Wouter & Ymke 
Some games try to impress you with huge boards or artwork that looks ready for a museum wall. Clickety Clack… well, it really doesn’t. And honestly, I didn’t expect that much from it at first. It’s just a few dice, a small board and that funny little click when you snap two dice together. But I mean, sometimes the simple stuff catches you off guard a bit.
The idea looks harmless. Roll some dice, click two together, write the number somewhere. How hard can it be, right. But truth be told, the game tightens up quicker than you think. Each row on your board behaves differently, your choices slowly disappear, and suddenly you’re trying to place a number that absolutely refuses to fit anywhere sensible. It’s very NSV in that way. Small box, simple idea, more puzzly than you might expect.
👥 2-4 players, age: 8+
⌛ Playing time: 25 minutes
📝 Designer: Ralf zur Linde
🎨 Artwork: Oliver & Sandra Freudenreich
🏢 Publisher: Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag (review copy provided)
Gameplay Overview
On your turn you take a die from the pool, click it onto another die that stays in the centre and write down the sum. That’s pretty much the whole turn. Where to write it… that’s the tricky part.
Before playing, everyone grabs a board and a marker. The game suggests starting on the A-side. The number of dice depends on the player count. The starting player rolls all dice into the middle to form the pool. Players take turns clockwise, each taking one die, clicking it to another die, announcing the total and writing it on their board. The die you took is removed from the pool. The clicked one stays. Each round, everyone gets two of these turns.
Each row has a rule. On the A-side you’ve got things like numbers increasing, numbers decreasing, only different numbers, odd and even alternating, and one row where you simply follow the pre-printed numbers. And on this side you can’t repeat a number anywhere, which sounds mild but becomes annoying quite fast when the dice keep showing the same values.
If you can’t place a number, or you don’t want to, you take a failed roll. You cross off the next penalty box, reroll all dice still in the pool and try again. If you still can’t place the number, you still have to remove a die and your turn ends. At least the game doesn’t punish you twice.
A round ends when everyone has taken two dice and there’s only one die left in the pool. The player who took the last die collects all dice, rolls them again and starts the next round.
The game ends once a round finishes where at least one of the conditions was met. Things like getting past the finish line in three rows, reaching the far-right space in two rows or filling all four failed roll boxes. You then score only the rightmost number in each row. If the space has points printed, great. If not, well, that row gives you nothing. Subtract penalties and whoever has the most points wins.
The B-side changes the row rules quite a bit. There’s choosing between ascending or descending, working with numbers smaller than your smallest or larger than your largest, making pairs, zig-zagging between up and down, or switching between small and big ranges once. It feels more restrictive and, to be fair, a lot easier to mess up. And on top of that, the finish-line condition gets stricter. You’ll need four rows past the line instead of three.
Artwork, Components and Visual Design
The components are very straightforward. Black dice, dry-erase boards, markers. Nothing fancy. The boards use a yellow and pink colour gradient that looks cheerful enough. The row icons are clear and the writing spaces are large, so at least it’s all readable.
The boards alternate shading in the rows to show scoring ranges. The failed roll area is obvious and the final score box sits neatly in the corner. Honestly, it’s basic but practical. And that’s fine for this kind of game. The markers work well, the numbers stay visible and you’re not squinting across the table trying to read anything.
Our Experience
The game moves along at a pretty decent pace. Turns are short and everyone is watching the same dice pool, so you’re never completely switched off. You don’t directly interfere with the others, but you do care which dice they take because it affects what’s left for you.
The early game is usually about spreading numbers around just to stay flexible. There are no ways to manipulate dice results, so keeping several rows open is more or less your only defence against unlucky sums. And yes, sometimes you just get a turn where nothing works. Failed rolls feel a bit random on those moments, not really the result of bad planning.
After a few plays, you get a better sense of how the scoring works. You start seeing which rows you aim for and which ones you’re willing to abandon. The end of the game often feels tight because one number placed in the wrong spot basically ruins that row’s score. It feels a bit rough in the moment, but that’s just how the game goes.
The different end-game triggers create some nice variation. Sometimes the game ends quickly because someone pushes through their rows, other times it drags a bit because players are playing cautiously. You’re always watching who is close to finishing what, because the moment someone pushes two rows to the end, the whole game gets shorter.
The B-side changes the experience a lot. Some rows feel more like logic puzzles. They can be fun, but also frustrating when a single number blocks the whole row. It’s definitely the trickier side and not everyone in our group enjoyed it as much.
Overall, it’s very multiplayer-solitaire. You’re mostly focused on your own board, with the dice pool being the only real shared bit.
Our Thoughts
For us, Clickety Clack is a neat little puzzle. Not a big showstopper, but a clever idea in a small box. The dice-clicking is fun, the rules are clear and the game has a nice pace. It doesn’t try to be more than it is, which I appreciate.
That said, the game is quite luck-sensitive. There’s no mitigation, no special actions, no clever tricks. If the dice refuse to give you something usable, you’ll feel it. Some players won’t mind this, others might get annoyed. I mean, fair enough.
The interaction is light, so if you want something more direct, this won’t scratch that itch. But if you enjoy roll-and-write puzzles where the challenge is fitting awkward numbers into tight patterns, this works well.
The A-side is accessible and has a nice flow. The B-side is interesting but also harsher. You need to commit earlier and mistakes are harder to recover from. We liked it, but some people felt it was a bit too restrictive.
In the end, Clickety Clack is a compact and sometimes surprisingly tense little puzzle. It’s quick to teach, easy to get to the table and gives you that small “oh no, why did I put that number there” moment that roll-and-write fans will recognise immediately. And, well, the click is unnecessary, but you’ll still end up doing it.
📝 We received a copy of the game from Nürnberger-Spielkarten-Verlag.
