Qbitz

Day 43 - Q•bitz
Designed by Peggy Brown

I would be very interested in knowing how this game received its name. After playing the game, the first thing that popped into my mind regarding the name was quarterback blitz. Perhaps the name came from this phrase because the game is played so quickly and the players must react quickly to win (any insight Peggy?). Q•bitz is, excuse my alliteration, fantastic family fun.

Q•bitz is a game for 2 to 4 players ages 8 and up and it only takes about 15 minutes to play (this can be shortened or lengthened - it just depends on how many rounds you really want to play). The game includes 16 dice in 4 different colors, 100 card designs, and 4 recessed boards to fit your dice in a 4x4 grid. The cards, dice, and boards are good quality (the dice are a lot lighter than I thought they would be).

The game reminds me of tangrams because of the different shapes that are created using the dice, but Q•bitz makes creating these different shapes and designs so much fun. There are three different kinds of rounds to play in Q•bitz:

1. The first round - A Q•bitz card is flipped over and players rotating and placing their dice as quickly as possible try and be the first to create the design on the card.
2. The second round - A Q•bitz card is flipped over and players roll the dice trying to create the design first with what is rolled. The dice can be re-rolled at anytime, but it is an all-out race to be first.
3. The third round - A Q•bitz card is flipped over and players have 10 seconds to memorize the card before it is flipped back over and the players try and recreate the design first.

I love the slight variations in each round and the third round is definitely the most interesting. I love shapes, geometry, and patterns so this game was a big hit with me. I also really like the fast pace of the game. I think that Q•bitz would be a great game for children to play as well to help them with visual spacing and memorization. 

I'm working on a 2 player variant as well where each player takes one of the other unused sets of dice for a fourth round. The round would consist of taking turns rolling the dice Yahtzee style. The player can choose how many dice of his color he rolls along with how many dice of the extra color he took for this round (we will call them "attack dice"), where the total of the players dice must add up to 16. The dice that are his/her normal color may be used on their playing board to fulfill the design trying to be made while the "attack dice" of the other color rolled, may be used to take up spaces on your opponents board with die matching the required space.

Q•bitz is a lot of fun. Again, a big SHOUT OUT to MindWare games for making this review possible and that is How Lou Sees It!