Cracking Game (Yahtzee)

Member Name: jpegington

Product:	Yahtzee
Date:	13/01/06 (773 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cracking Game, Easy to Play, Fun for All

Disadvantages: Poor game of chance! Little Skill involved

Technical Info:

Manufacturer's age: 8 years and up
Number of Players: 1 or more ( I would recommend 2 at least as then you have competition at least)

About the Game:

Now this really is a game of chance. The Basic Game is very simple to understand.

You have 5 Dice with which you have to get a certain amount of sequences (more about this shortly) . The ultimate aim of the game is to throw a Yahtzee (i.e. you throw all 5 dice in three goes and get 5 equal numbers, this does not happen very often as you can imagine).

Now I mentioned above about the sequences you need, basically you have a scorecard which is seperated into two parts, top and lower section. In the top section you basically have to get as many of the same number on the dice as possible with two throws. In the Lower section you have to get certain special throws (i.e. 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, Full House, Low Straight (i.e. 1,2,3,4 or 2,3,4,5), High Straight (i.e. 1,2,3,4,5 or 2,3,4,5,6,) Yahtzee (all 5 dice the same) and Chance (Count all the Dice together).

The Aim of the game is to get as high a score as possible (Yahtzee is worth 50 Points, High Straight 40, Low Straight 30, etc). You throw all 5 Dice once, decide which you want to keep and then throw the remaining dice a second time, decide again what you want to keep and throw the remaining dice a third time. At any time you can enter in a score and pass the go onto the next player (i.e. if you throw a high straight (5 numbers in a row) immediately then you can enter in that score and pass it onto the next player.

That should hopefully give you a good overview of what the game is about. Many apologies if I have not explained it clear enough, but I have been playing this game since I was very young, so it all comes quite naturally.

MY OPINION:

OK, now I should say that I love this game, I have been playing it since I was quite young, and still find it now some 20 years later enjoyable.

This is really a game of chance, there is some skill involved in deciding what dice to roll again and whether to try for the Yahtzee or High Straight, etc. However primarily it is a game of chance, i.e. what dice you roll.

This does not however take away any of the enjoyment, the thrill of throwing a yahtzee (see above what this is) is just great and should you get 2 or even 3 in a game it is unbelievable and really exciting. Our family have always claimed my brother cheated at this game, although we know he could not have. He just threw too many Yathzee's!

I like the family atmosphere of the game as you can play it with up to 6 players. Basically each person has his own scorecard and it is the best of 6 games (although you can play to less games). Kids can pick it up easy and they can learn how to win and lose!

Really not much else to say, this is such a simple but enjoyable game that I recommend it to anyone. Very easy to learn, great to play and fast so you do not need too much time to learn it and play it.

On that issue, most games are quite quick so if you have a spare 30 mins for players then this is a good game to play.

Note: I do not think that this game has any drawbacks, but if you do not like games of chance, then I would stay clear of this.

UPDATE:

When I first wrote this review I did not know that you could now play Yahtzee Online (one place is hxxp://www.rekenwonder.com/yahtzee/yahtzee.htm) and it is kinda fun. So if you are bored at work one day, give the game online a chance. Anyway thought I would add this in as just found it.

Verdict: 5 out of 5

Summary: Good Game of chance.