Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice! Preview

 “Hit him with the chair!” It’s not very often I yell something like that while playing a game, but a combination of the great atmosphere at the UK Games Expo, some very enthusiastic demo staff from Backspindle Games and a dice game with a large dose of silliness meant my reservations where put to one side and I delighted in the wanton glee of pins, headlocks and Luchador!

Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice! is a wrestling themed dice game currently asking for your hard earned cash on Kickstarter for its second edition. This is a preview of the second edition version of the game; a review of 1st edition will be coming soon. Now normally I caveat Kickstarter previews by saying that these are pre-production prototypes and everything could change. However, with Luchador the first version exists and the prototypes and rules for the 2nd version are all looking rather good and final.

At its heart Luchador is a simple dice rolling game; two players simultaneously roll off against each other rolling their dice into the ring. There are hits, blocks, counters and pins. The trick here is that this is also a dexterity game, as any dice that falls out of the ring isn’t counted. Luchador’s first print run contained a very simple board to represent the ring, but in the Kickstarter version, you have an actual ring, with ropes and everything. It may seem like a bit of stage dressing but it makes a big difference to the feel of the game. Your dice roll is then compared; there are hits, blocks, counters and pins. For every unopposed hit you get to roll the damage dice but you can trade two hits in for a roll of the Luchador dice, increasing the size of the damage but at the risk that you score no damage at all.

The game continues like this as you belt seven shades of spandex out of each other until you get to half health and then the mighty pin action can be used. Pinning an opponent is a quick way to win the game and requires the pinned wrestler to roll dice on the count of three.

As it stand the game is very random, and as the game’s designer Mark Rivera said in our interview, what do you expect, it’s a dice game. If you do want to be critical then Luchador is a bit short on strategic options, that is until you throw in the 2nd version characters with their combo moves. You can now lock dice to your character get the 3 dice required and your character executes their signature combo moves achieving massive damage or mega pins! But what if there are no strategic options? This game isn’t about mulling over your choices, there’s no chance to get hit by analysis paralysis (or you’ll get hit by a chair). Luchador is all about being loud, over the top and most importantly actually enjoying it.

If you already own Luchador then this Kickstarter is practically essential; it not only tarts the game up to make it even more bright and over the top but it also adds strategic options and game types. You can now have multiplayer tag-team games (where the rules make it pretty clear that you actually have to tag your opponent) and cage matches, where it’s all in and dice out of the ring count! If you don’t already own the game then I suggest you give Luchador! Mexican Wrestling Dice! a look, it’s a bright, colourful and very silly but very fun game that will have you shouting hollering and reaching for the chair.