Continuing on with our board game reviews, Esdevium Games sent their next batch through to us. One of the games we got the chance to get our hands on was Dobble. It’s not a board game but a card game, and it is simply fantastic.
- Players: 2 – 8
- Age: 6+
- Game Length: 15 Minutes
- Price: £12.99
- Available from Waterstones, WH Smith, Argos, Tesco Online and many others
We got to play Dobble for the first time at EGX 2015. It was kind of an brief introduction into what kind of games we’d be covering in the future. I’d not played many card games before other than the obvious ones you use a deck of cards with, with the intention of getting drunk, So I was looking forward to trying this out.
The rules are incredibly simple. It’s pretty much snap but with a twist. There are 55 cards in the tin. On these cards there are varying symbols ranging from a lightning bolt, a dinosaur, an igloo etc. You get the idea, random images. However each card shares only one matching symbol with every other card in the deck. The trick is to spot the matching symbol from your hand to that being revealed on the deck in the middle. And that’s it. Spot your a symbol on the face up card from the pile to a symbol on the card in your hand and shout it out LOUD. You win that card.
The game offers up 5 different versions of the game to play, but the one that we played the most and which is the simplest is to deal each player one card. You place the remaining cards in a pile face up. Now the fun part of shouting out the symbol which matches with a symbol on their card. The winning player takes that card from the pile and repeat this until all the cards in the deck are gone. Once the deck is cleared down, the player with the most cards wins.
One of the other types that we tried is pretty much the same game but with the objective of trying to get rid of your deck. Rather than only being dealt one card, the whole deck is dealt out to players but one card which is face up in the middle. Players then need to shout out a matching symbol they may have then put their card in the pile face up with the objective of getting rid of your cards first.
I played this on a Friday evening with my wife and another couple. We got to playing this before really partaking in any alcohol and it was so loud. There was laughter, shouting, hand slapping as someone grabbed a card before correctly naming the symbol. All round hysterics. It’s just incredibly funny how players put on their concentration face while scanning their card and the centre card for a matching symbol, seeing elation on one players face as they shout at their top of their lungs “A CAT!!” and reach for the card while another player who was just fractions off a second shouting “CAT!” also goes to reach the card only to be shot down and have their hand slapped off the pile and seeing their disappointing and disgusted face revealing a glimpse of “I’m getting that next card”.
Given that the festive season is fast approaching this game should be an essential addition to any games you may enjoy playing when you get together with the family. It’d make a great stocking filler to open up on Christmas day. And it can be played in numerous circumstances like New Year’s frantic fun, or the next family get together you have or even simply to kill off 5 minutes if you’re bored. Compact enough to take travelling for long flights, just maybe keep the noise down a bit to not disturb other passengers.
There’s not wrong time or place to play Dobble!
– Murr
