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February 19-25 is National Pancake Week! I don’t know about your family but mine will be not only enjoying eating pancakes but playing with them too. Play with your food? Yes, that’s right! But there will be no sticky messes. We’ll be taking full advantage by playing the Pancake Pile-Up!™ Relay Game which is one of the newest products offered by Educational Insights! Continue reading
As a family that loves to play games of all kinds, we are always on the look out for those with very big playability factors. And as a homeschooling Mom, any game I can use in the classroom to educate my two children is usually a winner! This year Learning Resources released the game Riddle Moo This! and gave us an opportunity to try it out and I couldn’t be happier with the result of that.
Riddle Moo This is a game recommend for children ages 5 and up that focuses improving and enhancing vocabulary as well as reasoning skills. The game itself is very appealing to my kids ages almost 5 and 2 years old. My kids are pretty keen on games and sometimes really surprise me with how much they already know (especially my two year old whiz of a son). They totally loved the farm animal theme and the quick pace of Riddle Me Moo and have asked to play it over and over again!
The contents of this game included four generously sized different colored buzzers that each make their own sound such as a dog, horse, cow, and a rooster. The sounds ensure when you play you’ll be able to recognize who buzzes in first with the correct answer! Do note that each buzzer takes 2 AAA batteries that are not included. Also these buzzers can be pretty loud if not placed directly on the table! My kids tended to love the buzzers a lot and were pretty excited about using them during game play and even when it was over!
There are 150 double-sided riddle cards featuring 300 word clues total. There are two different colors of cards, the blue for a harder level of play and the red for easier which features more age-appropriate common nouns . You can choose to just use one color set or you can mix them to make things more interesting. There’s also an advantage to any player that picks up a Barnteaser card which challenges a child even more by making up their own riddle by excluding one of the clues on that card! Goal is first person that correctly answers 10 riddles correctly wins but if you wanted too, you could mix things up to your liking.
This game is a total of four players and there will need to be reader of the cards which could be a parent, teacher, or another child. The kids could even take turns being the reader. Storing this game is a breeze. The box is very durable and the buzzers and game cards sit snugly inside without shifting around. Just be sure not to turn the box upside down or you might have a mess of cards when you take it out to play again.
Overall, we really enjoy the game and are looking forward to lots more use of it. Any brain boosting game that my kids can excited about and can be challenged by in improving their vocabulary and thinking skills is a total winner!
Want it? You can purchase Riddle Me Moo at Learning Resources or on Amazon.com for $27.95.
-Win it!-
Guest Review written by Justin Lowmaster (a.k.a The Husband)
I’ll have to be honest as say I was a bit nonplussed when I started playing 101-in-1 Explosive Megamix. The first mini-game involved using the wiimote to grab a basketball in a 2d sideways view and toss it into the hoop. This is on the same system where I can use motion controls to mimic throwing a real basketball into a hoop in 3d. Many of the games have similar controls schemes. It wasn’t until I unlocked a puzzle game that I found one I really liked. There’s a grid of pipes and there’s oil flowing according to certain rules and you have to anticipate which oil derrick it will exit from. I enjoyed that one.
I didn’t have time to unlock all the games for the review, but the unlocking system provides replay value. The first few games are automatically unlocked. The rest you can buy with points you earn. Any points you gain while playing any game go into a point pool, win or lose. This allows you to play a game as much as you want to unlock more games, without having to master each game, if you happen to dislike one. But if you match or surpass the point threshold of any specific game you get bonus points.
There are a variety of games types and I found a few more I enjoyed while unlocking the ones I did. I do wish the games gave you a clue as to game genre before unlocking it, such as Puzzle, or Sports, or Action, etc.
Some of the games are played will using the wiimote, while others are a bit difficult to play with the wiimote. The games themselves are good mini games and would be fun to pass some time in line, or waiting for things, but one tends to not take a Wii on the go with them. I would recommend you get this game on a DS or Android or iOS or other device before you get it for the Wii. I downloaded the game free for my Nexus S and played some of the same games on there, and I preferred it. The advantage of the Wii version (or other paid version) would be the lack of ads. Something to consider.
Overall, I’d rate this game good, just take into account the platforms you can play it on before paying for the game. You can see a video of the game for yourself here and if you are interested in learning more, check out the game site here.
Disclaimer: I received the above product mentioned for review as a member of the Game Review Network. No compensation was received.
One US winner will get the chance to win Learning Resources | Smart Snacks® Counting Cookies™. Winner will be chosen on July 31st, 2011. If you missed my review, you can read it here.
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Giveaway running till 07/31/11 . Winners will be notified shortly afterward by email. Please respond within 48 hours or you forfeit your prize to another participant.
DISCLAIMER: My thoughts are mine own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any compensation for hosting this giveaway or review other than the sample above mentioned.
