For a while now I've been wanting to start doing some reviews on this blog. I thought it would be fun for the kids, and fun for me as well! I sent out a notice to a bunch of toy companies, inviting them to check out my blog. One of the first to respond was R&R Games. They sent us a package of games to check out!
I've decided to dole out the games one by one, so the kids don't get overwhelmed or start feeling like playing games is work. (Because playing should be fun, obviously!) You can expect to see more game reviews in the coming week.
When the package came, I knew right away which one I was going to show the kids first: Hide & Seek Safari® - Tiger - DELUXE edition! This is a game that includes a toy tiger and two wands with sensors in them. One person hides the tiger, and the others use the wands to help them find it. The closer a person gets to the hidden tiger, the more lights on the wand light up green. When you're standing very close and pointing your wand right in the direction of where the tiger is hidden, your wand will start to beep! I knew this active and novel game was right up Little Bear's and Rafael's alley!
The first problem I had with this toy was that I could not, for the life of me, get the batteries installed. The battery compartments have to be unscrewed, which should be easy, but for some reason it was insanely difficult! I got the tiger's battery compartment open eventually. I had to wait until Sarah got home from school, and ask her to help me try to open the battery compartments on the wands. She couldn't do it either! Finally I just took a butter knife, pried the compartments open, inserted the batteries, and used shipping tape to tape them shut. I don't know if I'm just a numbskull, or what, but the battery-installation process was extremely frustrating!
It was all worthwhile, though, once Sarah and I showed the game to the kids. It was very easy to teach them how to work the wands and how to play! We made the kids stay in the playroom with the door shut, while we hid the tiger. Then we opened the door to release them, and they raced to find it! I captured this video of them playing.
(Note to self: Do not hide tiger in hanging plant!)
Little Bear and Rafael love this game, and they've been playing it every day after school! They like it best when Sarah or I hide the tiger for them, instead of them taking turns hiding it for each other. They don't really keep score or anything... for them its just one frantic race around the house after another. Both of them really need to be active and stay stimulated as much as possible, so this game really works for them.
I thought of all sorts of other ways of playing, too, to make the game more challenging. You could keep score, giving each player a point whenever he is the first one to find the tiger. Two people could play against each other by taking turns hiding the tiger, and by timing how long it takes for the other person to find it and trying to beat the other person's time. You could buy extra wands so that multiple people could race against each other to find it... if everyone's wands were lighting up and beeping, it would be a real foot race! You could even buy extra animals for large groups of people. I imagined it being a great activity for a youth group... the adults could hide several animals around an entire church or school building, and kids could break into partners or small groups and compete to find all of the animals. It would even make a great ice-breaker game for adults at a seminar or business meeting or something!
This game is perfect for school-aged kids. But once Little Bear and Rafael had called it quits today after about an hour of playing, Pufferfish jumped at the opportunity to try it out for herself! For her, I kept the game much more simple. I stayed in one small area of the house, and put the tiger in pretty much plain sight each time. I also had to give her a lot of guidance, by saying things like, "Oh, look, your stick is lighting up! It must mean the tiger is somewhere over this way!" (Otherwise she would just wildly swing the wand around without even looking at it!) But she loved playing, and was overjoyed whenever she found the tiger!
Pufferfish enjoyed hiding the tiger for me, too... but she wasn't the best hider! She tended to just set it in the middle of the room, and when I went to look for it, she'd race ahead of me and point it out. "I found it! It's right there!" she'd shout. Then, once, when it was my turn to hide the tiger, I put it on top of the toilet. Pufferfish thought that was so funny that, afterwards, she kept hiding the tiger in that same spot every time it was her turn! I had to prompt her, "Hide it in the living room this time, okay?"
THE FINAL REVIEW
Positive Aspects: It is an active game that is great for kids who have trouble sitting still for a traditional game. It is easy to adapt the game and the rules for different age groups and group sizes. There are only three pieces in the deluxe set, making it very easy to clean up! It is very novel... I have never heard of a similar game, and the kids really loved using the wands. It can be played indoors or out, in one room or throughout an entire building. It is easy to bring from place to place, since it's only a few pieces! You don't have to be able to read or have any other skills to play the game. In fact, technically, since the wands use both lights and beeps to show you when you're close to the tiger, this game can even be played by people who have trouble seeing or hearing!
Negative Aspects: The only negative thing I could find about this game was the trouble I had putting the batteries in. Another negative aspect might be that the Deluxe Set comes with only two wands, and the regular set comes with one wand, which would make it hard for larger families to play together unless they either broke into teams or bought more wands.
The kid who likes it the most: Rafael! He starts asking if we can play it, as soon as I pick him up from school!
We rate it: A+!
Wow.
It's like Hide and Seek, only it has an interesting toy to go with it.
Breaking into teams would be good. I can see it adapted as a school game on that principle.
And it's good it can be played by people who have trouble seeing or hearing.
Posted by: Adelaide | October 09, 2009 at 01:16 AM
Sounds like a fun game for kids. I'll be on the look out for it.
Posted by: CorrieHwe | October 09, 2009 at 01:56 PM