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Grab your coloured dice, choose your employees carefully and get ready to build the greatest theme park you can. We’re heading into Dice Theme Park!
The version I have is the Kickstarter edition (I also have the deluxe add ons box). Variant wise I would say the Kickstarter version is worth it for the screen printed mascot meeples alone! There are other extras, like some mini expansions, but gameplay wise I’m focussing on the base game below.
Organisation
The first thing I will say is that there is quite a bit of set up for Dice Theme Park. It’s not helped by the fact that this is desperately in need of a decent insert to keep everything organised (because there is a lot of stuff in here!). As it is, the components are all just in a pile and it takes more time than necessary to set everything up to begin. Once you’re finally set up, game play follows 6 stages each round over 5 rounds.
Phase 1 Plan
In phase 1 you choose which two staff cards you would like to use this round. This gives you the unique benefit of those staff members for this round (like being able to run an attraction one extra time or getting a discount off upgrades). It also determines your income for the round and determines the turn order (lowest combined value of staff goes first).
Phase 2 Welcome
The welcome stage of Dice Theme Park is where you choose a monorail of incoming guests to welcome to your park. People who have played Dice hospital will be familiar with this, as it is much like the incoming ambulances of patients.
Phase 3 Expand
In phase 3 you get to choose a new attraction to build in your park from the selection available. Attractions include Swan Lake, Lighting Strike and my favourite – Ticket to Die. There are few more nods to popular board games in the attraction names, but I don’t want to spoil it! You can also recruit another mascot at this stage. Mascots are very useful as they enable you to change a die pip +/- one or allow you to temporarily change the die colour.
Phase 4 Improve
At the improve stage you can buy 1 additional map and install up to two upgrades. The maps allow you to move a die to an adjacent attraction and the upgrades provide you bonuses when using the attraction they are placed on. Bonuses are either 2 extra stars, 2 extra money or the ability to run that attraction for a second time each round. I found it very important to get those extra runs in as early as possible so you don’t run out of things to do with your guests too quickly.
Phase 5 Operate
Here comes the fun part, the chance to run your Dice Theme Park! Guests all start at the park entrance and move from tile to tile as the attractions are operated. When a guest (a die) is used to operate an attraction the pips go down by one. This is the guest’s energy depleting throughout the day and when they run out of energy they must leave the park (presumably to go home and collapse or indeed visit Dice hospital if they’ve really over done things!).
Here is where there is a fun Dice Cascade effect which results in big combo moves. Each attraction has specific requirements in order to operate (again this will be familiar to players of Dice Hospital) e.g 1 blue die, 3 dice all of the same number or 1 yellow die and 1 any colour die that has a higher pip value than the yellow. The key here is working out the best way to move these guests through the park to operate as many attractions as possible, as this gains you stars. The theme park owner with the most stars at game end wins.
Phase 6 Operate
In the final phase you count up and collect the money and stars you have earned, take a look at the objective card for the next round (as this is a way to earn bonus stars) and finally clear and re set for the next round. The two staff cards you have used this round get passed to the player on your left so your staff choices change each round which is another nice concept, forcing players to choose different staff or giving the option of playing two of the same staff member and maximising on that benefit.
An Exhilarating Day Out
Dice Theme Park is colourful and fun to play. Those meeples make me want to buy mascots just so I have more of them in my staging area!
I like the fact that you can play a shorter version without the administrator cards (every player receives one of these at game start with an extra ability), without the skills cards (again each player receives one at game start and a further skill each time you recruit a mascot) and over 4 rounds. It’s always good to have options of how to play if you are short on time. It also comes with a solo mode with its own cards and challenges.
What I really like about Dice Theme park is that it always feels like you have plenty of options and plenty to do. I hate the feeling of a game that looks great but does nothing but restrict you the whole time. This felt completely open, with lots to do and lots of bonuses and skills to help you get the most out of your park!
If you’re looking for a theme park game aimed more at children then Imagineers might be a good choice.
We’ve had lots of fun playing Dice Theme Park. I really like Dice Hospital and would say that if you enjoy that but want to dial things up a notch (and can deal with the long set up and fiddly pieces) then this would be a good addition to your collection.
