Mini Labyrinth Game

Finally, a real version of the Labyrinth game I was talking about from a past post about the Labyrinth Game Challenger similar to the board game Operation. That one needed a metal rod to navigate the Labyrinth where coming in contact with the sides produced a light or sound. Unlike that interesting yet lame version of Labyrinth, leave it to Dollarama to stock what I was actually thinking about. This labyrinth game requires tilting the board to get the ball from the starting point to the finish without it falling into one of the holes along the way. You have two balls. Some Labyrinth boards allow you to tilt the actual playing field to navigate, but Labyrinth has a couple of knobs on the side the player turns to tilt the playing field. The Labyrinth game is only 8cm by 7cm so the playing field is a little less than that. It’s a mini one, about the size of a Nintendo DS screen, but should still be good assuming it actually works. Smaller than what you see on the screen. This Labyrinth game is going to be a big challenge because of all the holes. Wait a minute – not all of those dark spots on the playing field are holes. Of the 37 dark spots on the Labyrinth board, only 9 of them are actual holes where you can lose. The rest are just dark spots that you are supposed to go around while following the dotted line from start to finish. What was their reasoning on that one? It was only a dollar, so let’s only have 9 holes? If they want a real challenge, pay more? Sure, you are supposed to follow the path but who is going to say “Gee I rolled over the dark spot, better start over”. Not gonna happen. Make it fall in a hole if you want me to lose. You might confuse them for a real hole at first and think “Oh crap, a hole, better go around” until you realize they are smaller than the real holes and really just cheat circles. I guess they just expect you to use the honor system, stopping if you screw up. Why else would you have cheat circles on there? The red circles are the real holes, the black circles are just painted on. If you read the other post, you will remember I looked up what a Labyrinth actually is and found that it is not just another word for maze....

Labyrinth Game Challenger

Ok, when I first saw this thing I thought it was like one of those other Labyrinth games with the ball in the maze. You know, the ones where you tilt the sides to navigate the ball through the maze while avoiding holes. At a first glance, I saw it only has one path and I thought it was the most pathetic version of a labyrinth game, even for a dollar store toy. It was only when I took a closer look that I noticed that it was actually like the game Operation – the game that made the phrase “Don’t touch the sides” famous. “Let’s have a labyrinth competition” I was curious about the exact definition of labyrinth, so I looked it up. I figured it was just another term for a maze but was surprised to find that a labyrinth consists of only one path. I guess you learn something new everyday. This package tries to show how much fun kids will have with it and it’s always a joke. One of the kids wants to have a labyrinth competition. It comes with the playing field (in different colors to wow your friends) and a metallic pointer you use to navigate the playing field. The labyrinth unit isn’t even called labyrinth, it’s Game Challenger. What it does not come with is some necessary batteries to operate the light and/or sound you get when you lose. Just don’t get the batteries from dollar stores. Kids say the darndest things Labyrinth works the same way Operation does in that if you touch the sides you lose. According to the instructions “If you touch the sides, it will produce a sound or a light, you must restart”. Produce either a sound OR a light? What if you are hard of hearing or deaf and the game chooses the sound over the light? You wouldn’t know you lost. Well, time to go find some batteries and test this thing out. Since all the bells and whistles accompanied the loss, the first thing I did was lose on purpose. With sounds like death rays and grenades being launched and blowing up, I was not sure what kind of labyrinth I was in. I don’t think David Bowie dealt with grenades and death rays. It really sounds like something from Atari games and both the light and sounds go off when you lose. Well there you have it, the labyrinth game challenger. The game that’s more exciting when you lose rather than win....

