Kniffel Extreme (2011)

Yahtzee – aka Yacht, Kniffel, etc. – has been around for more than half a century, and over the past five decades the game has been transformed in all sorts of ways: letters replaced pips on the dice, players were asked to fill three columns instead of one, target cards were claimed then stolen, the dice were shrunk to the size of peas or enlarged to the size of abandoned warehouses on the west side of Manhattan. Yahtzee players have had showdowns and challenges, free-for-alls and knee-cappings, but never before have they experienced the rush of an extreme version of this long-lived dice game.

Come January 28, 2011, no one will ever be able to say those words again as on that date German publisher Schmidt Spiele will unleash Kniffel Extreme, a new version of the classic dice game that adds the awesome power of a ten-sided die – a red ten-sided die, mind you.

Now in addition to the familiar full houses and two pairs and long and short straights that players could previously score after up to three rolls of five dice, those players can score for three pairs, two triples, a great full house, a highway (being a straight of six dice), sums of 10 or less or 33 or more, and naturally Kniffel Extreme – a six-of-a-kind. In addition, each player starts the game with three chips; spend a chip, and you can push your luck a little further by rolling dice four times in a turn instead of only three. Extreme!