It's snappy, but not enough (Hasbro Crocodile Dentist)

Member Name: welshfruitbat

Product:	Hasbro Crocodile Dentist
Date:	10/04/07 (237 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Doesn't require batteries; no self assembly

Disadvantages: Doesn't hold children's attention for long

BACKGROUND

A relative decided to buy this for my son for Christmas. Now that he has had a few months to play with it, I thought I’d write a review.


THE PRODUCT

Crocodile Dentist is made by MB games. The game is for two to four players and recommended for ages four and up. As this was a present, I am unsure how much they paid for it. However after looking on various sites such as Amazon, it looks as though it sells for around £10 to £15.

PACKAGING

The game comes in what appears to be a fairly sturdy box and has pictures of children playing the game.

Instructions on how to play are printed on the back of the box.


THE GAME

On opening the box I discover a crocodile face with a very small body attached. I am surprised by how small the game is compared to the size of the box – it is almost half the size. The box does have two large pieces of cardboard at the top and bottom of the box to stop the game from getting damaged whilst being stored.

The back of the box tells me I need to stick paper eyes and a nose onto my crocodile, but when I take it out of the box, this has already been done. Whether it is sold like this or whether the relative who bought it stuck them on I don’t know.

The crocodile is a bright green colour and is made out of hard plastic. I would guess that the face of the crocodile is about nine inches long and about five inches wide. One big advantage of this game is that it does not require batteries.


HOW TO PLAY

The mouth of the crocodile is ‘hinged’. What you have to do is open the mouth of the crocodile until it clicks into place. Once the mouth is opened ten teeth are revealed along the bottom section of the mouth. Each player has to take it in turns to press one of the teeth down. One of the teeth when pressed will cause the crocodiles mouth to snap shut (the tooth that causes this changes each time). If you make the mouth shut then you lose. The winner is the last person left.


MY OPINION

I was disappointed with this game if I’m quite honest. When Gareth first unwrapped it I imagined it would be a really fun game to play over the Christmas holidays – I was wrong.

The game play isn’t complicated and there is not long list of rules to have to try and explain to a young child, which is good.

The fact that the game doesn’t need batteries is a huge bonus because you haven’t got to spend time hunting around for them because they want to try the game straight away.

The idea if making it from a hard plastic is also a good one because when children play with games they can tend to get knocked off tables etc and this game seems made to withstand that sort of thing.

The big problem with this game in my opinion is after a while it becomes tedious to play not only for the adults but most importantly the children. Instead of just the ten teeth along the bottom it would have been an idea to also include some along the top, just to make the game last that little bit longer. The box says up to four people can play and with only ten teeth then there are not many turns to be had. It would have also been nice to make the teeth just slightly different from each other. When you look in the mouth all you can see are ten identical shaped and sized teeth. It would have been more interesting to have different shapes. The number if times we have played this game and the first tooth pressed was the one to snap the mouth.

Gareth will play this for about 10-20 minutes at the most and then he’s bored and wants to do something else. Chloe who is only 16 months old has had more fun with this. She will spend ages pressing the teeth and opening the mouth back up – it keeps her highly entertained.

I don’t know – maybe the age range on this was too high. Maybe instead of being age 4 and above it should have been ages 2 to 4. It just doesn’t seem exciting enough to keep a 4 year old interested for very long.

Unfortunately this game has lost its appeal to Gareth – he just doesn’t want to play with it. Chloe however still likes to play with it.


WOULD I RECOMMEND

Whilst I liked the idea of a game that doesn’t need batteries and I like the idea of the game in theory, I feel that I can’t really recommend it. I feel that £10-£15 is a lot to pay for a game that doesn’t hold a child’s attention span for very long. I think there are other, better games currently on the market, which cost less than this one and will give more enjoyment to a child.


Thanks for taking the time to reads my review, Cath. xxx

Summary: Not one of the best games for children