Blue Orange Games has thoughtfully provided the world with a dice game that does away with all that tedious waiting around that occurs in games like Yahtzee. In Flash! There is no stately procession of the rolling cup. There are no leisurely conversations while Aunt Maddie hems and haws over which dice she should keep.
Instead we get
Roll! Roll! Roll! C’mon c’mon c’mon c’mon! FLASH!
It’s high energy, noisy, and Major Fun.
The game comes with six sets of dice and six scoring chips (numbered 1 – 6) as well as the rules, a pad of score sheets, and a pencil. Each player gets their own set of dice and the score chips are placed face up in the middle of the table. Similar to Yahtzee, the score sheet has a list of dice combinations that the players try to complete: six-of-a-kind, all odds, all evens, etc. Unlike Yahtzee, with its mannered turns, Flash! has everybody roll at the same time.
For each round, the score keeper chooses one of the combinations and all the players start rolling their dice. When a player completes the combination he or she yells FLASH! and grabs the highest available score chip. the other players keep rolling until all chips have been snagged.
The score keeper records each player’s score and the winner of the round chooses one of the remaining combinations.
To keep things moving, the game has also replaced all of the ones on the dice with flash symbols. These symbols are wild. Once you have a few wilds, most combinations fall into place very quickly. The trick is recognizing the combinations when they happen. Concentration is difficult what with the noise of the dice and the constant yelling that accompanies them. Tension builds very quickly, especially when someone yells Flash!
It’s a simple game, but efficiently executed.
2 – 6 players. Ages: 7+
Flash! was designed by Thierry Denoul. © 2012 Blue Orange Games.