Review - Cthulhu Dice

 

Players: 2 - 6
Playing Time: 5 - 10 Minutes
Age: 8+
Suggested Retail: $4.99

Serving Cthulhu is fun . . . except for all those other cultists out to get you. So get them first!
Cthulhu Dice lets you drive your rivals mad . . . very, very quickly. Players take turns rolling the big, beautiful, custom 12-sided die, embossed with tentacles, Elder Signs, and more. Destroy your opponents' sanity! Better yet, steal it. But watch out for Cthulhu – when he comes up, he takes sanity from everyone! 18 glass Sanity marbles are included. Lose all your marbles and you're mad. 

The last sane cultist wins . . . unless everyone goes mad together. Then Cthulhu wins!


The Goal:

Be the only play that has not lost their marbles!

The Setup:

Give each cultist (player) 3 of the sanity marbles.

The Play:

The first player chooses a target player and rolls the die.  The proper action is taken.  The targeted player gets to roll a counter attack and the proper action is taken.  The player to the attacker's left goes next and chooses a target

Based on the symbol rolled, these are the possible actions:

• Yellow Sign (squiggly symbol) - Target loses 1 Sanity to Cthulhu (put a marble in the center of the table)
• Tentacle - Target Loses 1 sanity to attacking player...whether or not the attacker or the target is rolling.  The tentacle is bad for the target ALWAYS.
• Elder Sign (The Star) - Take 1 sanity from Cthulhu, if one is available (take a marble from the center of the table)
• Cthulhu - Everyone loses a sanity marble to Cthulhu
• Eye - Roller chooses which action to take.

If you lose all your sanity marbles, you go mad...but you are not out of the game.  You cannot be attacked, but you can attack.  You might get lucky and roll the Elder Sign and get sanity back from Cthulhu, but you cannot get sanity back from another player by rolling a Tentacle...that sanity goes to Cthulhu instead.

Game End:

When only 1 player has sanity marbles left, the game is over and that player wins...unless all players have gone mad, then Cthulhu wins!


Review:

This is not a deep game...it is COMPLETELY luck based.  I played it with 2 players, which was not much fun...there was too much thinking about what kind of roll is being taken.  "This is my counter attack to your attack"  then "Now I am attacking".  We did however, try the Rival Cults varient where each of us played 3 Cultists.  That was a much more interesting game...seems like more players is better.

There are several color options for the die, which makes it collectable if you are into collecting dice.  The components are nice an compact, they give you a plastic Ziploc bag to keep everything together.

Overall, it was fun, but I don't think this will ever be more than a filler game...which is really what it is intended to be.  It is a good way to spend some time if you are waiting for a spot to open at a gaming table.  Overall, I would give Cthulhu Dice a 6 out of 10.

You can buy Cthulhu Dice in our eBay store (www.howlingfungames.com) or in our Amazon Store or by contacting us directly.

Review - Blink - The World's Fastest Card Game

Players: 2
Playing Time: Less than 2 minutes
Age: 7+
Suggested Retail: $5.99

In this lightning-quick game, two players use sharp eyes and fast hands to match the shape, count, or color of their cards. The first player out of cards wins the game!



The Goal:

Be the first player to play all your cards.

The Setup:

Shuffle the cards and deal 30 cards face-down to each player. Each player takes the top card from their stack and places it face-down in the play area.  Each player then draws the top three cards to form their hand.

The Play:

At the same time, the players flip over their card in the play area and the game begins...

Players are allowed to play a card from their hand on either pile.  The card they play MUST match one of the attributes on the card: Shape, Color, or Count.  For example, an card with three red stars can be played on a card with stars on it, or a card with any red shape on it, or a card with any three symbols on it.  You can see some examples of this in the picture above.

Once a card has been played, the player draws another card from their draw deck to bring their hand back to three cards.

If neither player can play a card from their hand, then they each flip over the next card in their draw pile and play continues.

Game End:

First person to play all the cards in their draw deck is the winner!


Review:

Blink is one of my favorite fast play games....if you like War, you'll love Blink.  Blink is truly as fast as a game can get...my personal best is 27 seconds to get through the deck...can you beat it?

When I was A Boy Scout Leader, the scouts LOVED to play this game...in fact, I've yet to meet a kid (and most adults) who don't love this game.

I do have one minor gripe about Blink.  It was originally published by Out Of The Box Games and it came in a neat tin box, perfect for throwing in your travel bag or 72-hour kit.  The latest version from Mattel comes in a regular, plain, boring cardboard box...a step in the wrong direction in my opinion.  Even so, Blink gets a 9 out of 10 rating from me.

You can buy Blink in our eBay store (www.howlingfungames.com) or in our Amazon Store or by contacting us directly.