Mini Magnetic Dart Game

This post is going to be fun considering not long ago magnetic dart boards took a hit as a recent toy recall. Not that I am trying to recommend dollar store toys to anyone anyway. I am making fun of them. Besides, this was not the one to be recalled(yet). Anyway, the issue with the magnetic darts is the magnets at the end of the darts were coming off and presenting a hazard to kids who are prone to putting small things in their mouths. This pretty much includes all kids(magnetic darts are much safer than their stabby cousins huh). Although, this is kind of odd since even a toy dart board is not meant for a young child and any child using the dart board would probably be within range of being smart about not putting things in their mouth. But I suppose they might have younger siblings to watch out for. And here I am with a set of magnetic darts and a dart board. The front of the case makes reference to including three safe darts. They may be safe if you get hit by one, compared to a sharp metal point, but not when the magnets come off the darts and those magnets are swallowed. The dart board opens up to a nice decent looking board with a pink, blue and yellow dart stuck in the sleeve of the case. Unfortunately, there is no locking of game board when you open it. This means you won’t be able to set it up and play anywhere. It has to be propped up against a wall or something so it doesn’t fall back when the darts hit. If you have never played real darts before, the instructions are on the back of the case. It will probably take some time to get used to throwing the darts and hitting the mini dart board. The darts are about as long as a kid’s finger. If you look at the picture on the left, you can see the darts on the board. The blue is on the bullseye. The darts themselves actually stick with the magnets on the end. Sadly, I figured they would. But I guess if you are going to ignore the warnings about magnetic darts, at least you know this one...

Frisbee Game

This has been one long winter. Just when it starts to warm up and the snow starts to melt, it gets cold again and another foot of snow gets dumped on us. One way to beat the winter blues is to imagine yourself somewhere warm. I was saving for the summer to post, but I need a winter pick me up. Thinking of being out in the nice weather tossing a flying disc around is definitely better than the 6 foot tall snow banks at the end. The frisbee game is “the happy game with a throw and catch”. Actually, it’s just a part plastic and rubber frisbee, but don’t count it out yet! When you play the game “you will get some physical training and boundless delight from the game”. They know what they’re talking about! With the way a frisbee flies, you are bound to get walking in just to get it. You’ll be happy to know it comes in green to! But, what’s that on the top of the frisbee? It’s none other than the Enterprise D from Star Trek The Next Generation! In fact, the whole thing reminds me of the Star Trek Enterprise opening. You have the space shot, the astronauts, the shuttle and of course an Enterprise. So, when you put aside the Enterprise, astronauts, shuttles and space, how well does it work? Well, I did not try it out. It’ll probably get lost in a snow drift or something. There are enough of them around. I’ll wait till summer arrives and all the snow is melted. It’s a drag I will only get some exercise but I am looking forward to the delight without boundaries. Oh come on, even for one of the dollar store toys, it probably works. Too bad there were no dollar store...

Flip Puzzle

Here is a nice little toy game I picked up from a Dollarama in my town for all you intellectuals out there. It’s a puzzle game with 2 sides where you are supposed to match the colored balls with the same color slots. Kind of like a Rubik’s Cube, only 2D, these balls remind me of the gumballs you could get at the corner store or out of the gumball machines. There is one ball left out on purpose to allow the balls to be repositioned. Flip to side 2 and press play The package taunts me “Are you ready for the challenge”? I was born ready for this challenge. Ok here we go, out of the package, in my hands and I am ready for the challenge of the flip puzzle. The instructions are as follows: “Try to match all balls into the same color zone on both sides” So I have to unsolve it before I solve it? Why? Well that’s it, mission accomplished. I have to say, that was way too easy. If this were a video game, it would probably have statistics like how long it took to finish and how many times it was turned to finish. No one will ever beat my best score of 0 seconds and 0 turns. They probably should have mixed it up before putting it in the package so I would not have to actually mess with it before trying to solve it. The ideal finished product is already done. It’s like getting one of those puzzles with like 1000 pieces but it is already made with the instructions “separate all pieces and then put back together”. I am going to have to mix the colors so I can actually attempt to get the colors where they are supposed to be. I wonder if those Rubiks Cube experts could do this one? Now that it is out of order, there is little chance it will ever look as nice as it did before it was used. I was never really good at the Rubik’s Cube. The only way I could ever win those was when they were made with the colored stickers and you could take them apart. I would just take out all the pieces and put them back in until all the sides were the same color and say I won. Trying to fiddle with this puzzle game is really irritating. You need to see the side that has the missing ball but at the same...