Welcome back to 2026! This is the last of the games on the cusp of 2025/2026! We received Good Dog, Bad Zombie in late December 2025, but we couldn’t get it to the table until January 2026! So, we are considering this a 2026 release for our internal lists!

I have a friend CC who once conjectured that “Adding Zombies to anything makes it better!” He has since recanted this absolute, but it does bring up the question: does adding zombies to a game with cute dogs work?

Good Dog, Bad Zombie (Second Edition) is a cooperative pick-up and deliver game that was on Kickstarter back in May 2024. It  promised delivery in March 2025; it was about 9 months late.    I had backed this because it looked fun, but I didn’t know anything about the first edition of the game.

My copy (with some expansions) arrived in late December, but I couldn’t get it to the table until January 2026.

Let’s take a look!  We’ll only look at the base game.

Components and Gameplay

Good Dog, Bad Zombie comes in a smallish box: see Coke can above for scale.

Each player takes the role of one dog saving the humans!    

Each dog has its own personality and special powers which make it unique.  Interestingly, this special power can only be activated by a certain instant card in the game.

Note that there are a lot of dogs to choose from!  Each player gets a dog standee and a sheet.

This is a pick-up-and-deliver game where dogs have to find the humans and guide them back to Central Bark (yes, you heard me, Central Bark).  See the board above.

The bones on the map indicate clues about where the humans are!  The dogs have to traverse this post-apocalyptic city full of zombies and SNIFF at the locations with bones to find a human!

Once a dog SNIFFS at a Location, “something happens!”   The player reads the card apropos to the location and either makes a choice or has to roll a 20-sided die!

Most of the time, the human appears right where the dog was SNIFFING and then the dogs can guide that human back to Central Bark!! See above as the dog and human (yellow) are just one space away!  Just make sure to keep Humans away from Zombies!

There’s a couple of ways to get the stupid humans to safety at Central Bark!  The dog can BARK at them to move (see the BARK card middle above) or HERD them and move with them (see the HERD cards left and right).  The iconography is very clear … and kinda funny.  The HERD action has a sheep icon and the BARK action has a dog barking; they are very clearly notated.

To get stuff done, each dog has two action per turn.  They can RUN (to move one space), LICK (to get two more cards), SNIFF (to look for a human at a bone) or play a card (which allows them HERD, CHEW, BARK, RUN far, and a few other things).

This is a pick-and-deliver game as dogs have to “pick-up” humans and deliver them to Central Bark!  It’s kinda funny that you can either HERD humans or BARK at humans to move them … which is a little different than most pick-up-and-deliver games!

If a dog DOES deliver a human to Central Bark, the dog gets a thank-you bonus from the humans: see some above.

Of course, there are zombies to slow you down.  The dogs can, thematically CHEW on the zombies to get rid of them, BARK at the zombies to move them away, or HERD them off the cliffs or rivers to get rid of them!   

Unfortunately, every turn brings a new Zombie into town … the players roll the 20-sided die and that’s where a a new Zombie appears!  See the numbered locations above!

The zombies really start piling up later in the game (see above).  Whenever a new zombie appears on a Location with a zombie, that line of zombies all move over one space  towards Central Bark … which may cause a Zombie to move into Central Bark!  Now, of course the dogs can deal with the Zombie on their home turf, but every time that happens … the  dogs to become more feral!

To win Good Dog, Bad Zombie, the doggies need to save 6 humans before the dog pack turns feral!  (See Human track above).   The Feral Track (also above) increases every time a zombie invades Central Bark or startles a dog (appears on a dog)!   Basically, the dogs stop caring about humans if they become feral! 

The components are cute and everything is well-notated.  Some people may not like the art, but I think the dogs in particular are pretty cute and thematic.    The art fits the vibe of the game, which is kinda cute and not-too-horrific zombies.

Rulebook

The rulebook is good.

The rulebook gets an A on The Chair Test: It opens up and stays open on the chair next to me, the fonts are big and readable, and the pages don’t droop over.  It’s very easy to consult this rulebook on the chair next to me.

The Introduction and Components are well-labelled; there are pictures with annotating text for all the components.

The set-up is well-done: it’s across two adjacent pages, so it’s easy to leave the rulebook open while you set this up.  

Everything is well-labelled in the book (even using alternating colors in a table when describing the actions: see above).

And the rulebook ends with a nice Reference page.

I had no problems with this rulebook. There’s no Index, but this game is simple enough to not need one.

