Dic3 Hip Hop: Rapid Review

Dic3 Hip Hop: Rapid Review

Rundown:

Dic3 Hip Hop is aiming to capture the rush of the match three genre of games that is a quite common type of phone game. Players have 12 rounds to fill in as much of their board as possible. Each round five dice are rolled. These dice can be added and subtracted together to create any number between 0 and 12 to fill as many spots on the board as possible. 

The dice can be used without altering to fill as many spots on the board per turn as possible. The core rule players need to remember is if you fill three in a row another symbol will be filled in anywhere on the board. Using these combos and other ways to gain wild fills, players will score at the end based on how much of the board they fill. There are three different maps with the first map being introductory (rhythm and flow) introducing the engine for the game through an abundance of possible matches. Where the highest difficulty is the block, which will require players to plan proper use of the dice and the tools at the players disposal.

Abundance of Combos:

Beyond the normal adjustment of deduction and addition of the dice there are plenty of tools allowing for a range of combos. The highlight of this is the combo wheel. When three in a line (vertical/horizontal/diagonal) is crossed out the colour wheel will display a free fill of another square type. 

The next benefit is the magic of seven. This value isn't displayed in the normal squares getting filled. Instead when a player combines two dice to equal a seven they will be able to fill any square on the board. The catch with this option is that this particular combination to achieve seven cannot be used again to gain a wild.

Adding together dice gains a wild and the reverse is also correct. A dice can get subtracted from another dice to equal a value between zero and five. This will cross out one grid near the colour wheel. This small grid represents the larger grid of squares in the main board and will allow for one wild fill in the matching grid.  Each grid wild can only be used once per game.

Lastly players may save any leftover dice for another round. The trick with this is each value can only be saved once per game. This is done by circling then crossing off the matching value when used.

Pursuit:

Players are pursuing a three in row combo to gain free fills on the board. But the real pursuit as the game gets in the higher rounds is how will the board state transfer into points. Essentially each three by three grid will score the player three points. Also In these grids (which there are six) each player will score any fully filled line as three points and any line missing one filled piece at one point. Essentially players will be eager to get a full grid as that's 12 points (three plus nine). The maximum achievable score is 72 which is great if players plan to play this in pursuit of the high score.

Interest:

Dic3 Hip Hop is mainly a same table solitaire game. This game in my opinion will interest players that are looking for an analog solution of gaining the rush a match three games would offer on the phone. There are three levels of difficulty in the base game. For veterans of roll and writes the original map will be too easy to score well but as the maps go up the tetris of dice required to try and score worthwhile bonuses increase as well. 

Determination:

- Abundance of uses for the dice that become more pivotal at higher difficulty.
- Creates the rush of trying to combo chain longer rounds. 
- Mainly a solo game as it is very highly multiplayer solitaire at higher player counts.
- Easier maps are too easy.

Dic3 Hip Hop is a fast playing mostly solitaire combo roll and write where players are trying to fill their grid as much as physically possible. This is done by rolling five dice (for 12 rounds) adding and subtracting dice to equal the values on the board. The trick of the game is the pursuit of filling three of the same symbols in a row to gain a bonus symbol to fill another colour. To help with this pursuit there are several ways to gain wild values or save a dice for future rounds. In my opinion this is a mostly solitaire game, and that is where it will find its audience. This is the kind of game that is best played as a quick rush combo chain. It's even better that the rulebook alerts the player in the highest score achievable. Creating that itch of just one more game. For anyone used to roll and write games I would recommend the higher difficulty boards.