“High Score” is a dice game with simple rules – and yet varied. A review.
As the publisher describes the game: Let’s go for the dice! What is the next challenge? In this competitive dice game, the players find out which condition they can expect from the revealed challenge card in every round of the game. The swirl symbol on the dice adds momentum to the game. One after the other, the dice are rolled for the best result. This decides who receives how many points in this round. Finally it comes down to adding up: Whoever has collected the most points out of 2–5 players, ages 8+, is a champion! A competitive, varied game with simple rules. Compact size, easy to explain – a perfect little gift, travel game and souvenir.
Hunter Review: Sometimes it doesn’t take much for a really good game. “High Score”, the new dice game by Reiner Knizia, the German old master among board game authors, proves it. Seven dice, a handful of cards, a scoring track and a few point chips. That’s all.
Rating: HUNTER: 8.0 out of 10 points
The game is played over a total of seven rounds and in each round the person who throws the highest number wins. It couldn’t be simpler, one might think, but the author Reiner Knizia has come up with two small and subtle ideas to turn a simple dice throw into an exciting exchange of blows.
Because in every round, a new so-called challenge card is revealed, which repeatedly presents us with completely new challenges. This card specifies which dice results count in this round or which may even have to be deducted. Instead of a six, each dice has a swirl printed on it, the value of which is also determined by the challenge card. Sometimes the vortex is worth 10 points, sometimes minus 10, or sometimes we lose every die that shows a vortex and cannot roll it again. The biggest effect of the challenge card is: it also determines the rules of the current round.
And here everything is offered that you can do with seven dice. Sometimes we are allowed to roll a certain number of dice and take out or re-roll any dice, sometimes we have to add at least one dice to the result for every throw and sometimes we have a certain number of throws, but have to throw all the dice every time.
The combination of the game of the constantly changing rules of throwing, the very different scoring conditions – sometimes all eyes count, sometimes only pairs, sometimes certain dice eyes minus the rest or only increasing values and much more – and the variable vortex side on each dice, results in the Sum up a really varied game in which gambling, weighing and tacting give each other the handle. Since you only win the round if you beat the other players’ dice result, the order of play also plays an important role.
“High Score” is therefore a universal dice game and is suitable for practically every occasion. Absolute non-players: inside are drawn into the spell as well as full-grown kniffel veterans. As the icing on the cake, the included point chips for the first, second and third place in a round ensure that you can even do without pen and paper in a way that conserves resources.
