Throw, Run, Buy, Win. Cubitos Game Review

 Cubitos is a cube racing game by John D. Clare released in 2021. I recently had a chance to play it a few times and wanted to share my thoughts.

GAME PROCESS

 In Cubitos , players start with nine basic dice (of two types) and roll the dice simultaneously, keeping any dice that show coins or feet. Players can then re-roll any blank faces, but risk burning if no new non-blank faces are rolled. If a player has less than three dice in his active zone from previous rolls and "rollovers", he is in the safe zone and is allowed to continue re-rolling until at least three dice are placed in his active zone. If a player loses, they will not be able to take actions in the current round, but they will be able to move one space up the fan track, which will yield coins and/or hand tokens that will allow players to roll additional dice each round. They have the added advantage of being able to put any dice from their roll zone (those rolled as blank results that round) into their discard zone. The other players' dice that failed must remain in their roll zone and will be rolled again in the next round. This allows players who are knocked out to cycle through their lower value dice and return the higher quality dice to the roll zone more quickly.

 After each player decides to stop or a player has lost, they enter the running phase together. Any player who rolled the sword symbols on their red dice compares the rolled swords and the winner gets the bonus but has to sacrifice the red die. Because of this, it is likely that different players will win this advantage in subsequent rounds. After matching the red dice, players simultaneously use their feet to move around the racetrack, possibly collecting power-ups depending on where they stopped, and use coins to buy new dice into their reset zone.

 Each game has eight new types of dice that can be purchased. Each color of the die has seven cards with different abilities corresponding to it, and one of each is chosen during preparation. This means that the game has a large number of variations with an almost infinite number of combinations. Hints show which symbols appear on each face and what actions are actually performed when certain faces fall.

 In the next round, players will use the remaining dice in their rolling area and then choose which dice to add to reach their "hand limit", which starts at 9 but will increase as players move up the fan track and as they fall behind on the racetrack. All dice will be rolled and a new round will begin.

 The game ends when one player crosses the finish line, and the player who advances further past the finish line wins, as it is possible for more than one player to cross the finish line in one round.

 Of course, the actions you can take are varied and I won't cover them in detail here. You can choose dice from the game, protect yourself from potential crashes by spending shields, set dice faces to whatever you want, get other dice for free, and more.

IMPRESSION

 Anyone can play this game. The rules are relatively simple and can be learned in ten minutes. That being said, I think this is more of a gamer than meets the eye. A big part of strategy is analyzing the eight dice/abilities available in each game and being able to visualize what combinations will work well together. After that, it's all about executing the plan and maybe a little luck along the way. I wanted to like this game, but it seems like I'm missing something.

Pros:

• Anyone can learn and play the game in 45-60 minutes. This is a good option for the whole family or for a group of experienced gamers.
• Looks great on the table. You will definitely have situations where people come to your table asking about the game with all the cool, non-standard dice and racetrack.
• There are so many different games to play. I'm not a math geek, but I'm guessing there are literally millions of combinations of dice abilities that can be used, and there are several racetracks that can be used. Each game will be completely different.
• Rolling a bunch of dice each round is really fun. The game becomes very intense when you know your odds are low, but you just need one more value to execute your plan for the round.

Cons:

• I don't think the racing mechanic is adequate, as an extra pair of dice usually won't have much of an impact in the late game when someone else is moving 12-15 spaces a round. The game had a snowball problem: if you set up the "correct" dice pool early and the other players don't, the game can only be successful for one player, meaning the game can be broken. Every game I've played has been different, with one player winning by about 15 holes, and a few rounds into the game, it's pretty clear who that player is going to be. It's not a long game, so it's definitely not the end of the world, but the last few rounds felt like a formality.
• There is no way to influence the plans of other players. The only competitive similarity is in the red dice, but they shift back and forth from round to round, so winning or losing this battle has no effect. The game gives you extra dice to try to catch up, but the game feels like a race where no player can affect what the other player is doing. Everyone picks up at different speeds, but there aren't any lying cops to hit, other than obstacles (which are just as likely to happen to players behind as to players in front).
• It sucks to burn out. Of course, this allows you to fine-tune your dice pool a little better in the next round and move up the fan track, but our games only lasted 10-12 rounds. Skipping a whole round of action and buying dice is paralyzing. This ties in with my first objection, about the snowball effect. This can be especially frustrating because a breakup can come out of nowhere. You can roll 7 or 8 dice and still lose. Making the "right" move and still ending up with a dead round isn't very good.
• It's a small gripe, but the fan track felt redundant. I know some dice interact with this, but I found it didn't help at all. I'd rather be at a racetrack where I can pick dice or get coins to buy something right now than get credits later. My games weren't enough to make the fan track investment really pay off.

How easy is it to learn the game? 4/5

 This game takes about 10 minutes to learn and maybe 40-45 minutes per game. I've played with 3 and 4 players and the game time is about the same since players almost always take actions at the same time. How easy is it to play the game *well*? That's a bit of a different story, and it depends on how well you know deckbuilding and can interpret the optimal buying sequence.

Will it be easy to find players? 4/5

 I don't see why not! The design is attractive, the game looks great on the table and does not drag. People like to throw piles of dice.

Is the game worth your time? 3/5

 The good news is that the game doesn't take that long. So, in terms of "time spent", you haven't lost much by trying the game even if you don't like it. The bad news is that I don't think it's that helpful. Part of the reward for learning and playing is looking around the table and seeing smiles on faces, regardless of the score or score. With Cubitos, I just see a lot of frustration and confusion about how one player got so much better. Instead of trying again, I see people wanting to pack up and move on to something else.

How much fun is it to lose? 2/5

 It is difficult. I usually don't mind losing. The fact that the loss is so obvious and I've yet to see a way to affect the game past half (or so) just makes the back half of the game a bit pointless. What worries me is the fact that you see how much you are losing and how unlikely you are to catch up. Of course, you can push your luck a bit more to try to do a few more actions each round than the leaders, but that will likely lead to a corkscrew. I have no particular desire to review it.

Overall 5/10

 *I think one of the best ways to judge a game is to think about how much fun it is to lose. The goal is to have fun whether I win or lose!

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