I first discovered Pick-Omino via the iPad app. It is a Reiner Knizia game, and I often enjoy his games. Pick-Omino is definitely on the lighter side of Knizia’s games, and has an equally light theme. The theme is that you play birds at a worm BBQ, and you have to roll dice in order to get worms off the grill.
After playing the app for a while, and enjoying it. I decided to get the physical game. I’m really glad I did. There aren’t a ton of components: 16 tiles and 8 dice, but what you do get is very well crafted. The dice are especially nice as they are made of wood and a much higher quality than the dice in most games.
The real core of Pick-Omino is rolling the 8 dice trying to hit one of the numbers on one of the tiles without “busting”. You build a hand of dice one number at a time, as when you roll you have to select one of the numbers and set aside all the die of that number. You keep rolling until you hit the number want or you bust out by only rolling numbers that have already been set aside. It’s a simple mechanic and lots of fun. Actually chucking dice and picking up tiles is more fun than playing this in its app version.
We’ve played Pick-Omino with our 8 year old and 14 year old, both of which absolutely loved it. There is a light educational element to this game in that you need to quickly add up dice rolls, which is an added bonus.
Reiner Knizia is one of the most prolific game designers out there, and there’s a reason why! Knizia has a real talent for crafting games which are fun and Pick-Omino is absolutely one of them. (Note: Pick-Omino is also known as Heckmeck).
Publisher: Zoch Verlag
Price: ~$20
