Review by: Doug Trueman
Published: December 1, 1998

Devil Dice is the latest puzzle game released by THQ. The “Dice” half of the title is a no brainer: players control a character that runs around on a field of three-dimensional dice. The “Devil” half of the title is what’s interesting. It can’t be because the characters that the players control are little devils. That’s too easy. I wonder instead if THQ meant to refer to the fact that they’ve deliberately created an extremely addictive puzzler? Or that their game boasts some of the best puzzle gameplay around? Whatever the answer, Devil Dice is a deliciously devilish piece of work.

The gameplay is what every game developer dreams: simple to play, but difficult to master. The players attempt to line up the number on the top face of the dice with other dice that already have that number on their top side. It’s actually more complicated than that, so the best way to explain the gameplay is to break it down.

If you have a row of dice showing “six” on their top side, players must move dice around so that six dice all showing “six” are touching. They must line up five “five” dice, four “four” dice, etc. Once the dice are all touching they slowly disappear into the ground. In an effort to prevent the player from simply lining up dice that have “one” on their top side, Devil Dice only lets “ones” disappear if they are lined up with another row of dice that is already disappearing (called the Happy One technique). Confused yet? Good.

It’s actually simpler than it sounds but after a few minutes players will understand completely. Actually doing it is a much harder job than it sounds, and this is where THQ must be commended. Simple concept, difficult achievement.