Thrift Treasure: Dizios

I’m excited that we’re on an abstract game streak for our Thrift Treasure series. And finding one that was awarded a couple industry accolades (Major Fun Award, MENSA Select) makes the find that much better. This week we discovered Dizios by MindWare!

Advertised as “A New Twist on Dominoes!”, Dizios does put a new spin on the classic tile-laying game. Each brightly-colored tile is designed in spin art fashion. Instead of matching up pips on a domino, in Dizios you must match colors.

Each tile has up to four colors and as many as two on a single side! Each person begins by drawing four tiles to their hand and then take turns playing to the center area. To play a valid tile, all touching colors must match exactly – including any corners. Once you play your tile, draw back up to four.

Scoring is different than a traditional game of dominoes. Instead of scoring the tile you just placed, you receive points equal to the number of dots on the tile(s) you are placing next to. So while you may have a perfect fit color-wise, the value of the play might make saving the tile until later more rewarding.

Any time you can’t validly play a tile, you simply pass your turn. Once all the tiles have been collected and no more valid plays can be made, the game ends. Add up the scores, subtracting the point values of any tiles still held in players’ hands. The person with the highest total is declared the winner!

Dizios turned out to be a very simple game to learn and to play, but is much more fun than the standard round of dominoes. Copies can be found on Amazon for under $20 shipped or you can keep an eye out at your local thrift stores for a discounted copy.

When is the last time you played Dominoes?