zmangames.com; MSRP $29.99)
If one was to (as many have) make a list of the top 10-15 games that everyone should play, undoubtedly Matt Leacock's "Pandemic" would be on that list.
Though not the first of its kind, "Pandemic" ushered to the forefront the "cooperative" style of gameplay; with the players not competing against each other, but rather the game itself. Players took on the role of a specialist at the Center for Disease Control tasked with eradicating four diseases that were spreading their way across the globe. With each player's turn, the stakes became higher, the stress increased, and the time-bomb that was global disaster ticked away. It was fun, it was challenging, and it was a wild success.
So much so that the "Pandemic" brand has spawned a card game in the form of "Pandemic: Contagion." In "Contagion," however there is no hope for humanity as players are the disease and "there is no cure" as the box proudly proclaims.
