14 July, 2017
Matching Pairs with Dobble – A Kid’s and Family Review
Oscar’s Review
“Dobble” is a cool card game where you have to match the pictures between cards. There is only one matching pair between two cards and the main game is made up of 5 mini-games. Depending on the mini-game you have to win as many cards as you can or get rid of you cards as fast as you can. It was really easy to learn the different games but sometimes it can be hard to find the matching pairs. It was sometimes hard but not so hard that you start getting angry and want to stop – we all had fun playing the different games. You can make it last 5 minutes or you could play for longer too – we’ll definitely be taking it on holiday with us!
Fat Dad’s Review
This month, as part of Blogger Board Game Club, we have been playing the fast-thinking, fun, family game of “Dobble” from Asmodee / Esdevium. If you’ve not come across Dobble before then I’ll try and explain it to you: it’s ‘snap’ but at a whole new level!
The sturdy tin, ideal for travel, contains 55 circular cards with 8 pictures on each – things like a t-rex, a daisy, crosshairs, a cat, a key, a snowflake and many more. The clever part is that whichever two cards you choose from the pack there is only ever one matching image. This is absolutely key to the game and something that I still can’t get my head around (if you’re interested in the maths then see this article on Stack Overflow: Maths).
Dobble, as Oscar has already stated, is made up of 5 mini-games which is a great idea as it means you can play as long as you want and still have a winner. If you have a few minutes you can play 1 or 2 quick games. If you have a spare hour then you can mix up the different mini-games and create your own score table to get an overall winner. It’s this level of versatility that makes it an ideal family game for any time and it’s small enough to store in your glovebox for any emergency gaming sessions when you’re out and about.
Each mini-game revolves around being the fastest to spot the two matching images between cards and, depending on the game, this might be to match your card with the deck or to match images with other players. It sounds very simple in theory but in practice it can be hard – although not frustratingly hard. The images are different sizes and rotated at different angles so you can’t quickly spot the matching pair in a quick glance – this isn’t a skill that gets easier with age so you don’t end up, as an adult, trying not to win (not that I do that anyway, I’m evil and need my kids to learn that life sucks and they’re gonna lose at times).
The different mini-games differ in how you win. The overall matching is the same but in some games you need to get rid of all your cards, in others you win by getting as many matching cards as you can and in others the aim is to ‘poison’ the other players by giving them as many cards as you can. There’s good variation and, as an idea, you can use a dice to decide the games: 1-5 would be mini-game 1-5 and if the player rolls a 6 then they choose their favourite.
Overall we had a lot of fun with Dobble – it’s very easy to learn, the instructions are clear and concise and, best of all, a game session can be as short or as long as you want it to be. Dobble has a recommended age of 8 years and over and is for 2-8 players. With an RRP of £12.99 (although you can pick it up for under a tenner at Amazon) it is sensibly priced for an impulse buy or even as a birthday/Christmas present for a friend.
Disclosure: We were sent “Dobble” free of charge for the purpose of review. All thoughts, opinions and words are our own.