You can tell Christmas is on the way, because my blog is filling up with toy reviews as companies try to get word out about their toys so that they end up on the best-sellers list, or at least on your kids' wishlist for Father Christmas ! The latest offering was Ka'lide, from Imagination Games, that we received once again from those lovely people at Blogmatch.
When I looked at the picture, I squealed "ooh it looks like a jazzed-up version of Shove Ha'penny". "What's Shove Ha'penny?", said Juliette. "What's a ha'penny?" said Sophie, then looked at me like I'd gone mad when I said it was half a penny, because she imagined us "in the olden days" using coins cut in half !
Well, once we'd unpacked it and started playing, it still reminded me of Shove Ha'penny but combined with Air Hockey and Lawn Bowls ! You have a long magnetic mat split up into different scoring zones. One player sits at either end and you have to slide or flick your pucks down the board, strategically trying to avoid or collide (hence the name) with your opponent's pucks to knock them out of the scoring zones or even completely off the mat.
The suggested age range is 8+ but it's a simple enough game that younger players can easily get the hang of it, even if they'll be more interested in bashing their opponent's pucks off the board than using any skill to get on the score zones !
The fact that it is all magnetic added an extra bonus educational level as the girls were amazed to see that at times, the pucks "magically" repelled a player's puck without touching it. Time to explain the opposites attract, similar poles repel theory in a fun way ! Play continued after the game, making lines of pucks magnetically stuck together move along and making pucks jump up off the mat using the magnetic force. The magnetic aspect means that it is also easy to pack away without losing the pucks as they all stick together.
I can see this simple game turning into a raucous Boxing Day laugh-a-thon when the Baileys has been brought out and tipsy grown-ups-who-should-know-better decide to try playing it with mince pies instead of pucks or adding strategically placed slices of Christmas cake as obstacles ! We'd better put all the breakables away first as the pucks will probably go flying !
star rating : 3.5/5
RRP : £19.99
for more information : http://imaginationgames.co.uk/category/games/whats-new/
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Sounds like fun, could get a bit competitive in my house
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