shizzleHaving just arrived in the mail yesterday, I figured I’d give Shizzle a try since it looked fairly quick and simple. Well, I was right one one count. It IS simple. It’s also a lot of fun.

What it’s not, is quick. More on that later.

Shizzle is one of Patch Products new games that I covered at Toy Fair. The game comes with 6 dice, score chips, and a Twist and Tumble Dice Cup that also serves as the game’s case. Each of the 6 dice have different colored pips on them, with no number/color combination repeating (ex: there is only one red 4.)

The game is a push-your-luck style game where you’re trying to create a line of dice by matching either number or color. You start with a Spark die, which is the last die in the line the last person created. Then you build your line as long as possible to score points. You can continue to reroll as long as you don’t choke, which is when you roll and can’t place any dice. There’s also special rules for a Shizzle, when you create a full line of 6 dice, and a Fizzle, when you only can create a line of 2 dice after your first roll.

Of course you can just play the game by rolling the dice, but half the fun comes from using the Twist and Tumble Dice Cup. You place the dice inside, give it a twist, and the dice come tumbling out the bottom. The kids love it. I can’t say that I didn’t find myself just rolling dice out of it for no reason (it handles polyhedral dice pretty well.)

The game is simple, fun, and a good time for what it is. My only complaint is the length of the game. The game is supposed to play until the bank runs out of score chips. This can take upwards to 30 minutes, as players can make other players return 6 points to the bank when they create a Shizzle. An easy way around this is to play a set number or turns, or until a certain point limit.

Overall this game is worth the $11.99 is costs just for the cool dice and the dice cup. The game is simple, yet fun for the family. This is by no means a gamer’s game, or is it marketed that way. It’s a mass market game that rises above the usual department store fodder, and has a good fit in any family’s game collection.

A copy of Shizzle was provided free for review by Patch Products