Battroborg Warrior Battle Arena- Knight vs Viking  , fun for the whole family
937885
Setup is not as easy as other toys. The warriors need to be charged before use. That said once powered up the pay off is worth it. There's a video at the top left of this page that demonstrates how the warriors move in relationship to the controllers.  The learning curve is a bit steep . The one thing  that cost it a five star rating was the size of the warriors. Game play would be more exciting if they were bigger. Perhaps it's a matter of stability , but it's the one disappointment. The packaging states 6 + ,. Personally I think that's a little young but I guess it depends on the child. These are fun for adults as well. One thing to keep in mind is that it requires eight batteries. If you loved Rock-em Sock-em Robots this is a high tech improvement, that will teach hand eye co-ordination as well. Also available in  Samurai Vs Ninja. Recommended!
1887241
Very Enjoyable, it is purely a multiplayer game with no campaign mode, just some npc training missions. With that said it is a game with star wars battles on a massive scale, what's not to like. You can play as some of the coolest Star Wars characters from lore. I'm still thrilled every time I find a hero vehicle pickup and I get to fly the Millennium Falcon! Don't hesitate to hit the buy button, at $10 you can't go wrong. There will be a season pass that you can purchase for $30 for all the xpacs but it is not necessary by any means, most of the battles are taking place on the core game. Although the xpacs are awesome when there's enough players on the weekends.
1737899
My daughter (7) said "mom when we are fighting just make us play this game because we both love it and will stop fighting then."  My son (4) loved the fast action.  They were able to customize their battle guys, put it together with no help, and reset it alone.  All a big plus for a busy parent!  The negatives were the marbles bounce everywhere and were difficult to maintain in the arena.  I was also worried about the marbles hitting one of the kids during the battle -- my husband said he felt like they needed safety goggles.  The game is loud but the loads of laughter during the battles made it a definite plus at our house! The price seems a little high for the quality of the product but if you could get it on sale I would say its worth it.  Thanks to Hasbro for allowing us the opportunity to try this game free and thanks to chatterbox/houseparty for allowing us a forum to share our experience.
1332440
This is one of the better "Gauntlet clones" that I've played recently. It combines simple action rpg elements with simple town building. It's meant to be played in 30 minutes or to over 4 hours, depending on play style and options used. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

I really like the graphics and art. The graphics remind me of Darkstone, the art reminds me a little bit of The Temple of Elemental Evil and even Icewind Dale. The music is standard fantasy, you've heard it all before in other games, but I like that kind of music, and this music is great. I won't be putting it on mute anytime soon!

Character customization is lacking. I enjoy customizing my character, but all that I get to choose here is a name, portrait, and class. There isn't that many portraits to choose from, just a few for each race, but there is a good variety of classes. There is also a good variety of models. Some are fatter than others, some have short hair and some have long hair, there are white people and black people. You just can't pick when creating your character(ex. a courtesan will always be skinny, a brawler will always be bigger. Can't make a skinny brawler. However, skin color is based on portrait used).

The city building part of the game is a lot of fun. From deciding which guys you want in your town, which buildings to upgrade, and where to place your buildings. Having to manage food, search the map for resources for the town, and defending the town against attackers. Some buildings even have more than one upgrade option. Starting out by yourself and building a town from nothing is part of the fun.

Combat is just the basic old style of action rpg. You raise your attack and defense as you fight, gain levels and raise stats and gain new skills, find new armor, weapons and items, left click the mouse to attack till the monsters fall down. Even though it's just like it was years ago, it's still fun here. They even made it easier for you, with auto equipping and using as few left clicks as possible. Having people in town auto-equip and the auto-sorting makes things so much easier. If I have someone in my town guarding it against attackers, I don't have to worry about making sure they equip newly made weapons and armor, they do it themselves, freeing me up to continue my adventure for loot and resources.

Something else that I like, is the ability to take your townspeople and have them fight with you. Take the priest out of his church and have him fight with you, healing you in battle. Or take the farmer from their field and slap some armor on them. You can have up to 3 npc's fight with you. I enjoy the challenge of creating an all female town. Because men and women will come to your town looking to build, I always have to kick the men out, waiting for more women to show up.

The interface is just perfect. Everything is made easy. Looting monsters and from chests takes a split second, selling is as easy as pressing shift and left clicking, there's auto-sorts and auto-equips, the menus are all easily accessed and any important information is just a single left click away. It truly makes an rpg and town building easy.

I would love a game like this with more depth. There are no dungeons to enter, you can only explore above ground. Entering dungeons, having more detailed quests, and having a more robust economy side would have made this game lots better. As a casual action rpg with town building in it, I don't see how it could get any better on the casual side.

A note about the DRM used. There isn't any. There's no cd key. The game cd doesn't need to be in the drive to play.

5 stars overall: The game plays smooth on my medium range computer. The game only crashed once in 10 hours of play. When I opened up the game after the crash, the game was saved right when it crashed. I don't have to worry about losing gameplay in case it crashes. That's a big plus!

