Description

Other than being colorful and fun, this game has no relation to the hit Pixar film. UP is a unique abstract game for 2-6 players that combines the strategy of limited actions, with the luck of dice, and the joy of building blocks. Games last about 30 minutes. Basically, you're all building one stack of multicolored dice and moving your pawns up the stack along paths of color that match your pawn.

You start out with a handful of dice. There's no numbers on these dice, just 6 different colors; and the dice themselves are different colors. You have to get rid of all your dice to win the game, but you also have to be the highest pawn on the stack after you've used up all your dice.

The color that you roll determines where a die can be placed on the stack (that's the luck part), but rather than spending a die, you can use your turn to move or rotate a die that's already on the stack (that's the strategy part). You might want to move a die to open up a path for your pawn to climb higher, or rotate a die to make it harder for an opponent.

The competition gets hotter as the game progresses, and there seems to be a good "catch the leader" dynamic, so that by the end, everyone is often at the edge of their seats to see if a lucky roll or a tricky maneuver will win the game.