YAHTZEE (1956)

PLAYERS	TIME	DESIGNER	PUBLISHER
2-10	30 mins	Edwin S. Lowe	Hasbro Games

As we find ourselves in that phantom zone space of existence between Christmas and New Year, I thought I’d go for a nice simple review today.

So we’re taking a look at dice rolling classic, YAHTZEE.

Now this is a simple game, and perhaps one that people scoff at in the same breath as MONOPOLY or SCRABBLE.

But these classics are classics for a reason. This year saw us dip our toes in YAHTZEE and it wasn’t long before it was our most played game.

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On your turn you roll the five dice. You have to choose whether to keep what you’ve got or reroll any or all dice (something you can do up to two times).

Then you take the results and enter them in the score sheet to end your turn.

This sheet lists a bunch of scoring that includes sets of the same number as well as a mix of Poker type plays. But you only get to use each score box once.

So if you get three 5’s, a 1, and a 6 and use the 5’s as three 5’s (for 15pts), then if you roll four 5’s on a later turn you can’t swap that out to score more.

This makes deciding how to score each turn quite a tactical thing. And if you can’t use the results (which can happen often towards the end of the game) then you have to pick something you’ve not scored for yet and lose it.

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A fair few games are said to be Yahtzee-like in their dice play (like DICE THRONE or KING OF TOKYO). Well this is the OG.

Sure, it’s simple. Sure you don’t need to buy a copy if you can write out the score sheet and grab 5 random dice. But sometimes you just need a game that’s easy to pick up and play to kill a little time and chill. This is that game.

YAHTZEE isn’t the defining dice game of all time. Far from it. But it’s very travel friendly. It can be played almost anywhere. It’s beyond simple to teach. And it’s actually easy to play with half your brain turned off when you just want to play something and relax.