Renegade Game Studios FUSE Board Game, For Ages 10+, Playing Time 10 Minutes, 1 - 5 Players, Cooperative Dice Game

A cooperative game played with 1-5 players (although I have not tried it with 1 player) that has a hard cap at 10 minutes. Players work together to defuse a multitude of bomb cards by collecting sets of dice as they are rolled. Some bombs require easy combinations of dice to defuse, others require much more specific dice combos as well as some stacking into towers and pyramids to increase the difficulty. A player rolls dice and everyone grabs one that they can use to help defuse one of their two bomb cards in front of them. There are penalties for not being able to use every single die every turn, so it is imperative that you communicate with the other players. This continues around the table until the game's end. There are also cards in the center draw pile that make you discard dice from your bombs, making it more difficult to defuse them. You win by clearing out all of the bombs in the draw pile at the center of the table, you lose when the timer hits zero and the bombs blow your group into oblivion! It is played very quickly and frantically and can be a bit stressful at times, so if this type of game isn't for you stay away as you'll probably dislike it. The companion app is great as well, including 2 "voices" for the timer countdown, and a useful score calculator that saves your scores so you can compare your scores throughout all playthroughs. Overall great game, it always comes with me to game nights because it is so short and action packed that it frequently makes it onto the table. The only difficult portion of the game to understand is the symbology on the bombs. Learning what those symbols mean is important, but becomes second nature after a playthrough or two. Fuse is easy to understand and play, and most importantly fun! I definitely recommend this game. I've uploaded a few pictures so you can see what comes in the box.3/8/16 Update: This game was recently awarded the "Major Fun" award - well deserved!

This game has a lot going for it to hook the non-gamer (and is fun and engaging for the veteran gamer)-lightweight (easy to learn, rules are simple and you don't have to wade through exceptions to rules)-cooperative : since everyone is trying to complete the goal, competition anxiety isn't there for the beginner-no real downtime : everyone plays for the entire play period-no player elimination : everyone plays all the way through, there is no "out" where someone just sits there-hard 10 min time : you are racing a deadline this keeps game short (low time commitment), and naturally drives engagement as a player can't "drift off" mentallyit's great little warm up game or a game to play if you don't feel like pulling something out - it's sort of a shot of coffee in that the time pressurebring you "up" instead of putting one in a contemplative mood.If you've got a non-gamer who doesn't like games b/c they are "too slow and cerebral" - this is a great antidote to that.This game is played in a hard 10 min time limit (which is the point, it's a deadline game)

I love co-op games and I love timed games where you know you only have to commit x amount of time. This is a dice rolling challenged based game. It is very stressful and difficult to beat. It has an app that plays a timer on it for added fun! Super fun game if you like fast paced dice rolling co-op games!

I like games with a time limit to them. I REALLY like cooperative games. This one is both!There are a bunch of cards that you have to "defuse" to keep the "bomb" from exploding. (A "bomb" with a ticking timer would've been great! But it would've added great cost to the game. The makers compromised by creating an app that will countdown for you.) Each player rolls as many dice as there are players. Each player must then take one die and place it on one of his cards as long as it follows the requirements of that card. The players just all need to decide what die is going to what player, because if any die is not used, then there's a good chance dice that have already been played onto cards could go back into the bag.Once cards are completed, they are set aside and new cards drawn. There is a chart for how many cards must be completed before everybody wins. I played twice with one friend on "Training" mode and we got beat both times. One reason for this may be that in a 2-player game, both players take two dice. This seems more difficult to me as it's easier for me as a player to need one die. "Okay, I need a red 6 or any 4 or any 5 or any yellow." After the roll, I can immediately yell out which of the dice I can use. If I can use three of the four dice rolled, it's easy enough for other players to tell me which of my three dice they need. In a 2-player game, if I can use three dice, and my teammate can also use three, then we have to go through a whole process to see which one doesn't work for each of us. It just seems more time-consuming. Another issue was that with only four cards out, we were finishing them quickly and throwing those dice back into the bag, so we ended up not seeing a single black die for five straight minutes. Guess what I needed to finish my card?That said, I think this is a fun, crazy game. The timer app really makes you nervous. And you're less likely to Ooopsie like you do repeatedly in Escape. Plus, it's great to have a cooperative game where one person isn't telling everyone else what to do, as can happen in Pandemic. If you're looking for a cooperative game where everyone is involved, this is a good option (though Castle Panic is probably better for families).