Take a Trip, Bid, and Buy in Zillionaires Road Trip USA

Visit the London Bridge in Arizona or the Idaho Potato Museum. Bid on 49 quirky and unusual roadside attractions around the USA.

Published by Big Potato Games, Zilionaires Road Trip USA is a pure bidding game for 2-5 players, complete with a gavel to bang. It is a reimplementation of The Game of 49 with a USA travel theme and upgraded components.

Gameplay

A board is set in the center of the table. The board shows a grid of spaces numbered 1 through 49. Space 49 is in the center of the board. Each space corresponds to one of the cards in the location’s deck. Each player takes sold tokens in their player color, and 49 zillion dollars. During the course of the game, you always keep your money hidden from the other players.

Players take turns being the active player. The active player draws a location card. This is the location everyone will be bidding on. Each location has a minimum bid, and the active player always starts the bidding first, choosing to bid or to pass. Once you have passed, you cannot return to the bidding this round. The player who wins the bid bangs the gavel on the table, pays the money to the bank, and places one of his sold tokens on the corresponding space on the board. The next player in turn order then becomes the active player.

Some cards you draw from the deck will be payday cards. These will often list a range of numbers, and the player who wins the card gets to choose any one location space in that number range on the board that is not already sold and place a sold token there. Everyone then earns seven zillion dollars for each sold token they have on the board.

If you ever draw a location card for bidding that has already been sold, then you simply discard it and draw a new one — with the exception of space 49, which can always be stolen. If you already own space 49 and win a bid for it, you get to place a sold token on any empty space on the board.

The first player to get four sold tokens in a row, vertically, horizontally, or diagonally, wins the game (it’s three tokens in a five-player game).

Review

Zilionaires Road Trip USA is fast, has minimal rules, and is pure bidding! There are elements of trying to remember how much money each player has, and you can bluff to try and raise the price (but be careful when you do so, because if you win a bid and can’t pay, you remove one of your sold tokens from the board). But at the end of the day, it’s all about judging how much each space is worth to you.

There is some luck of the draw, determined by when certain locations get drawn from the deck, and this helps to keep the game more casual. Perhaps a location that you needed to win the game comes out just as you’ve spent the last of your money or right after everyone gets a payday. And the more players, the more unpredictable the bidding can go.

The game looks nice, with the gavel being very enjoyable to bang, even if it’s not strictly necessary, and there’s a useful 'for sale' sign to mark what space everyone is bidding on. We particularly liked the theme, as each location corresponds with an unusual roadside attraction in the USA, many of which we’d never heard of before. It was fun to read the short description of each one in the rulebook, and there were several we were left wanting to visit. The locations cards are a little thin, but this was a minor nitpick.

If you don’t like auction games, you’re not going to enjoy this one, but for fans of the genre Zilionaires Road Trip USA is a great, casual option. The rules are so simple and straightforward, and even if you overbid early on and blow through all your money, the paydays ensure that you’re not out of the game.

Pros: Simple rules, paydays prevent elimination, visually easy for everyone to track what is being bid on, interesting theme

Cons: This game won't change your mind if you don't like auction games

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