Line Up The Numbers On The Faces To Get The Best Score You Can In Dice With Buddies
Dice With Buddies ($1.99) by Stofle Designs is a great turn-based puzzle game that has you using five dice to accumulate the highest score you can. Playing the game is quite simple and a lot of fun, but explaining it can be a bit tricky. Here goes.
At the bottom of the screen are five empty slots. The first player must press the roll button which will cause five dice to appear with random numbers. If that player gets, for example, four dice showing the number three, he can go to the upper section of the scoreboard and press the empty slot next to the entry “Threes” to see what score he would get. Or he can go to the lower section and press the slot next to “4 of a kind” which adds the total of the four dice. Alternatively, he may choose “Sm. Straight” which always gives a score of 30.
A filled score slot cannot be used again that game. When that player has chosen the option that gives the greatest score, he presses the play button to end his turn and pass the game to the next player. Each player has a total of 13 turns (until score slots are filled) before the winner is decided.
However, let’s say the first player was not lucky enough to get four of a number, he has the option of pressing the roll button twice more in a row which will reroll all five dice. He is also able to stop between one and four of the dice from being part of the next roll. To do this, simply press the die whose face you want stationary and its edges will glow red to show its display is locked. In this way, if he initially got only two dice showing the number three, he could lock those two in place and reroll, hoping for more threes.
There are other options for scoring such as the highest score for each faces (ones through sixes) as well as “3 of a kind,” Full House and so on.
It’s meant primarily as a multiplayer game. Once you’ve created an account, you have the option of searching for a specific player, being matched with a random opponent or playing a local game where you and a friend share the iDevice.
The random opponent mode is not fantastic as there aren't a large number of people available and when you do get a game you don’t know if your opponent is there actively playing or if they’ve gotten distracted by something and just left you hanging.
As a result, the only real drawback of this game is there is no vs. computer mode. If you have no one to play with, you’re out of luck. Other than that, it’s a fantastic game which should give puzzle lovers hours of amusement (especially if you have a friend nearby).
