Everyone knows Ellen DeGeneres as the loveable, quirky daytime T.V. personality who dances through the audience, gives celebrities pop-scares and shows the cutest viral videos.
Aside from the normal talk show host stuff, Ellen is also known to play all sorts of hilarious games on her show such as “Know or Go,” where people stand on a high platform and answer Ellen’s trivia questions. If they know the answer, they can stay until the next round. If they don’t know the answer, they go, and a trap door underneath them lets them fall into a pool of foam below.
In 2014, DeGeneres’ app “Heads Up” took the world by storm with 650,000 downloads in the first month alone and over 10 million downloads today. The game was Ellen’s take on charades, allowing players to choose from a variety of fun topics. Three years later, I still see the game played by people waiting in lines at Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm.
In March, DeGeneres came out with a new app, another personal take on a classic game. “Dice with Ellen” is based off the classic family night game “Yahtzee.” The game is free, but has upgrades you can purchase and does require a strong internet connection.
In the new game, you can play Facebook friends, matches and Ellen’s squad. Once you start a game, you click “roll” and have three chances to submit your dice. Like “Yahtzee,” you can get points for numbers one through six, three or four of a kind, a full house (three of a kind and a pair, a small straight (four dice in a consecutive sequence), a large straight (five dice in a consecutive sequence, five-apolooza (a “Yahtzee,” or five of a kind) and chance (the sum of any combination of dice). Like the original game, if you earn over 63 points in the one through six column, you get an additional 35 points.
“Dice with Ellen” differs from “Yahtzee” with its tournaments, frames, special dice and profiles. In tournaments, you can play against other players to earn bonus roll dice that you can use to buy into other tournaments or use for an extra roll in your regular games. As you play more games and earn experience points, or “xp,” you can unlock new frames around your profile picture. You earn bonus rolls and diamonds when you win a game. You can use diamonds to purchase specialized dice or you can earn special dice by winning tournaments.
My favorite part of the game is going head-to-head with Ellen’s squad. You can play against people who work on her show like Carol from accounting, Louis the camera guy, Dave the exec or Ellen herself. If you beat a member of Ellen’s squad, you earn diamonds, xp and other prizes.
But the best person to beat is Ellen herself. If you beat Ellen, you get her lucky dice which allow you to have an advantage over your matches in the regular game. The dice make it more likely to get a five-apalooza, which is 50 points.
I’ve been playing for less than a week and my eyes are glued to my phone screen. My average score is 217 with 10,400 xp. After playing for just a few days, I’m already classified as a “veteran” and a level 15 player. My highest score is 343 and I can’t wait to roll a perfect game! If you ever want to play me, you can search my user name “TashaB97” and we can play!
This app was created by Scopefly, an app developer that makes my other favorite game “Wheel of Fortune Free Play.” The developer also makes the original Yahtzee’s app, “Temple Run” and “Walking Dead: Road to Survival.”
I think Dice with Ellen is a fun take on a classic game. I’m totally addicted, the game is limitless. I would recommend downloading the app to anyone who loves Ellen’s quirky style or is looking for something fresh. 10 out of 10, Ellen!