Oodles of Fun: A Review of Doodle Dice

If you prefer to see your dice combos rather than counting them, Doodle Dice may be the game for you. This game by Jax Ltd. makes classic dice combo games more accessible to kids and families. Cards that track combos takes all the fuss and numbers out of a usual dice-rolling game like Yahtzee or Farkle. With no need for tally sheets or lengthy explanations, this is a great game to dive into with the whole family.

Game Play

The objective of the game is to collect one of each of the six colors of cards. Each color has a dice combo ranging from 1 to 6 dice needed to form a doodle. The game starts by lining up one card of each color face up.

On a typical turn, the current player performs each of the following actions:

1. Draw a card and place it next to the others, face up (failing to do this step means you lose your turn).
2. Roll all six dice, selectively re-roll the dice up to two more times.
3. Collect a card if your dice match the doodle on the card.

Players can only collect one card of each color and can steal from other players by targeting a card before they roll. If they are able to match the Doodle card in three rolls, they steal the card.

Review

Doodle Dice is a fun, light-hearted game. The strategy takes a back seat to luck and risk taking in this game, which makes it ideal for a younger audience or for a mixed age group, because no one is at a disadvantage for having less gaming experience. Matching your oversized dice with the cards is fun, although it is not required — I always choose to build the doodle I am trying to achieve. The light strategy in this game involves deciding when to try to steal cards from other players, and which ones to try for. Also, some of the lower combos use the same dice as higher level combos so you can aim high but still take home a consolation prize.

This game does not have depth of strategy or the fun mechanics and themes of a game like King of Tokyo. In most casual gaming circles, this game would be left at home, but if you want something to entertain younger players this game is ideal. My four-year-old sister begged me to play this game — I am not sure if she was old enough to enjoy the nuances of building doodles, but she did enjoy the clunk clunk of the dice in the cup, and with a little help she even beat me. All in all it is a fun, simple dice combo game.

Pros: Fun for the kids, simple to learn and play, no math

Cons: Rules are printed very small and are too wordy for the game, the box is big for its contents