Dice+

Board games take up a lot of space. I don't have much room for those big, bulky boxes, and it doesn’t help that the tiny pieces are all so easy to lose. In the same way that my ereader helped curb the growth of my physical bookshelves, tablets have helped keep my office from being overrun with board games. Unfortunately, the shift to digital means you lose some of that tactile fun.

Dice+ is a new Bluetooth-enabled die that aims to bridge that gap. It offers a physical way to interact with digital board games — and it does so without all of the clutter. It even has a few features that could create brand-new experiences, like numbers that change color and an accelerometer that turns it into a motion controller. In theory it has the potential to offer the best of both worlds, and it’s a solid, if pricey, piece of hardware.

But the current crop of games supported by Dice+ doesn’t do much to showcase that potential. Instead, they offer up largely familiar experiences made slightly more interesting thanks to a flashy new toy.