Solo Play

So Good Dog, Bad Zombie does have a solo mode: see above!  Congratulations for following Saunders’ Law!  See above for a list of exceptional rules for the solo mode.

Unfortunately, it’s not the way I choose to play this solo.  First of all, it’s not a true solo mode: you would have to have two dogs in play but then they share a hand.   There are a few more exceptions; it’s not a big deal, but I would rather just play this two-handed solo, like a 2-Player game.

One of the purposes of solo play for me is to learn the game game so I can teach the game to my friends. The more exceptions and changing rules there are for the solo game, the less useful the solo mode is for me.  In this case, it’s probably easy enough to use their solo mode, but as it is, it’s just easier for me to play solo as two-handed solo: play two 2 dogs, and alternate between them as if I were playing a 2-Player game.   

I had a fine time playing this solo.  The dogs are cute, the dog cards are cute, and the actions seem very thematic (LICK, SNIFF, RUN, BARK, HERD, CHEW).  I learned the game quickly.  I didn’t need need more than one game to learn this solo … it’s pretty easy to learn.

I don’t know how often I’ll come back to the solo game; it’s pretty random.  That 20-sided that gets rolled at the end of every turn can be brutal and harsh, or just lucky.  A few bad rolls and the game can be over very quickly.    It might be too light for me for a solo game that I revisit.

I could see maybe, maybe, while I am waiting for some friends, playing a quick game of this solo. It is quick: The box says 45-60 minutes; it seems more like 30 minutes in a solo game.

Cooperative Play

My friends jumped right into this game: they loved the cute dogs.  We played a 3-Player and 4-Player game.

The luck turned on us quickly; we started with a simple game, but still just barely won!  That 20-sided die just turned against us!  If we started even a little harder, we probably would have lost.  Again, this is just because we rolled badly when we spawned zombies.

The thing is; we had fun.  It’s such a light and simple game and it’s very cute: it’s easy to pull out and teach.

Each player’s turn is fairly quick and there’s not a lot of Alpha Playering.  The cooperation comes mostly from talking about what the dogs should do (high-level cooperation), as this is mostly a multi-player solitaire game: each player does their own thing.  But there is a HOWL mechanism that allows you to generate cards for other players!  This can be critical for saving those dumb humans!  “I don’t have a HERD or BARK to save my human! Can someone please HOWL so I can maybe get one???”  It’s not a major mechanism, but it does help encourage a little more cooperation.

We all had fun saving the humans.   

Things You May Like

Ease of everything!: The game is quick, it’s easy to set-up, it’s easy to teach, it’s easy to play.  It’s simple enough to get into quickly, but there is some cooperation in either high-level discussions or HOWLs. 

Cute. The dogs components are super cute, especially if you like dogs.

Adding/Subtracting Players: At one point, we just “added” Andrew into our game halfway into it because we just can!  The game is self-balancing (as each player always does some good stuff, then always adds a zombie), so you just add a new player and start playing!  This is a phenomenal attribute for a game!  This means you can play this at a convention, and not worry about adding/subtracting players!

Things That You May Dislike

Some art: Some people may not like the art of the board and think it looks like a 10-year old made it.  I liked it and thought it was thematic and fun, but it may really turn some people off.

Randomness: The game has a high-degree of randomness depending on what that 20-sided rolls every turn.  You may get unlucky and have zombies marching into Central Bark every turn, or you may get lucky and have the zombies always appear pretty far away.  It really depends on how you roll? 

Conclusion

I liked Good Dog, Bad Zombie and so did my friends.  It’s easy to set-up, teach, play, and tear-down.  Even though the game can be a little random, it’s a quick game … so even if you get screwed, it won’t take up your entire night.  And it’s still fun.

The two best scenarios for playing this game are probably:
1) An end-of-the-night or “I-am-brain-fried” game.  You just want a simple game to play with your friends, and even if you are a little tired, this is a great simple game to get out.  It’s cute and fun.

2) Convention Game.  You are playing in a situation where people may come and go quickly.  It’s very easy to add/subtract people from the game.

Overall, we had fun and would play this again.  We’d probably give it a 6.5/10 for solo play, (it’s not as much fun solo) but maybe 7.5/10 for cooperative play.  

If you love love love dogs, this probably drifts to an 8 or 8.5/10; the dogs are pretty darn cute. 

In this case, adding Zombies to the game with cute dogs DID work.