Sharp Shooters a board game of chance released in 1994 by Milton Bradley. It looks shiny and fancy on the outside, but under the shell there's almost no substance.
Sharp Shooters comes packaged with a plastic and green felt dice rolling area, a tray to hold the cards and the dice, a ton of chips in 10, 50 and 100 point denominations, and 32 dice. That's right, 32.
The object of the game is to garner the most points by completing sequences of dice, from left to right. Samples of the sequences include: 4 4 4, 1 2 3 4, 6 5 4 3 2, and so forth.
At the start of the game, the mountain of dice is divided equally between the players. The first player rolls five of his/her dice. After the dice have stopped rolling (and have all touched the back wall of the arena), s/he places as many of them that match with the dice on the far left into the corresponding spot on the transparent grid just above the card. The dice are placed on the tray from left to right, and every legal placement must be made, except when the player has a choice.
When a sequence is complete, points are awarded in the form of plastic chips. The amount of the points won can be anywhere from 20 to 100 (in increments of 10). However, when some sequences are complete, points are lost. The card is swapped out for a new one when all 6 sequences are complete, and the winner is determined after a predetermined number of completed cards.
In my opinion, I think the game has too much unnecessary equipment, and tries to get the player to focus on that, rather than the actual game. Couldn't the dice just be placed on the cards, rather than on a plastic tray with the cards under? And who needs all those chips? The game could just as well be played with a pencil and paper. Also, a table would work much better than a dice rolling arena.
The strategy of the game is somewhat missing. Every possible play must be made, and the strategy only comes in when there are two places to put a single die, and even then it doesn't make much of a difference.
Interestingly enough, this game won the Game of The Year award by Games Magazine in 1996. I'm confused.