Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Tumblin' Dice

Subject: Math
Category: multiplication
Ages: 8 and up
# of players: 2 to 4
Time to play: 15 minutes
Mechanics/Game Type: dexterity

Ratings (1 to 5)

Educational Value: 5
Gaming value: 5
Aesthetic value: 5
Price value: 3 (this is an expensive game!)
Ease of play: 5
Younger adaptability: 5

My comments: While expensive (somewhere around the $60 mark), Tumblin' Dice is a large, fun dexterity game everyone will enjoy. It consists of a large, multi-tiered, maple-topped board on which each tier multiplies the value of the dice that land on it. It comes with 4 sets of 4 hexahedral (6-sided) dice, each set a different color. Players roll/flick/slide the dice off the top tier to try and get the highest score. The board even has 4 small dry-erase boards to keep score.

Put this game on a table to have a little movement with your board gaming! Younger kids can easily launch the dice even if they can't do the math yet. You could easily change the multiplication values, use dice with more sides, or even add "special spaces" to practice a variety of multiplication facts.

Unfortunately, I have not seen this available new since Christmas. The company still continues to make the smaller Tumblin' Dice, Jr. for 2 players. For now, the full version is still available through Amazon.

BoardGameGeek.com link to this game: http://boardgamegeek.com/game/16747