5 stars for fun: After 10 hours I'm still enjoying playing it. It's so simple, yet so addictive.
2262555
Oh, my gosh!! I bought a Wii system for our family for Christmas and my daughter and I are still waiting to try it out!! My husband and son are holding it hostage.  Chief among the hostages is - you guessed it - Lego Batman.  We got the system up and running 3 days after Christmas and my nearly 6 year old son and ??? husband didn't stop playing it except to sleep (under threat of serious injury from wife and mom) for another 3 days.  They absolutely love the game.  All I can say is if you want to see your children and your spouse, you better skip this one.  The games are great, the graphics fantastic, and the story line must be something else too.  Buy it and you won't be sorry - except for course if you were hoping to play it yourself.
3166458
My kids had a blast playing with the bomber battle set! I could hear them yelling and challenging each other to see who would be the ultimate winner. The game is sturdy and well made. I even tried the launcher and found myself laughing along with the kids. I would definitely recommend adding this to anyone's Christmas list.
2698496
I first played this game to humor my Legomaniac 12-year-old brother, who got Minotaurus for Christmas. Well, 15 minutes later, Minotaurus was my new favorite game. We literally played back-to-back games for hours with friends (ages 12 to 26, both guys and girls), often pairing up so that eight people could play on the four teams, because everybody wanted to play!

Set-up was fairly simple and took only five to ten minutes. The game offers multiple versions (there are plenty of variations explained online as well) and the rules are very simple. The most basic version is played in this way:

Each player attempts to move all three of his men from the corners of the labyrinth to the colored zones in the middle. The first to get all three players through the labyrinth wins. Players must navigate immovable green hedges and gray walls while avoiding the Minotaur. When a player rolls a gray tile, he may move a gray wall from and to any place on the board, to block opponents or even to place a barrier between his own men and the dreaded Minotaur. When a player rolls a black tile, he takes the Minotaur from the center of the board and moves him 8 spaces in any direction; if the Minotaur encounters another player's warrior within that distance, that warrior must return to his starting position. In a variation, the die may include a green tile, which allows a player to jump over any hedge piece.

This game, while very simple to play, can be quite strategic. In our experience, age was no advantage--the 12-year-old was quite capable of providing significant challenges to the adults, and vice versa. The game, once set up, can be stored in its box without being disassembled, so that it will be ready for play in seconds. I highly recommend Minotaurus to anyone looking for a fun, fast, and furious family game.
2343836
This works great for the family with multiple kids as you are all on the SAME team.  The figures need to be cut out, glued, and if you want - painted.  For us over winter break that added as a positive as the kids spent more time gluing with testor's non-toxis cement and then painting / shading the bad guys than they have playing the game... Parents had to assemble the 4 main characters due to small parts and tricky gluing. We spray painted the guys outside one day and then the kids did the rest in painting.  Yes, they don't look as awesome as the sample pictures - but the kids DON'T care. They love playing with their quirkly painted guys and now they have personal ownership of their favorite good and bad figures that they spent hours on while I drank my coffee and provided positive remarks upon effort :) For those of you who are GW familiar you may like Betrayal at Calth more for lots of figures.  This set still pays for itself in cost of just the four assassin models bought by themselves but if you just want new models there are much better buys. I'm happy because I bought it for the full game.
3290193
Fun for 8-year old battles, no one hurt so far : )
4381814
This game is fun for the whole family. With bold new coarses and added anti-gravity tracks with the ability to customize your kart makes this one twice as good as the last. Online mode is available for up to 2 players and is a good way to see how you stack up against the rest of the world. I would really like to see some downloadable tracks for the battle mode. Overall this game gets a much deserving five stars from me.
1345633
A 2-disc JK game. Wanderful graphics with a Geforce2 MX400 64MB.
Smoothly playing game. MP needs some more work and it has a update already out. Recommended RAM: 256 for the full settings and 128 min.
Story line is great. Force powers and Charater stuff is nice.
Dual,Single, or Staff sabers are alsome to the game!!!!!
4786263
My 5- year old son received this as a gift and after a year he continues to play with it several times a week.  I have always loved imaginext toys for that very reason-the kids keep playing with them.  We also own the Batcave, the aircraft carrier, and the toy story landfill.  We bought several accessories to go with the castle including the dragon, the ogre, the battering ram, and the catapault.  He sets up the knights and has epic battles. His 9- year old brother and 2-year old sister also join in the fun sometimes.  I would recommend this to anyone with kiddos between 3-6, boys and girls both seem to like it.
2883478
I really didn't expect this thing to be as fun as it is.  This toy is really well designed.  The arena is a great reproduction of the real thing.  Sure it's plastic and cardboard - but it's a nice solid quality.  The bulletproof windows are a nice and useful touch (pieces do go flying).
The robots are quick, agile, and challenging to drive (due to their speed).  They are designed to have a few "breakaway pieces".  Witch Doctor has 2 pieces that snap off its plow as well as the top cover.  Tombstone's top cover and two rear panels come off as battle damage.
They each feature a spinning attack weapon - which are not very strong but fun to control.  The remote allows you to turn the spinning weapons on and off via a button on the controller.  The robots are controlled with similar controls as a RC car.  front/back direction and right/left.  Nothing pressed = no motion.

