Qwixx Longo: Extra Dice, Lucky Numbers, and Longer Play

Qwixx has been around for ten years. This new take on the classic roll and write brings a few changes from lucky numbers to eight-sided dice.

Published by NSV, Qwixx Longo is designed by Steffen Benndorf (The Game) and Reinhard Staupe (The Game: Face to Face). Designed for 2-5 players, it plays in about 20 minutes — roughly five minutes more than the original game.

Gameplay

Each player takes a player sheet. Each player sheet shows four rows colored red, yellow, green, and blue. Each row has 15 spaces numbered 2-16, with the spaces of two of the rows going in ascending order and the spaces in the other two rows going in descending order. Each player sheet also has two lucky numbers. These numbers change from sheet to sheet.

On your turn you are the active player. You take the six dice and roll them. The dice are eight-sided — two of them are white and the other four each match one of the colors of the four rows. After the active player rolls the dice, he adds the numbers together on the two white dice and announces what the result is. All players may then mark off one space showing that number in one of their four rows. When marking off spaces, you mark them off from left to right in a row. You may skip over an unmarked number, but once you have skipped over a number, you cannot go back and mark it off later. If the result of the two white dice added together is one of your lucky numbers, you instead may mark off the next unmarked number in your row with the fewest spaces crossed off.

Next, the active player may choose one white die, add its number to the result of one of the colored dice, and mark off the resulting number on the row whose color matches the die he chose. If the active player does not mark off any spaces on his turn, then he instead marks off one of the failed roll spaces on his player sheet.

When one of the final two spaces in a row is marked off by any player, that row is considered locked, and the player also marks off the locked symbol for that row. You must have at least six spaces marked off in a row in order to lock it. Once a row is locked, the matching die is removed from the game and no player can mark off any more spaces in that row.

The game ends once two rows have been locked or once a player has four failed roll spaces marked. You score points for each row based on how many spaces you marked off (including locked symbols) and lose five points for each failed roll. The player with the most points wins the game.

Review

Qwixx Longo is light, fast, and easy to learn. There’s just enough choice to keep the game interesting and, since all players have a chance to mark something off each turn, there’s little to no downtime. The choices are interesting but fast.

It’s enjoyable to figure out which spaces you should mark off, when you should skip a space, and when you should pass on the white dice. The rows are long enough that you will skip sometimes, while the lucky numbers add a nice little mitigation to the luck of the roll. The fact that these lucky numbers aren’t the same for all players is also a nice touch, as it’s fun to have your lucky number come out when no one else’s has.

If you already have a copy of Qwixx, then Longo is probably not worth adding to your collection. The lucky numbers are a fun addition, the dice have more sides, and the rows are longer — but this is probably not, altogether, quite enough to justify owning both games, unless you want the gameplay to last slightly longer. If you don't already own Qwixx, Longo may be the right version to start with. Unfortunately, if you are in the USA this game may be hard to find, as it is not currently licensed for the U.S. market.

A fun little roll and write, the simplicity is what makes Qwixx Longo so enjoyable. In a genre of games that can get quite complicated, it’s refreshing and easy to dip in and out of.

Pros: Fast, light on rules, little to no downtime, lucky number mechanism

Cons: May not be compelling if you already own Qwixx, hard to find in the USA

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.