Kniffel FREE

Summary

Kniffel (known as Yahtzee to most English speakers) is a very popular game that many of us will have grown up playing (with grandparents in my case). There are several Yahtzee apps floating around the market, but Kniffel FREE is, well erm, free, so we were keen to see how it would fare.

Tested on: Samsung Galaxy S2 (I9100G)
Android version: 4.0.4
Root: No
Runs as of version: 2.1

Most of you will be familiar with Yahtzee, and even though in this the game is completely virtual and can be carried around in your back pocket in the form of an app for your Android, the rules of the game are still very much the same. Five dices are rolled at once, for a maximum of three goes per player. You can keep the number you like at the end of each go. The infamous Yahtzee can only be achieved when all five dices show the same same number. Another key point is to roll number sequences sufficiently, meaning that each player has to try to roll all of the individual numbers.

Example: a player has rolled four 5s and one 2. They wish to keep the 5s, which means 20 are recorded and the left over 2 is simply ignored.

If you manage to achieve a minimum score of 65 you will be rewarded an extra 35 points. What this boils down to is that each number has to be rolled only three times.

So what makes this app so special?
Users can choose to play against a real person or an AI. The AI isn't so skilled that you'll feel like throwing in the towel every time you attempt a round against it, and the dice are always rolled randomly. What sets this app apart from the others is that up to eight players can share one device so that they might play against each other. To roll the dice simply shake the device.

There isn't that much left to say; the random factor for rolling dice seems to be democratic and function well and the overall gaming experience is good. The only thing that bothered me is that there's a pretty persistent ad banner.

Bottom line:

Kniffel FREE is a solid, well-functioning game. If ever you don't happen to have a bunch of dices and paper on hand this is a great alternative. We especially like that up to eight people at once can play this game.

One slight drawback is that you have to watch all of the computer's moves. An online mode would've also been a nice addition.

I'm actual quite partial to the Kniffel FREE graphics. And controls are easy to pick up too. The menu's well adapted the app's overall design.

Kniffel FREE ran smoothly and without any issues or crashes throughout our entire test run.

The app is available for free from the Play Store and the AndroidPIT App Center. Kniffel FREE is great but there are quite a lot of ads to contend with.