Yahtzee Greatee Gamee Funee (Yahtzee)

Member Name: TheChocolateLady

Product:	Yahtzee
Date:	23/10/05 (985 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fun for all ages, easy to learn to play, educational

Disadvantages: Addictive. you can't play it alone like you can the computer version

*~*~* What type of a game is Yahtzee? *~*~*
Good question. Is it an educational game? Yes. Strategy game? Yes. Chance game. Yes. Game to play on your own? Yes. Game to play with friends and family? Yes. Sounds pretty comprehensive, doesn’t it? Well, you've got to admit it, that unless you’re a real sore loser, the only thing missing from this game is violence! And we can all do without that these days, can’t we? But if I had to pick one phrase that encompasses this game, I’d have to say that Yahtzee is a dice game of chance for all ages.

*~*~* What’s in the Box? *~*~*
I must have purchased dozens of copies of this game over the years, and never cared that I might have been wasting money in the process. The thing is, the whole game is nothing more than five dice, some pencils, a cup for shaking the dice in, a well to throw the dice into, five dice sized slots for holding the dice you don’t want to throw again, instructions and scorecard sheets. Well, if you’ve got five dice in your house, the rest is really superfluous, isn’t it? I mean, you can usually find something to write with in the house (well, not always in my house, but still…) and you could always throw the dice directly from your hand, or even grab one of the cups from the kitchen or perhaps from an old Backgammon set. You could also throw the dice directly onto a table or any other surface you like, so the well isn’t really all that essential. I must say that the little dice sized slots are quite convenient, however. Still, you could always just move the dice you don’t want to roll again to the side, so even that isn’t essential. And until you’ve learned the basics of the game, it’s good to have the instructions and the scorecard sheets. But once you’ve gotten the hang of this game (which is dead easy, as you’ll see below), you can make your own scorecards by using a plain piece of paper. Still, if you don’t want to do that, lots of toy stores sell the scorecards separately (and it’s a good idea to buy lots and lots of extra scorecard pads, because once you start playing, you’re not going to want to stop. So, you're going to need them!).

*~*~* So how do you play this game? *~*~*
The basics are simple. You get three rolls of the dice to get as good a score as you possibly can. On your second and third rolls, you can hold any number of dice that you don’t want to roll again. After the third roll of your turn, you enter your score on the scorecards. You’ll get a total of 13 turns to fill in all of the options on the scorecards (more about those options below). The object, of course, is to get the highest possible score. And, one of the highest scores is a “Yahtzee” which is having the same number appear on all five dice. Sounds simple? Sure it is, but it’s not as easy as you might think. Perhaps it sounds a tad boring, but to tell you the truth, it isn’t in the least boring. In fact, I find this game totally addictive!

*~*~* So how does the scoring go? *~*~*
The scorecard is broken up into two sections - an upper section and a lower section. Let me explain each section separately.

The Upper Section:
In the upper section you’ll find a list that says “ones, twos, threes, fours, fives, sixes, bonus, total”. The object in this section is to roll a minimum of three of the same number on the dice to fit into these numbered sections. That means you want to roll the dice so that the number one, for instance, is on at least three of the dice. If you get three ‘ones’ then your score for that section will be 3. If you get more, you will total up only the amount of ‘ones’ on your dice (i.e. four ‘ones’ = score of 4, and five ‘ones’ = score of 5, etc.). The same goes for ‘twos’, ‘threes’, ‘fours’, ‘fives’ and ‘sixes’.

Ideally, if you get a minimum score of three dice for each section, your total will equal 63 (that is (ones x 3)+(twos x 3)+(threes x 3)+(fours x 3)+(fives x 3)+(sixes x 3) = 63 or 3+6+9+12+15+18=63). If you get the score of 63 (or more), you will get a bonus of 35 points. That would mean that your upper score would be 63+35 or 98. Of course, one doesn’t always have to get exactly three of each number to reach the minimum of 63. I’ve often thrown and gotten four dice with five on them (for a score of 20 in the fives section) and then been able to score smaller amounts in the smaller sections (like the ones or twos).

So that’s the upper section. The lower section is a bit different. There, you have different combinations of throws. They are:

Three of a Kind – simple enough, just like in the upper section, you need three of the same number on the dice to score here. However, here you total up the full number that appears on ALL of the dice. So, if you have three dice that show two, and another that’s a five and another that’s a four, your score will be 2 x 3 = 6, plus 5 plus 4 for a total of 15.

Four of a Kind – same as with Three of a Kind, but here you need a full four of the dice to have the same number on them. Not as easy as it sounds, believe me. Here again, you add up the total number on all the dice.

