Spots Review – Risking it All for a Very Good Boy

Dogs and dice are an excellent combination. But throw in some strategic flair and some hilarious artwork, and you’ve got Spots. The next push-your-luck game you need to play.

Spots ends when one player collects six dogs. That’s as easy as rolling a bunch of dice, and filling in all the empty die spaces on your dog cards. Of course, these spaces require a specific number to be filled. Like Burt, who has one space, and requires a one on the die.

But if that was all the game was, it would be boring.

So instead of rolling any amount of dice, you perform one of the six available tricks. One trick, called Walk, lets you roll two dice and then decide if you want to roll a third. Meanwhile, the trick Run lets you roll three dice, and then keep rolling an extra die until you want to stop.

Now, why would you want to stop? Well, if a dice can’t fit anywhere on your dogs, then it gets buried in your backyard. If the sum of dice buried is more than seven, you bust. Removing all dice you’ve buried, and placed on dogs so far.

To avoid losing your hard work, you can collect any fully filled dogs instead of doing a trick. These collected dogs are unaffected by your future busts.

That’s the safe way to save. However, if you’re feeling spicy, you can try and do a trick and fill all of your dogs. Filling your dogs in this way lets you save immediately – without wasting a turn.

The last thing you need to know about is treats. These little red bones let you reroll any dice you’ve rolled.

Now, start collecting those dogs!

Pray to the dice gods

Spots is a funny game. There’s a lot of humour and love in the artwork for different dog types, and weird positions they often get themselves into. Not to mention, the names of these dogs are immaculate. A special mention to Doog, the cow-looking canine who has an udderly suspicious look about them.

But underlying this silliness is a layer of unexpected strategy. It catches you off guard, even though it is a dice-rolling game, with luck ultimately determining the winner. You can still exercise your brain by finding different ways to collect those darn dogs.

For instance, one choice you must make is how many dogs you want to chase after. Chasing after more dogs opens more dice spots. Giving you a greater chance you won’t bust – at least to begin with. However, the likelihood of filling all your dogs and doing a risky save goes down dramatically.

It’s a similar story with treats.

They grant you a safety net but usually cost you a turn to pick up. So it’s up to you to decide how risky you want to play. But before you decide that, it’s probably worth praying to the dice gods and repenting for the D6 you lost under the bookshelf.

While this strategic nuance is there for those who prefer to overthink their gaming. You can play it just as well at the surface level, rolling handfuls of dice and hoping for the best.

No matter how you play it though, most games end with that tense sweaty-palmed moment where multiple players are one roll away from victory. Hoping that Lady Luck is standing behind them like a Jedi ghost.

Mudge and Bitsy driving you home

The only slight blemish on Spots‘ wonderful gameplay is its speed. Sometimes you get trapped in the think tank choosing between two different actions. Other times, you’re rolling one die over and over again, while everyone else painfully waits and watches.

These slowdowns never last for too long. Although, they happen often enough to elongate the play time beyond filler territory.

Then again, how often they occur vastly depends on the tricks available. With 22 tricks to choose from, each game drastically changes.

Some of these tricks will let you collect handfuls of bones, while others only give you a couple of treats. With each trick introduced, new and different paths to victory emerge. So much so, that every play left me wondering about different approaches to take for the next game.

So, despite the slight slowdowns, Spots is something special.

You feel the love put into the package, from the pictures of the dogs to the dice with unequal-sized pips. From the different pathways to winning, to the edge of your seat please-don’t-roll-a-four moments. It all adds up to being an excellent board game, and one of my favourites of the year so far!