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GamesRadar+ Verdict
With a laser-focus on clever time travel mechanics, Back to the Future: Dice Through Time is an excellent co-op adventure that will suit families very well. It doesn't feel like a rushed tie-in, either; great care and thought has been put into this ode to the classic movies.
Pros
- +
Intelligent time travel mechanics
- +
Great co-op experience
- +
Straightforward, but with just the right amount of complexity
Cons
- -
Harder than you might expect
- -
It's not replayable enough to keep you going for the long-term
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October 28, 2025: This review was originally published in 2020, but has now been updated to match our current format with a new ratings table and more bite-size sections for easier browsing.
Back to the Future: Dice Through Time has finally given us an explanation as to why 2020 was so awful - and it's all Biff Tannen's fault. After hijacking the DeLorean, he's stolen a boot full of items and dumped them across time and space like the good-for-nothing hooligan he is. If they're not put back in their correct place, all of history is doomed and the space-time continuum will explode. Or implode. Or something. Either way, it's bad. Great Scott indeed.
Back to the Future: Dice Through Time features & design
Price | $30 / £25 |
Ages | 10+ |
Game type | Dice rolling |
Players | 2 - 4 |
Complexity | Moderate |
Lasts | 45-60mins |
Designers | Ken Franklin, Chris Leder, Kevin Rodgers |
Publisher | Ravensburger |
Play if you like | Back to the Future: Back in Time, Jaws, The Goonies: Never Say Die |
- Family-friendly team game
- Return items Biff has stolen to their correct time
- Match dice-rolls to succeed
As is only right for a board game based on these movies, the process is unique and just a little discombobulating. Rather than using a traditional board where you move along a predetermined path to the finish, Back to the Future: Dice Through Time has you hopping between eras to secure and return all the items Biff has filched. Like Doc Brown himself said, "you're gonna see some serious shit..." but in the best possible way.
Designed for two to four players, Back to the Future: Dice Through Time's board has four horizontal time streams - 1885, 1955, 1985, and 2015. Every item Biff has stolen will be spread between them, but iconic events from the movie (such as Marty and Biff's skateboard chase) must be cleared before you can collect each one. You do this by matching dice rolls to the symbols for each event. So far, so simple.
Will it stay that way? Like heck it will. Unfortunately, you're fighting against the clock. You'll be forced to contend with an 'Outatime' tracker during your adventure, and this spells game over if it's ever completely filled.
That's all too easy. The number of spaces it advances is dictated by the timestream with the most events in it, which then creates Paradox tokens that make things even worse. As a result, you've got to juggle returning items with clearing events if you don't want to lose. It's an intense yet fun experience that demands good communication between you and your teammates; every decision has to count, like a friendlier Pandemic. This means it's a contender for the best family board games.
It's a vibrant and colorful experience too. Rather than reusing screenshots from the movie or slavishly recreating it, Dice Through Time utilizes an eye-catching minimalist design. The likes of its DeLorean tokens are far more detailed than I'd expected too, so the overall quality of this game is better than you may expect.
Gameplay
- 'Rippling' dice through time is a novel touch
- The perfect blend of theme and mechanics
- A little harder than expected
While the Paradox and split timeline mechanics are cool, that's not the best bit. Instead, certain dice rolls allow you to jump between time-streams. You can also 'ripple' dice across time. This means that you can leave dice you don't need for someone in another era to use when clearing events.
Appropriately, this time travel element is where the game shines. It's really rather clever; it hangs mechanics on the franchise's more abstract ideas to maximum effect.
As you'd expect from such a beloved franchise, this isn't the only tie-in out there - you can also grab Back to the Future: Back in Time by the excellent Prospero Hall (a team responsible for many big-hitters, including Disney Villainous). This one's more of a classic retelling, and is usually pretty cheap at Amazon.
That's true in more ways than one. Back to the Future: Dice Through Time embraces time travel complications and makes smart use of them in gameplay. For example, you cannot land on a space with another player - your past or future 'self' - because it creates an anomaly and advances the Outatime marker straight away. Seeing as you may have to share a space with players if you want to return all those items, it's a good way of upping the stakes.
The same is true of rippling dice. It's a tradeoff; you may help players in other eras, but you then have less dice to roll for yourself in future turns.
This makes Back to the Future: Dice Through Time complex enough to keep you engaged, but not overly complicated - you'll learn your way around quickly enough. In fact, the only criticism I had was that it ended up being a bit harder than expected.
Should you buy Back to the Future: Dice Through Time?
Dice Through Time has a laser-focus on unique concepts that have been polished to perfection, and I can wholeheartedly recommend it as a result. There are other Back to the Future board games on shelves, but this one stands out for all the right reasons.
Ratings
Criteria | Notes | Score |
|---|---|---|
Game mechanics | It won't necessarily become a staple of your game nights, but it's very well done. | 4/5 |
Accessibility | This game sits somewhere in the middle of the table in terms of complexity. | 3/5 |
Replayability | You'll enjoy playing this every now and then, but I don't think it's gonna hold up to lots of repeat visits. | 2.5/5 |
Setup and pack-down | Putting everything together is easy even if you've not played for ages, and putting it all away is just as straightforward. | 4/5 |
Component quality | I'm genuinely impressed at the quality of this one's tokens, cards, and artwork. | 5/5 |
Buy it if...
Don't buy it if...
How we tested Back to the Future: Dice Through Time
This review was conducted using a sample provided by the publisher.
After familiarizing myself with the rules at length, I played test sessions of Back to the Future: Dice Through Time with my family - some of whom are fans of the franchise, while others aren't. As noted in the GamesRadar+ review policy and our guide to how we test board games, such hands-on experience is vital to our testing process.
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