Zaster la Vista 2001

Venice without gondolas would be like a holiday without sunshine. In Zaster la Vista, players slip into the role of gondoliers competing for the most lucrative fares and tips between the Canal Grande and St. Mark's Square. The goal is simple: collect fare and tip cards by navigating the board, and finish with the most points.

At the start of the game, two rows of cards are laid out face-up — one row of fare cards showing locations where passengers are waiting, and one row of tip cards showing available gratuities. Players place their gondolier meeples on the starting space and take turns moving across the board. On your turn you choose between a three-sided die for short hops or a six-sided die for longer journeys, then move your gondolier that many spaces in any direction. Land on a space matching a face-up fare card and you collect it along with the rightmost tip card — a nice little bonus for your trouble.

The catch is that you are not safe the moment you collect your cards. Until you manage to leave that space, any opponent who lands directly on you steals your freshly won cards and sends you back to the start. This creates some wonderfully tense moments, and sometimes it genuinely pays to hang back and wait for a more rewarding fare rather than rushing headlong into danger.

The game ends when all cards have been collected. Fare cards score one point each, though the notoriously tricky spaces numbered 4 and 12 award three bonus points, and space 32 — home to Venice's legendary Café Florian — earns a handsome five. Tip cards score according to the cups shown on them. Zaster la Vista is a light and entertaining family game with just enough tactical depth to keep things interesting.