Yoshimi Yahtzee is a free-to-play puzzle game from Yoshimi Games. It’s a reinvention of the classic dice game, developed for the handheld PlayDate console. Revisit the good old days with its black and white screen and pixelated graphics. You play against a computer opponent as you roll your dice to try and land certain combinations and finally scream Yahtzee.

As a PlayDate game, you can connect the console to your PC as you play Yoshimi Yahtzee for screen mirroring or use an emulator. Otherwise, you can check out Open Yahtzee, developed specifically for PCs.

Play Yahtzee on your device

Yoshimi Yahtzee is a faithful recreation of the popular dice game. In it, you aim to score points for yourself by rolling a set of five dice and coming up with any of the recognized combinations. You can roll them thrice each turn to meet the scoring objective, which changes every round. The highest-scoring combination is the five-of-a-kind, with 50 points, and the one with a higher score wins.

In terms of visuals, it feels similar to dated Game Boy titles. Graphics are pixelated and in black and white, and animations are limited. The game has a simple and streamlined layout that lets you keep track of your score and the dice rolls every round. Take note that its appearance perfectly suits the console it was designed for. For players looking for a minimalist Yahtzee game, it works.

Since this is an indie game, this is not published through the official PlayDate channels. This means that you will have to sideload the app in order to play it. However, it comes with risks of the app not deploying properly for your device. You’ll also need to update the app manually, instead of getting in-app notifications for patches and updates.

A good minimalist game

Overall, Yoshimi Yahtzee delivers a great Yahtzee experience without having to rely on fancy animations, promos and ads, and even color. Its seemingly dated appearance is because of its console, and it actually works to better create a minimalistic gaming experience. If you don’t mind manually updating the app as a sideloaded game, feel free to try this classic dice experience.