How Close Can You Get to the Mark in Zero to 100?

How many years passed between the invention of Coca Cola and its ‘Diet’ version? How many vertebrae are there in the neck of a giraffe? You might not need to know the exact answer, only which one is closest to 75!

Zero to 100 is an easy-to-learn party trivia game, published by Le Scorpion Masqué for 2-12 players with a playtime of 15 minutes.

Gameplay

Players split into three teams (you do not need the same number of players on each team). Each team is dealt six question cards. On one side is a question and players must keep the cards face-up so that they only see the question sides of their cards. On the other side is the answer to the question. Each answer is a number ranging from 0 to 100.

When the game starts, the 50 card is placed in the center of the table. Each team looks at their questions and chooses which one they believe has an answer that is closest to the number 50. Once each player has selected an answer, they flip over the question cards they selected. The team whose answer was farthest from 50, places their card in the center of the table, answer side up. This number will be the new target number players will be trying to get close to with their question cards next round. That team then draws a new question card. All other teams discard their chosen question cards and do not draw a new one.

Each team also has three power cards, each of which they can use once per game. One will add or subtract 50 from their card’s answer and one will add or subtract 20 (they must choose between subtraction or addition before revealing the card’s answer). The final one is the spot on card. They may play the spot on card when they believe their answer is five away from the target number. If they are correct, this allows them to discard one of their remaining question cards.

The first team to only have one question card left at the end of a round wins the game. If more than one team reaches this goal at the same time, each one announces what they believe the answer is to their final question card, and the team who was closest is the winner.

Review

Zero to 100 is a fun, light trivia game. There’s a nice mix of questions of different topics and genres, meaning there’s probably going to be some you do have a general idea what the answer is and some you will get very wrong. Gameplay also ensures that a good solid guess is always an option, while the power cards are there for situations when all your question cards are just wrong for the target question.

The player count is very flexible since teams do not have to be even. The box says up to 12, but with four players on each team, some players might not feel as involved, so that number is probably a little high. But the game is flexible and will work for a nice-sized group of players, while also being just as fun with two.

There are only 158 cards in the box, which initially sounds like a lot, and you’re certainly going to forget a lot of the answers, but this is a very fast, very replayable game. You’re going to want another go to try again, so you’re going to get through those questions quickly. Some of the answers are extremely interesting or surprising, so it's likely you'll remember them on future plays. More cards would have been ideal for higher replayability.

The cards are fairly small, as well. The text is large and easy to read, but they can still be a little fiddly and are not very satisfying to handle. Also, some players might not like storing the round box on their shelves. The shape also means the box has to be larger than it otherwise would need to be, somewhat defeating the purpose of the smaller cards.

A fun idea, Zero to 100 is a very enjoyable, very portable trivia game. There are a couple of production issues, but in general, this is light, clever, and well-executed in its simplicity.

Pros: Flexible player count, simple but fun trivia, range of question types

Cons: Box and card size, number of question cards included

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.