Stats:
No. of players: 3-6
Amount of time to play: 60-90 min
Age requirements: 12+
Set-up time: 5-10 minutes

DreadBall Ultimate lets you play DreadBall with up to six players. The box also includes four giant MVPs and the Season Three rulebook.

Description of DreadBall Ultimate and Season 3:

If you’ve ever tried DreadBall and wondered what it might play like with more than two players, than wonder no longer. DreadBall Ultimate brings more teams to the pitch without adding a lot of new rules.

I am going to highlight the multi-player game, new giant MVPs and Season Three changes and additions. If you have never played DreadBall you can read my overview and review of it here. I will assume you have basic knowledge of the game in the rest of this post.

Dreadball Ultimate is played on the new rubberized mat. It has three wings that are divided in half. Each team sets up with five players in one half of a wing. You share a scoring zone with another player and also have one on your half of the wing. You cannot score in your home zone or your shared scoring zone. If you score in your opponents’ shared zone you score one or two points (depending if you score from the bonus hex) and they each lose one point. Scoring in a team’s home scoring zone gets you two or three points and that team loses one point. The game last for seven rushes or until one team scores seven points. Turn order is determined randomly and you only get three actions per rush. You automatically get a card at the beginning of each turn to help you score. It also helps that there are two balls.

The new giant MVPs act differently than your other players. They cannot sprint, move differently and count as two players on the pitch. They also cannot be knocked down, don’t need to evade and slamback better against normal-sized players. If they enter a hex occupied by a non-giant player they may brush them aside.

The Season Three rulebook adds the rules for giant MVPs, four new DreadBall teams and three new non-giant MVPs. There are also some new rules and errata to be aware of. The biggest rule change is launching the ball. You no longer must catch a launched ball or lose your rush. In fact you are more likely to be hit by the ball and it might hurt you or it will just scatter. The Judwan from Season Two have had a stat change. Their speed is now 4+ instead of 3+. There is a new fouls for hogging the ball and the stall foul has been amended. A ball hog foul occurs if there is no clear path to the player with the ball. The stall foul now extends to the four hexes adjacent to the entry hex.

A Quick Review of DreadBall Ultimate and Season Three:

There are a lot of fun things in the DreadBall Ultimate box. The Season Three rulebook, giant MVPs and multi-player game all add some fun and interesting elements to the game.

The components in the box are excellent. The giants look great and the rubberized multi-player pitch is a work of art. The cards are nicer than those in the base game and the chits are comparable to those in the base game. The two balls are just cardboard chits, but you should have two balls from the base game. The Season Three rules contain reference sheets you can download and they really help when explaining the game.

I have to say I am impressed with the multi-player game. The see-sawing of points matches the two-player game and with just three actions you feel pressed to do as much as you can on your turn. DreadBall Ultimate has a similar feel to the original game and can create some really funny and memorable moments.

It is not perfect though. I think the two-player game is superior. Don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t refuse a game of Ultimate, but it has a gang up on the leader mechanic. It also can help you to go last and unlike the two-player game there can be downtime if there is no action near you players.

The giant MVPs are cool to play every now and again, but I don’t like the amount of new rules they have. I doubt I’d add them to my league, but using them in Ultimate for a Pro Bowl type game seems fun. They can also be fun in one-off games with experienced players.

The new rules improve the game and it is nice to see Mantic paying attention to and adjusting the rules based on their players’ experiences. The new teams look like a lot of fun to play and add more variety to the game (especially in leagues).

DreadBall Ultimate is for you, if you are a fan of DreadBall. I still am really enjoying this game and am starting a league at work. The option to play bigger games every now and again is great and I believe that everything in the box adds some fun things to DreadBall.

Score and synopsis: (Click here for an explanation of these review categories.)
Strategy 3 out of 6
Luck 4 out of 6
Player Interaction 5 out of 6
Replay Value 5 out of 6
Complexity 4 out of 6
Fun 6 out of 6
Overall 6 out of 6

My overall rating is for the DreadBall Ultimate box. The multi-player game would rate a 5 on its own. But everything the contents of the box adds pushes this to a 6.