Review: Mars Attacks The Dice Game

• April 14, 2015
• James Skemp
• gaming, review

Fun, but the theme may be an acquired taste

Being a fan of the Mars Attacks movie, I was interested in just how well a dice game based upon it would be.

The game actually puts you into the role of the Martians, and does not really tie into the movie. This is quite honestly a wise decision on their part, since personally I like playing the bad guys sometimes.

Game play consists of putting out a few piles of cards with various locations. Each player will then role dice in an attempt to control each location until one of the stacks has been depleted.

While it sounds relatively easy, since you must pick a location you're going for, and each die has three different symbols, one of which can end your turn early, it actually turns into a slightly challenging game, as you must often decide whether you want to keep rolling dice, or quit when you're ahead.

The downside to this game is that the theme appears to turn some people off, or at least doesn't appeal to them. I've brought this to a few sessions and it usually gets turned down for other games instead. The rules also take a little while to understand (I'd recommend readying them beforehand and maybe trying a mock game). However, once you do get a game going, and understand the rules, you'll probably have a fun time conquering the world.

Fortunately, while the game recommends 3-6 players, I was able to play a couple games with only two players, as long as you play with the three player rules for card counts. You could probably also get a solo variant going with nukes perhaps having some impact on the locations you can conquer.

Finally, the quality of the actual game is pretty high. The long box is already starting to show wear with bending on the top, but the actual cards, dice, and tokens are of a good quality.

Overall I give Mars Attacks: The Dice Game four stars. I had a lot of fun playing it, despite it being primarily dice based. I really wish I was able to get more people to play with me.

• review
• dice game