Yahtzee > Reviews (33)

Yahtzee is a brilliant game for all the family. It is easy to play and to learn the scoring. Once you know how to play it is very addictive.

When you buy the game you get five dice which you have to throw and then you use the numbers on the dice to make up sets which you have to do to get through the game. You have a score sheet which is divided into two halves.

First you have the upper section. You need to score for each section in the upper section. You have to throw the dice three times, after the first throw you think what section you are going for and you can keep some of the dice as they are and throw the rest. You need to see how many of each number you can throw and you need to do all the numbers over the whole game. So say you throw the dice and you have two sixes and the rest are just any number, you can keep the two sixes and throw the rest again to try to get some more sixes. Then when you have had three goes you mark in the box how many sixes you have got. The socre you get depends on how many of each number you throw, so if you got three sixes altogether over your three throws then you add these together and you get 18 points. You can only complete one section at a time, so if you got three sixes and two twos you could not fill in the two section as well, you would have to do this on another turn.

The second section has a different way of scoring. It has different kinds of sections and you need to fill in each section through out the game same as the upper. In this section you have a set score depending on which section you are doing. The sections are similar to hands in a poker game, so you have things like three of a kind where you need to get three dice with the same number showing, four of a kind which is obvious, full house which is three numbers the same and a pair the same as well, sall straight which is a sequence of four running numbers (like 1234, or 3456), large straight which is all the dice in a running sequence (like 12345), then you have yahtzee which is when you throw all the dice showing the same number. The last section is called chance and you can fill this in for any throw that wont necessarily fit in another section or may be you have already filled in. You add up the sum of all the dice faces showing for this score.

You can also get bonus points added at the end if you score more than a certain number of points in each section, then you add up the total of points and the winner is the one with the most points.

The game is really good as it need a lot of thinking as well as luck. You need to make a decision on each turn as to whether you want to keep certain dice as they are and try for a certain section or whether you would get more points by filling in a different section.

Also if you fail to throw anything that will fill in any box then you have to choose one of the sections and score 0 in this one, this is hard to think which one to choose too as you don't know what you will score next time around.

You get the score pads with the game in the box but if you wanted to make up the game yourself you could easily do it by buying 5 dice and then making up your own scorecards.

You could even print them out on the computer so you would not run out. Then all you would need is a pen and someone to play with.

I find this game really good to play with the kids as they like a challenge and they are learning to count and add up at the same time and using their brains to figure out where to put their points and which one to choose to fill in. It also doesn't take a lot of room to play, you just need to be able to fill in the score sheet which you can do on your lap and have something like a box lid to throw the dice in so they don't go missing. This makes it a great game to take if you are going on a long train journey or something as long as they don't get too excited and start making a row.

I would really recommend you buying this game if you like something that makes the brain work, plus you have the luck value rolled in, it can be quite exciting to throw the dice and get a perfect score for what you need to mark off next.

At the moment Toys R Us are selling the game by Hasbro for £4.95 so not sure if it would be the same price instore as their postage is a bit dear. Play do it for £6.99 with free postage.