Tenzi~ A Game For all Ages with Guaranteed Fun and Laughter! {Product Review}

I love it when we have game night at our house. We pop our popcorn and the boys squabble a bit before picking a game to play. With one of them 10 and the other 5, it can sometimes be hard for them to agree on a game EVERYONE will enjoy and be able to play by themselves. One of our most favorite games is a very popular dice game, however, Baby Britches always has to partner with someone because part of the game is adding up the dice which he isn't strong enough to do quickly on his own. Enter TENZI. We were given the game TENZI and the TENZI CARD DECK by Timberdoodle to review. A game with origins in the style of other rolling dice counting games, but with a much simpler method that even the youngest Kindergartner will be able to enjoy!

About the Game

TENZI is one of the most simple games to explain. Grab 10 dice of the same color. Have enough sets of 10 for 2+ players. Now at the word GO! roll your dice trying to get all 10 to be the same number--separating out the dice with the number you want each time. Keep rolling the remaining dice. When all 10 of your dice are the same number--shout TENZI! First person to get all 10 of their dice at the same number--wins!



There is no limit to how many people can play the game together--simply have enough sets of 10 dice for everyone!

Bored with the simple game? TENZI also includes directions for other versions, like Splitzi! With Splitzi, you try to get 5 of your dice on one number and 5 on another. Want to go more advance? Try Target TENZI--where you pick a target number like 56 and roll your dice until adding up your 10 dice equals 56! There are a few other versions of the game included with the dice!

Speaking of the dice, one set of TENZI ($13.95) comes with 40 dice--enough for 4 different players. Each tube will have 4 different sets included--and not all the tubes will have the same colors.

Want to take it up a level? Check out the TENZI Card Deck! Included in this deck ($9.99) are 77 MORE variations on the original TENZI game--including blank cards for you to design your OWN version!

TENZI is recommended for ages 7+.

How Did We Use the Product?

It's a game! I quickly read the directions and since they are about as simple as can be, I asked the boys to play with me. My youngest (Age 5) is always up for a game, however, my ten year old was "too cool". So Baby Britches and I explored the game. Because it's dice and we were going to be rolling them, we played on our laminate floor. We each picked a color of dice and we got started. It was so nice to be able to explain it to my 5 year old and have him get it right away. So we began. After about 4 rounds, my oldest came rushing in saying "I can't stand it! I have to play!"

So we gave him a stack of dice, explained the rules, and we began again. There was much laughter and grins. We raced to be the one to get the first TENZI! After we did it about 5 rounds, we changed it up and tried one of the variations from the game itself. After a few rounds like that, we pulled out the TENZI card deck and played a few games from that. I think one of their favorite was to have to meow or bark after each roll. LOL

A few variations from the deck

The next time we played, we had my parents in town. And boy did the hilarity magnify! The boys explained it to them and we began. To help Baby Britches keep up, he partnered with my mom and they worked together. Oh man. We laughed and laughed and laughed. But it was when we changed it up and pulled cards from the deck and played the variations that it just got down right hysterical! I think the most hilarious was when we played the STEALZI variation. In this one, players can steal dice from other players--only if the other players rolled a number you needed, but was different from the one they were going for. You swap out some of your dice for theirs (if you stole 2 of theirs you give 2 of yours). My mom was cracking up because dad and I kept stealing her dice and she couldn't multi-task and steal any of ours. Oh man. We were dying. After that, we tried to played a variation where you whistled the whole time you played and because we were laughing so hard, no one could do it.

Our Thoughts on the Product

Major thumbs up! Everyone who played has had a blast with it. It has brought absolute hysterical laughter. It's fast paced and just so easy to play. I think that that I would be comfortable saying that the age could be 5+, but only if you are just rolling without trying to add up any dice (like some variations).

In this version, you use 9 dice and roll until
you can make this pattern with your dice.

The main con we ran into was that it was hard for little hands to keep track of 10 dice. I would highly recommend giving younger players cups to roll their dice in. If playing in a group, it worked best when my 5 year old was the spotter watching for dice number while an older player was the roller.

Oh, and there was one variation that actually wouldn't work. It was one of the adding variations. I can't remember which one it is, and now can't find the card. But the variation had us adding up our score for each roll, and after talking about it with my parents, we deemed it wouldn't work because of the possibility of rolling ten 1's. I will come back and share the card when i find it--but that was the only variation that we found wouldn't work.

Because we have four members in our family, the original set of TENZI worked fine, however, because we might want to play this game with others, I purchase just a regular old 10 dice pack at my local Kroger store, so that I could have an extra set on hand. It is definitely good to make sure each set of ten dice is a different color because of some of the variations of the game like STEALZI where you are going to be "stealing" other people's dice. And when the rolling starts, dice go EVERYWHERE! Knowing what color you are using definitely helps.

In summary, I absolutely recommend this game! Whether using it just for your family, or taking it to a party, you will definitely create fans of this game after just a few rounds of playing! I highly recommend having the TENZI card deck as well, because the variations can keep your game going with more entertainment and fun. This game is great because unlike other dice games, the primary game is number identification, not adding the numbers together. This makes it easy enough for my 5 year old to play.

My parents LOVED this game and are looking forward to having it themselves. They think that a game night with friends and TENZI would bring out much laughter and memories and we agree!

When checking out TENZI, make sure you also check out some of the other great games that Timberdoodle carries. Did you know that they even included TENZI in their 2nd grade curriculum package? It's definitely something that can be used in the educational sense as well!

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