Game Review

Concept:

Combine musical chairs, cake walks, and some funky dancing -- then watch the kids have fun.

Gameplay:

There are 16 pads that are laid on the floor in any pattern you choose. They should be a very short distance apart -- especially for little kids.

Players start by stepping on a purple "Cranium" pad. The game unit is turned on. Players listen to the instructions from the game unit.

When the game unit yells "Freeze!" all players stop on the pad they are currently standing on. The game unit will then announce a particular pad's name -- if any players are standing on that pad, they win! The winner is then asked to dance, take a bow, shout "oogety-boogety!" or something equally silly.

More than one player may be on a single pad at any time.

Some typical instructions form the game unit are:

• Spin to... a food

• Stomp to... an animal

• Crawl to... a musical instrument

• Touch a ...green pad... with your nose AND... touch a triangle with your elbow...

Games can be as short as two instructions and up to several minutes in duration. After about 10 minutes, the game unit will ask the players to press a button if they want to keep playing.

Click here for a MPEG clip of part of a game! (464k)

Winning Conditions:

• Any player on the specified pad at the end of a game, wins.

Our Opinion:

For kids ages 2-8 this game is great...older than that, and you'll probably have touble getting them to play at first. Luckily for us, we have a 2 year old... she ADORES this game.

The game is simple for kids to play. It's biggest drawback is that it does go a little fast for younger kids to keep pace -- but our 2 year old manages to keep up most of the time. Our biggest concern for kids playing this game is that there are so many opportunities for collisions (mostly in fun ways) that if you have a group of children prone to fighting, this game will increase the chances of a fight breaking out.

We did note that this game could be turned into a very humorous drinking game for adults. (Make all of the losers drink each game -- and maybe add some house rules to drink when someone has to touch a type of pad.) A group of drunk college students could have a blast with this game. (I'm not recommending buying this game to get drunk, but the possibilty is a good one.)

Standard disclaimer: Don't drink and drive...

This is a good game for little kids. Play is fun and fair. It encourages sillyness and burns off excess energy. It's definitely a hit for the younger crowd.

Where to buy:

Any local toy or game store -- it cost about $20-30.