A few weeks ago, we were walking around the game section at a local store, and I spied this:
This vintage-looking Yahtzee box looks exactly like the copy that we had in my house growing up. Yahtzee was the first game I remember playing regularly with my family. We would frequently pull it out for a family game night.
Yahtzee is perhaps the first “roll and write” game – a game where you roll dice and then write down a result of some sort. In Yahtzee, you roll five dice trying to get “poker” combinations – sets of the same number, three of a kind, four of a kind, straights, full house, and five of a kind (or Yahtzee!) – but only one of each combination throughout the game will score.
While I haven’t played Yahtzee in a long time, I *do* have a copy in my game collection, though you might not recognize it if you saw it on my shelf.
Do you see it?
No? Look harder!
Still not seeing it? I’ll show you.
That’s right, the game is in the Hello Kitty head! There’s a little pencil, score pad, and five custom dice. My favorite element are the dice!
Even with the change of theming, it’s the same game. Just pulling out the dice and scoring sheets brought back so many family moments. I remember starting every game hoping that I’d get a Yahtzee, and holding on to that hope as long as I could throughout the game. I remember that I seemed destined to get several full houses during every single game. I remember sitting around the table with my family, passing the dice cup, laughing and ribbing each other, as families do.
Are there any games that give you that same family-time nostalgia?