Full House – I’m sure anyone who plays poker is familiar with this one. That’s having BOTH three of a kind plus two of a kind in one roll. So, for instance, three 1s plus two 6s would be a Full House. The score for this is 25 points, no matter what the dice say.

Small Straight – what you’re looking for here is having four of the dice show numbers in sequence. That means 1, 2, 3, 4 or 2, 3, 4, 5 or 3, 4, 5, 6. If you achieve that, you’ll be awarded 30 points.

Large Straight – much the same as the small one, but here ALL the dice must be in sequence. That means 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. If you get one of those combinations, you’ll get an additional 40 points.

Yahtzee – the name of the game, isn’t it? And yes, it is – in all respects. Getting a Yahtzee is having all five dice show the same number. If you can do that, you’ll get a whopping 50 points.

Chance – this is for those times when you roll something and you don’t get what you want; you can toss your score (the total of all the dice rolled) here. Unfortunately, you only get one of these, so use it wisely.

That’s the sum total of the lower section. Just below that, there’s a place to add up this section, then a spot to put in your score from the upper section and finally, of course, a spot to put your total. That’s it. And the object of the game, of course, is to get the highest score you possibly can. Well, I should add that some people like to give a Yahtzee bonus. This is when you roll more than one Yahtzee in a game, and for each additional Yahtzee you get an additional 100 points. It’s not technically in the rules, but some people like to use it – sort of like landing on “Free Parking” in Monopoly.

Sound complicated? Well it isn’t really all that complex. If you think about it, a single game consists of 13 turns of throwing the dice up to three times per turn. While doing this, you try to fill in all the different options on your score pad and try to get the highest score you can. See? Not that difficult to get, is it?

*~*~* So, what’s the Big Deal with this, then? *~*~*
OK, so its a game of chance, but if you're smart, you can really get good at using chance to your advantage. That may sound like a contradiction in terms, but the truth is, as you play this game, you come to realize which combinations are difficult to get and which ones are easy, so you’ll continue to try for the difficult combinations without messing up your ability to put down a good score for the easy ones. We know that dice can be fickle and luck isn’t a lady, and through this game you learn not only strategy, but cunning. And the little ones learn addition while having fun.

Yes, I did say the little ones. I know the box says this game is for age 8 and up, but my kids have been enjoying this since they were 5 or 6 - just old enough to understand numbers. And even though we had to do the addition for them to begin with, it didn’t take long before they were able to do it themselves. Believe me, I think this actually gave them confidence later on when they started learning math in school.

But it’s more than that, really. Think about it. A game that the whole family can play that doesn’t involve computers, televisions and – more importantly – violence. It can be played practically anywhere, at practically any hour and in practically any situation. All you really need is five dice, paper and pencils. What could be more practical? And let’s not forget that one or more players can play this game, and it makes no difference whatsoever to the amount of players you have, the amount of fun will always be the same, so you don’t have to go looking for a second, third or fourth player to really enjoy yourself here. But I should admit that I do like playing alone a tiny bit less than when I play with others (unless I play on the computer – but that’s the stuff for another op).

What’s more, I find that this game doesn’t actually encourage heated competition, but rather camaraderie and support. The reason I say this is because when someone rolls a Yahtzee, the whole group of players will shout spontaneously with glee. How often do you see that, I ask you? So I’d also say that this game promotes good sportsmanship, in addition to everything else. Could you ask for more? Well, I certainly can’t. In short - its the perfect game for anyone and everyone. I couldn't recommend it more highly.

And that’s why I’ve revamped this op, during this auspicious month when games are the topic of our monthly contest. Let’s remember how this game effects us – we’re all here rooting for each other, hoping that one of us bags the big prize, aren’t we? And whomever the prize goes to, I’m going to give them one great big Yahtzee Whoop! Won’t you all join me?

Thanks for reading.

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Technical Stuff:
Since this review is of the table game and not the electronic version of the game, it has no age rating for it since the only violence or offensive language you'll get here is from the human players you're playing with.

Available through Amazon.co.uk for £6.99, I also found the official web page for Hasbro in the UK, which can be found, strangely enough, at www.hasbro.co.uk and there this game is also sold for £6.99. They also sell refill score pads on this site for £1.99.

There are at least three versions of this game - the plain Classic one, the Delux one and the Junior one. The US site (www.hasbro.com) shows that they also have: a Deluxe Edition, with fancy looking gold see-through dice; a hand-held battery operated version; and, a Yahtzee Jr. Disney Edition that has symbols instead of numbers on the dice. Cute!

Note: Neither of these sites includes information on the PC games, or other electronic games by Hasbro.
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Summary: A great board game for the whole family - and truly a classic.