Zingo! 1-2-3 Board Game: Rules for How to Play

Setup

Remove the top from the Zingo! Zinger and take out all of the tiles. Mix up all of the tiles.
Load the tiles back into the Zinger making sure that both stacks are the same height.
Place the Zinger where everyone can see it.
Each player chooses a card and places it in front of themselves. The players should decide which side of the cards they will use. All of the players will use the same side. The green side features pictures of objects and a number written out. The red side requires the players to perform simple addition in order to get the number of each space.
The players should decide whether one player will be responsible for revealing tiles, or if the players will take turns.

How to Play Zingo! 1-2-3

Each turn begins with revealing two new tiles. To reveal tiles a player slides the top of the Zinger forward and then slides it back. This reveals two tiles.

Reveal tiles from the Zinger — A player slid the Zinger back and forth to reveal two tiles. The players will look at their cards to see if they need a four or nine.

All of the players will look at the two tiles and see if they match one of the spaces on their card. For the green side the number has to match the number on the space. For the red side the number has to match the sum of the two numbers when you add them together.

When you see a tile that matches an empty space on your card, you should quickly call out the number. You will then take the tile and place it on the space that matches its number. If two or more players need the same tile, whichever player calls out the number first gets to take it. Should both players call the number out at the same time, the tile is slid through the slot at the top of the Zinger.

Place a tile on a card — This player has a four on their card. They call out four and take the four tile. They will place it on the corresponding spot on their card.

Placing a tile on a card — There are nine hearts pictured on this space. The player who holds this card can take the nine tile and place it on this space.

If both tiles are needed by a player, both tiles can be taken. It is possible that one or both of the tiles are not needed by any of the players. In this case any unclaimed tiles are slid through the slot at the top of the Zinger.

Insert tile back into Zinger — None of the players needed this tile. It is inserted back into the Zinger.

Should a player call out a number that they don’t need, there is no punishment. If another player needs it though, they can take it and place it on their own card.

Winning the Game

The first player to cover all nine spaces on their card wins the game. They should shout out “Zingo!” in order to celebrate their victory.

Winning Zingo 1-2-3 — This player has filled in all of the spaces on their card. They have won the game.

Variant Games

There are a couple of different ways to tweak the rules in order to change up the gameplay of Zingo! 1-2-3.

Instead of having to fill in the entire card, the players could play until the first player fills in three spaces in a row vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

Three in a row — This player got three in a row horizontally. They won the game.

You could also choose the winner by the first player to complete a specific pattern. The game includes four different patterns that players can use.

Finally you could choose to have each player take two or more cards. You can play both cards on the same side, or you can play with one card on each side. The first player to completely fill in one card wins the game.

Components

72 Number Tiles
6 Cards
Zingo! Zinger
Instructions

Year: 2009 | Publisher: ThinkFun | Artist: Laura Huliska-Beith

Genres: Children’s, Educational

Ages: 4+ | Number of Players: 2-6 | Length of Game: 5-10 minutes

Difficulty: Light | Strategy: Light | Luck: High

For more board and card game rules/how to plays, check out our complete alphabetical list of card and board game rules posts.

Written By:

Eric Mortensen

Eric Mortensen is an owner and head writer on Geeky Hobbies since 2014. He is an avid board game player and collector with over 3,000 board and card games in his collection. Since 2014 he has written more than 1,100 board game how to play guides.