Let's go to the Bazaar. Dice Bazaar Review

DICE BAZAAR GAME REVIEW

 Dice Bazaar is a visual treat. Filled with great colors, friendly shapes and characters, and blocks...lots and lots of blocks. In Dice Bazaar, players compete to buy products from a vendor by rolling dice and matching their values to the corresponding dice under each product. Products found in the bazaar are spices, teapots, ceramics and precious stones. Each product card displays a number of points and a special ability that players can "spend" on their next turn. The sum of each card's points is roughly equal to how difficult it is to acquire. Spices only require 2 matching dice and gems require 5.

HOW TO PLAY DICE BAZAAR

 Players roll dice of their color at the start of their turn and can either purchase the item by matching the correct number (and face) of the dice, or by "putting" the dice on the field for use in the next turn. When a product card is purchased, the player will take that card and then roll all dice found under that product. Dice previously deposited by opponents that no longer match the new dealer's dice should be removed.

 Each product card has a special ability that can be activated by discarding that card, which is points. This ability allows you to change the face of any die already rolled and place it on the product card with the next highest value. So by spending the 1 point card you get from buying a spice card, you can set any value to one of your dice and place it under the teapot. By spending a teapot card, you can set the die to any value and place it under the pottery product card, etc.

 The game ends when any two products are completely sold out in the Bazaar. Players add up the total points of their remaining product cards, and the player with the most points wins.

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT DICE BAZAAR

 The artwork is just beautiful and the colors are gorgeous and vibrant. The game has very clear iconography and the rules are well laid out and easy to read. The game says it's for ages 6 and up, but I'd bet a 4-year-old would have no problem playing this game. The dice are 16 mm in size, so they fit well in the hand and have a certain weight. The gameplay is engaging, but not deep or complex. Special abilities on product cards help alleviate the pure luck aspect of a game like Roll For It.

 Dice Bazaar is very easy to play with easy to learn rules on just one sheet. Me and my friends played the game for 5 games after opening the box. There was only one time when we had to seek clarification on the rules. I asked on Twitter (have you lost points from traded cards) and got a reply within 10 minutes.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

 It's a try-your-luck dice game. This means that the gameplay is almost entirely dictated by your luck. The special abilities on the product cards help, but the randomness is still there. While not strictly a criticism, it would be cool to see some variation in the special abilities, with each card in the product stack offering a different ability, or with each product ability being a variation on the others. This will increase the strategy as you will have to choose whether you want to buy that particular version of the card or wait for someone else to pick it up.

 The game starts with the player counting 3 times on the Spice, Teapot, and Pottery cards and the player counting 2 times on the Gem cards. Since it is much easier to get products that only require 2 or 3 dice, it would be nice to increase the number of cards on these cards so that the gameplay is not distorted.

IMPRESSIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

 The author spends a lot of time on his designs, and it shows. The box and accessories are very pleasing to the eye. If you're looking for a simple game to play with friends, kids, or people new to board games, then you can't go wrong with Dice Bazaar. If you're a heavy gamer, you might not find anything to suit your needs.