I hate “Yahtzee”. Specifically, I hate the dice and the dice hate me. Every roll…okay, 90% of them, come up with some combination only suited for the Chance category. “Poker”, on the other hand, was an enjoyable cutthroat event that both sides of my family played on a regular basis. My grandfather was a notoriously mean “Pinochle” player. Long story short: I grew up playing both “Yahtzee” and “Poker”, but I never imagined that both games could be combined to form their own entity. Enter “Royal 9”, a dice poker game for 2-6 Players and Ages 12+ with an average play time of 30-60 minutes. Before we begin I’m required per FCC Regulations to disclose that I was paid to cover this game, though any and all opinions are my own.
The game includes 6 Blank Indented Dice, 36 Royal 9 Dice Stickers & Dice Sticker Layout Instruction Sheet (Assembly Required), 40 Page Scorecard Pad (120 games), a Royal 9 Rules Sheet, and a Carry Bag. It took me all of 5 minutes to assemble the dice, just be careful that you’re assembling the dice according to the sheet provided. I imagine it would be a bit difficult to undo a mistake as stickers lose their functionality with each peel. The rules, for those curious, are one page front and back. There was no box…the game came in plastic baggies so I’d recommend finding a way to pack and store these components in a way that keeps them together (a rubber band, or using the box from which the game was shipped).
The dice themselves consist of five standard dice and one royal die. The standard dice contain 9, 10, J, Q, K, and A’s in five suits (not four). The five suits are spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds, and hearts. The royal die has four unique faces on it, each with different abilities. The Royal 9, for example, acts as a wild 9 of any suit and the Double X2, doubles the scoring of the hand category at the end of the turn.
Like “Yahtzee”, the object of the game is to score as many points as possible. The game ends once all of the thirteen categories are filled in. To set up the game, players simply take one of the score sheets and get something with which to write (not included). The first player is chosen randomly, with turns proceeding clockwise. Due to the “Pass” ability on the royal die, it’s possible that some people may finish their score sheet sooner than others. In that event, said players are simply skipped until all players have filled in their score sheets.
For those who aren’t familiar with “Yahtzee”, the flow of play is fairly simple. You’ll take all the dice and roll them. Players can choose some or all of the dice and roll up to two more times. Players then choose a category on their score sheet and mark the score, locking that category making it unable to earn any more points for the rest of the game. Categories in “Yahtzee” include rolling straights, full houses, three of a kind, and so on.
“Royal 9” is a smidge different. Players can take an optional fourth roll, but if they are unable to score in any category at the end of their turn then they’ll have to mark TWO categories as earning zero points. A player can’t roll a fourth time if they do not have at least two available categories to score. The “zilch” hand category, if it’s available, can be scored instead of taking the TWO category penalty. Also interesting is the rank mechanic which allows for bonus scoring at the end of the game. If someone gets a pair of Kings for example, they’d mark “K” in the “Pair” category and compare that hand with everyone else’s pair at the end of the game. Players receive 10 bonus points for each player outranked within a hand category.
As mentioned above, the player with the most points (summing their categories and bonus scores) wins the game!
Editor’s Note: The above doesn’t cover all of the rules found in the manual, but should give you an idea as to how the game is played.
Let’s be brutally honest here (when am I not?). “Royal 9” is a re-skinned “Yahtzee game” with a couple of added bells and whistles. I’m not saying that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it’s important to identify what this game is and what it’s trying to do.
On the plus side, folks who have played “Yahtzee” before can easily jump into “Royal 9” without a problem. This makes it easily accessible to both kids and adults alike. The art is fairly well done, though I found the numbers on the die faces to be somewhat on the small side. I’m blind as a rhinoceros (bats have echolocation), so take that under consideration. The aforementioned bells and whistles are actually quite cool and are a welcome addition to the game. The optional fourth roll adds a push your luck element, while the rank bonus mechanic might change your strategy mid-roll, especially if you see your opponent with a high hand in the same category in which you are currently mentally shooting. The royal die is also an interesting take on the allowance of abilities, but I feel like there were missed opportunities.
That leads me to the cons. I find dice rolling games fun IF there are ways to manipulate the dice. The royal die doesn’t allow you to do that. It would have been interesting to see abilities that allow you to optionally flip a die face or fix a die to any value you wanted. Obviously, testing and balancing would be needed here, but almost every ability in this game does nothing to address the luck that comes with rolling dice. The bells and whistles, while good, aren’t enough I feel to satisfy anyone looking for a meatier “Yahtzee” style game. There’s also no box. I’ve experienced this with Game Crafter games before, but at a $15 price tag you’d think there’d be a box (to be fair, there is a travel pouch). Game Crafter games are bit more pricey to produce since you’re not making them in bulk, but the average paying customer doesn’t care about that.
Above I mentioned that it was important to identify what the game was trying to do. If this game is meant to be a casual family-friendly alternative to “Yahtzee”, then I’d say it was successful. If it was looking to revolutionize “Yahtzee” into something more strategic and grand, then I’d have to say it wasn’t as there are plenty of missed opportunities to do more with the game. In the end it comes down to what your family or gaming group is looking for in that new game you’re looking to purchase for game night.
“Royal 9” is good, clean family-friendly fun. It’s just a shame that it didn’t attempt to do more. Perhaps if the developer were to crowdfund this in the future, he may be able to include some other bells and whistles that would make the Game Crafter version a bit more affordable at a price with which everyone would be happy. With more options and an improvement to the game’s component quality, I can see this game really taking off. As it stands, it feels like a prototype (albeit a good one) that hasn’t fully reached its potential.
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Final Verdict: 6/10 (Above Average)
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Buy: https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/royal-9-dice-poker-game
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