We're always a little nervous when we hear about a 'first'. Getting to the top of Mount Everest first, yes. Being the first person to be sentenced to more than 1000 years of jail time? Well, that's a first that doesn't equate to winning. The 'first' that applies to new game Square Shooters is that this is 'The First Deck of Cards on Dice'. We've had poker dice before, of course, but now you get all 52 playing cards, one on each face of nine dice. Mathematicians amongst you will have spotted that this total leaves us two faces short. Conveniently enough, those left-overs are for the two jokers, giving you access to the raw tools you need for thousands of card games in dice form.

As you'd hope, the dice themselves are of very good quality, making a pleasing 'thunk' as they roll across your green velvet gambling saloon table (results for formica may vary.) There's some stupidly complicated math going on in how the dice are aligned, and the design has been patented, but we're reliably informed that it's possible to generate every possible straight flush, royal flush, four of a kind, and a ton of full houses.

You can tell from this that there's a whole wild west poker vibe to the whole thing, and that's fine, but in addition to the main Square Shooters game, you're getting a portable gaming system to use how you see fit. The main game itself, though, is enough to showcase both the benefits and the pitfalls of the system. The object is to gain more chips than your opponents over a series of eight rounds. In each, you're given a target hand to reach across three throws of the dice. If you make the basic target - let's say two pairs - you'll get two chips from the bank (100 small plastic chips are included. Not proper poker chips, but there.) However, if you can get a specific hand - in this case the 7 of Spades, 7 of Diamonds, Queen of Clubs and Queen of Hearts - then you can double up to 4 chips.

These target cards are attractive enough, and look like they'll stand up to reasonable wear and tear. In addition, there are a series of wild cards which freshen the game up. Quick Draw lets you benefit from another player's good hand, Double Draw lets you double your winnings, Joker cards do exactly what you're thinking they do, and then there's the Shootout, where two players go toe to toe, with the winner stealing 6 chips from the vanquished.

The whole package comes in a practical drawstring bag which makes it ideal for sticking into the bottom of a laptop bag while traveling, into a suitcase for holidays, or just taking up a small corner in one of your gaming cupboards.

Just like poker dice before it, and indeed many other 'Yachtzee- style dice games, there's an issue that Square Shooters can't get round, however clever the math behind the card positioning on the dice. If you're going to play the game as a competent player, as soon as you've rolled for the first time, you're going to be picking up all the dice to see what are on the other faces, working out whether it's possible to get certain combinations according to which dice you save from the first roll.

'OK, so I'll keep the two nines, and the two fours towards my full house. Oh, but one of the nines is on a dice with one of the fours, so I'll actually take the two sevens. Oh, but there's a joker on the dice with one of my nines. Perhaps I'll keep the sevens and the fours...'

This isn't great fun to do, and isn't great fun to watch. That said, there's plenty of laughter when someone says, 'OK, so I need any four, any seven, any nine, or any joker, from these six dice' and then doesn't get them. In that sense, the feel of a fun game of poker has been captured.

In a way, you're not buying Square Shooters for the game itself, you're buying into the system. In addition to the main game, there are several other suggestions in the rules booklet, and more at the company website www.squareshooters.com. We played it with a mixed age range, and it was a good 'warm-up' kind of game, the sort of thing you play for twenty minutes at the start of Game Night while you wait for the one who's running late to turn up.

It's another 'first' then, and while it may not be quite in the realm of scaling Mount Everest, this is certainly a first worth checking out.