Go Nuts!

Have you ever seen anyone go crazy when playing a game? Go Nuts!, a new entry in Gamewright's 12-Minute Games series, certainly seems to encourage this in the title alone! The frenzied activities of the game add a level of wackiness and fun not often found in dice games, and the "push-your-luck" aspect will keep players on the edge of their seat for the few minutes this game takes to complete.

On a player's turn, they simply roll five dice that have squirrels, acorns, and cars on their faces. Each acorn a player rolls scores the player one point, while cars are placed out of play. Players are allowed to re-roll all dice with squirrels and/or nuts on them; but they can stop at any time, taking the sum of points they have accumulated. Continuing to roll presents a level of danger. Because if the player ever rolls all cars at one time, their turn ends immediately; and any points gained that turn are lost. If the player rolls all squirrels, pandemonium breaks out. The player shouts, "Go Nuts!", and starts rolling the dice as fast as they can, attempting to score as many points as they gather. All the other players roll one special die that has a dog picture on a single face. When another player rolls a dog, they scream out "Woof, woof, woof!" and the player whose turn it is tallies up their points and passes the dice to the next player.

To add an even spicier element to the game, a player who has only a single die remaining gets all five dice back if they roll an acorn. Since the chance of causing a "nutty" round or losing all the dice because of cars is high, players have to assess the risks of doing this, although it may allow a player to come back into the competition.

Whenever "Go Nuts!" is shouted, it's hilarious to watch everyone rolling dice as fast as they can, trying to stop the player from gaining any more points. Rapid-fire dice rolling is amazingly fun; and when added to the simple probability choices, it gives the game a most definitely Major FUN feeling. I've seen groups of people literally shrieking in fun as they tossed the dice at the table, trying desperately to get a dog before Uncle Bob scores any more points; and no one is ever out of competition until the game ends. Add the fact that the game takes less than 12 minutes to play to the mix, and you have a wonderful choice for families and parties.

Tom Vasel
"Real men play board games"
The Dice Tower