several years, zombies have loomed large in popular culture—certainly more than they did back in the 1980s when I would spend countless hours watching and re-watching a worn-out, totally un-remastered VHS tape of Dawn of the Dead.

Several high quality zombie films such as the instant classic Shaun of the Dead and the grimmer, grittier 28 Days Later have put the undead square in the public eye. Video games like Dead Rising and the evergreen Resident Evil series have introduced a whole new generation to the horror of the zombie apocalypse. And for the cardboard fantasist, board games such as Twilight Creations’ Zombies series and the French negotiation game Mall of Horror have provided plenty of undead fun over the years. Yet the existing zombie-themed board games and have been terribly flawed and fundamentally disappointing in capturing the subgenre. Zombies is hated by many board gamers for a number of reasons and Mall of Horror is more about bickering than zombies—sort of like Day of the Dead, I suppose.

So leave it to a first time designer, Jason Hill, and a first time publisher to show up with what is undoubtedly the best zombie board game published to date, Flying Frog Games’ Last Night on Earth. Now, before we take this thing apart I want to make a couple of things clear. One, I don’t care for the rural/small-town setting for my zombie horror. I prefer full-scale apocalypse. Two, I wish purveyors of zombie entertainment were more influenced by Romero than Raimi. And three, despite glowing online praise and reviews to the contrary, Last Night on Earth is not really all that much different than Zombies other than a few key elements such as a better combat system, a scenario based-structure, character abilities, and a player actively controlling the zombies.

OK, I guess that’s a lot but with all the searching buildings for weapons and event cards it felt an awful lot like Zombies to me.

Last Night on Earth is a very easy-to-learn game and it’s also a snap to teach others—even non-gamers or those not even remotely familiar with gaming concepts. The rules make sense, and despite a couple of easily forgotten details they’re almost instinctive. There’s just not much to get in the way of the fun but the trade off is that there isn’t much detail beyond what’s on the cards. You’ll move characters like Jenny the Farmgirl or Johnny the High School Quarterback, take advantage of their special abilities, search buildings for useful equipment, and fight zombies. That’s pretty much it.

The zombie player (or players) gets to manage the walking corpses and try to make your titular last night on earth a dinner date. They’re disadvantaged in combat but they just don’t know when to stop pouring out of the four or more zombie spawning pits located on the modular, five-piece board.

The scenarios are kind of a mixed bag but unlike Zombies, which features a basic “find the helicopter” ordeal; they provide a nice sense of purpose and direction to the game’s events. The simplest is a basic killing spree where the players need to off 15 zombies in a certain number of turns. My favorite, and the one that seems to be the most problematic in terms of balance, is a classic Night of the Living Dead-style house siege that tends to be impossible to win for the heroes unless they’re totally on point and completely lucky in the die rolls. Another features an ancient pick-up truck in the middle of town that needs gas and keys to get rolling and carry the heroes to safety—quite a challenge if the heroes can’t seem to draw the right cards and wind up in an undead stalemate. There’s plenty of room (and a few extra components) for players to expand the game on their own with homemade scenarios and variants and the promise of official expansions coming in 2008 mean that the game won’t likely be gathering dust any time soon.

The combat system is very basic and is actually informed by the old Risk mechanic; heroes roll two dice and pick their high die. Zombies only get one. But here’s the rub: zombies win ties and the heroes have to roll not only higher but also doubles to get the headshot. Anything else and the zombie is simply fended off. Of course, there are plenty of cards that add dice, change die rolls, and provide bonuses to both heroes and zombies so it becomes pretty important for the heroes to get some gear if they plan on not being overwhelmed. There are some really fun, thematic cards that make the game world come to life. The “Last Night on Earth” card is always sure to evoke some laughs. Cue the classic Bruce Campbell line, “After all, I’m a man and you’re a woman”.