Review on Fun And Challenging Dice Game For Ages 8 And Up - HABA King Of The Dice by Krystal Simmons

Quick review:Dice rolls with specific alignments earn you cards that have different actions. All actions gain you something for collecting the cards, some more than others. At the end, scores are added up based on number of spaces occupied, how they are occupied (touching or not), and gems accrued. Instructions need to be read all the way through to help you understand the game before playing. Leaving the instructions out in the hands of someone who can decipher them well is helpful. We played with four players ages 10-80, two rounds, and the kids bested the adults in both rounds (they had a pact), but we also helped them find potential cards for their rolls. This game is for a maximum of four players. The dice are also very large, so we had to roll just a die or two or three at a time, because, outside of my 80 yo father, none of us had large enough hands! Maybe get a cup to roll from like Yahtzee?! If you like games like Yahtzee and board games where you try to conquer areas, this might be a fun game for you.Longer review:My family loves playing games, some of us more than others, but for the most part we have game players from ages 10-80. My parents live on the same property as us and we play games with them to get their opinions too. This game is for no more than four players. The instructions are frustrating as they give examples for what players could do with a roll before you even know what to do really, so please read all the way through and skip the examples until you get all the way through. We played two rounds our first time playing as the first round we did not know what we were doing and the second round we had a better idea and it went more than twice as fast. The second time we had a better idea of how to play and the kids ganged up on the adults, but we had more fun. We also played it a bit more cooperatively in terms of helping our fellow players find a potential move for their dice rolls. Basically, you roll six very large dice (too large for my small kid sized hands!) that have both colors and numbers. Each of the character cards have some combination you must obtain to get that card by rolling the dice. For instance, a run of numbers four to six dice long, or a red number higher than a blue number higher than a green, or three reds three greens, or a pattern of numbers, etc. All of these are somewhat shown as examples, enough so you get a general idea in the instructions. Each time you can roll to get a card, you get to take an action that places you on the board. You do get a chance to reroll the dice, so you can do all or just some, depending on what you think you might want to get. The cards also have dice number and colors on them so if you roll your dice but fall short, sometimes you can turn the cards you’ve already gotten in for a die number and color combination you might need to get that last die to have what you need to get a new card. This is an area in which the game could improve because this was firstly hard to remember, and second, if there was some point value to the cards it could work in some player’s favors at the end potentially. Anyway, the game was fun once we got the hang of it, the instructions were frustrating at first but eventually made sense, the dice are extremely large for small hands (as is the box, it could have been MUCH smaller and game family’s know space is a premium!), and the kids won both rounds we played with adult help steering them to potential plays. If you like games like Yahtzee and board games where you try to conquer areas, this might be a fun game for you. Thank you for reading my review and I do hope that you found it to be helpful!