I bought this for my son's 7th birthday.  We watched the TV show and he loves this toy.  We spend time battling it out.  We switch robots to ensure a balanced play.  We came up with the rule that once the top cover flies off, the robot is KO'ed.  Tombstone's top cover tends to be a little easier to knock out.  Overall, this is a great rendition of the functionality of the stars of the show and the arena.  Great playability.  This is a really enjoyable fun toy.  Great design.
3321264
Different worlds, different weapons, different enemies and all fun. This was the first game that was purchased for me after I got PS2 for Christmas.
I am totally hooked on this game.
For the most part the levels are fairly easy to get through.
Ratchet, the fox I think, finds this little orphaned (by choice) robot and they roam the galaxy searching and trying to stop Drex (sp). Drex is going from planet to planet to find the perfect planet to call his own (or so we think). Ratchet goes to each level trying to find different weapons (some are not free) and different gadgets to help him along his way. To buy certain weapons and ammo, he must gather nuts and bolts. The two ways to gather this stuff is to destroy wooden crates found through out the planets or destroy enemies. Also your health can be restored by breaking the boxes that contain the glowing orbs of blue/white.
At certain points Clank can get upgraded. First he starts out just as a robot stuck to Ratchet's back. Then you can upgrade him (at a price) to a heli-pack, a jet pack or an aqua pack. On one planet Clank can turn into a giant.
Some levels are not as easy to get through. It took me at least 20 tries to swim through a certain level. You can also collect gold bolts. These are used to purchased golden weapons.
There are races, space fights and some big baddies to destroy.
Overall this is a fun and exciting game to play.
1103566
This game has several advantages, and we love to play it together as we become different characters. We collect Lego games now, and this one is fun-filled, with lots of activity. You can be Batman, Robin, or select one of many villains. My daughter enjoys the challenges, and rewards.

It has several moves to learn and master, and there are many different weapons. We enjoy building the Batmobile, and other vehicles. This game provides hours of fun, and entertainment.

A great gift to Lego lovers, creative, colorful, and exciting. Highly recommended!
1610650
Summoner Wars Master Set: 2 Players, Ages 9+, Average Play Time = 45 Minutes

First, I want to give a thumbs up for how easy it is to set up and clean up the game. The makers managed to make a fairly complex game with a minimal amount of components. The box insert is designed to hold more than the six original decks, allowing owners of starter sets or expansions to organize all of their decks into one box. Excellent, excellent idea.

The learning curve wasn't bad at all...watching the video that I linked above certainly helped. I believe the biggest challenge players will face is getting used to how each faction deck plays out and how best to utilize their abilities. My eleven year old son picked up on the game mechanics right away without ever having to watch the video. He spent more time reading the special abilities on the cards than asking for direction regarding the game mechanics.

As varied as the decks are, they are very balanced. In the two games we played, we both found ourselves fighting until the bitter end. When things looked bleak for one of us, we always managed to get right back into the game with either an event card or by summoning more units.

I personally enjoyed the strategy involved with troop placement and attacking. I was forced to constantly think ahead to see where my son might go on his next move. If I saw that he could push a ranged unit into attack range, I'd move the possible target back a space or behind a wall. Some of my event cards relied on certain board conditions to be met before they could be played, so it was a gamble to keep them in my hand until I could use them or dump them into my magic pool to help me summon more units. The dice rolling for attacks may turn off those that are pure strategists, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be.

My only gripe thus far is not being able to find some of the faction decks for purchase...the ones I want are sold out on their website and when you do find them, the seller wants over twenty bucks for them...a piece. I hope that Plaid Hat has the ability to restock their inventory soon...they are missing out on some potential sales.

The quality is excellent and the game plays fairly quickly, which is a welcome change from the days one could spend building a deck in another game. The cards are also fairly simple to understand...another welcome change from having to decipher hundreds of different Magic: The Gathering cards. My Magic cards have been sitting on my desk for months and I still haven't been able to figure out what half of them do...the curse of getting old I suppose.

Bottom line...I highly recommend this game. It's fun and easy to pick up and play. If you're looking to "duke it out" with someone else but can't commit to a game that takes hours to play, Summoner Wars would fit the bill nicely.
3141844
This game is gorgeous. I played it on a huge 4k TV and the graphics, especially in the cut scenes--are breathtaking. The highlight of For Honor is the battle system, which is complex and takes a while to master--especially since each warrior class is different, but is satisfying and intuitive once you do. While there is a story mode, it's pretty short (maybe 6+hours) and not super exciting. The big draw is the multiplayer mode. Running around this lush environment with fully customizable Vikings, Samurais, and Knights is exciting, even when grinding. If you like melee fighting games, this one is well worth checking out.