We've had a lovely summer, making the most of the sunshine, splashing about in a big pool on the patio and walking for miles with the dog, but sadly, those days are behind us. The kids have gone back to school and the sun seems to have been replaced with grey skies and even drizzle. Boo ! As the colder months catch up with us (and who knows ? - maybe even a second confinement ! Eeeek !), it's always nice to have some fun new games to enjoy as a family. The Asmodee UK Blogger Board Game Club has kicked off again, sending us some new games to have a look at. The first is Dice Academy.
This game is suitable for the whole family, apart from small children, with recommended ages being 8 - 99. If you're a parent (and if you're nice !), you'll end up taking your time to answer and help out the younger players, but if all players are adults or teenagers, it will end up being very competitive and fast paced.
Setting up the game is dead easy. There are ten coloured dice in the box - five with themes and five with letters. Just throw them all and you're ready to play. You need to match them up, using the guide in the instructions. In the game above, we have "TV programme or series" on the red dice (EastEnders ... Neighbours ... Sesame Street ...Vampire Diaries ... I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here! ... easy peasy !), "Something Big" on the green dice (iceberg ... vat ... super-tanker ... erm ... extremely big dog ?! ... n.... erm give up !), yellow is "fictional character" (Ernie the fastest milkman in the west (blimey, that's showing my age !) ... Superman ... Victor Meldrew ... Nemo? Does that count ?! ... I ... Icarus? Does Greek mythology count as fiction?), blue is "fish or underwater animal" (Eel ... Newt ... Shark ... V ...ummm, very difficult ! ... I ... impossible !) and pink is "item of clothing" (I ... erm, an "I love London" T-shirt ?! ... Vest ... Shirt ... Nightshirt ... E ... erm ... oooh earmuffs !).
My attempt here shows you how you can have fun playing by yourself, but normally you should pit your wits against one or more competitiors. In this case, you decide how many points you want to try for (10 for a quick game, 30 for a regular game) then roll the dice. Make sure everyone knows what the symbols represent, then start matching up the dice, making sure you don't match the two dice of the same colour. It's a great game because, as well as being a serious challenge, trying to find sensible answers quickly, it can also turn into a joke if you start making up silly answers. Will they be allowed though ?!
It's a fun activity that can be played in minutes and isn't complicated to set up. If you have literally five minutes while you're waiting for the dinner to finish cooking, you've got time for a quick game, either by yourself or with some other players. It's a good way of keeping your brain active and, while I hope we don't end up in confinement again, it's an enjoyable way of whiling away some time, whoever you're stuck inside with. It's lovely to find a game that different generations of people can play together and this would even be a good game to play together online, in a video chat games session.
RRP : £10.99
2-6 players, age 8+
Disclosure : We received the product for free in order to shar our honest opinion.
This sounds like a fun game my grandchildren would really enjoy.
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