Losing my marbles (Kerplunk)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Kerplunk
Date:	05/04/08 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: It is a fun game and is easy to set up and play

Disadvantages: It is a noisy game

I brought my grandaughter a Ker-Plunk game for Christmas and we got it out yesterday to have a game with my friends little girl.

It is a fun game but can be very noisy. Ker-Plunk comes in a box and has to be put together but this is very easy and it is just as easy to dismantle it again at the end of the game.

It is one of the very few toys I can think of these days that does not need batteries because Ker-Plunk is just 2 plastic tubes that are joined together with a connecting mesh-like wider tube. You get lots of little plastic sticks which are pointed on each end and before you start playing you have to thread these sticks through the holes in the mesh so that they have gone in one side and pop out the other. I then had to fit the now longer single tube into the base of the game so that it can stand up on my table so that we can play.

Once it is standing upright you have to pour the marbles into the top tube so that they are sitting on the criss-cross of plastic sticks. It is an easy game to set up but sometimes I think it is fiddly to slide the sticks through the tubes because the holes on the far side of the game for the sticks to pop out of are awkward to find.

TO set the game up will probably take you between 5 and 10 minutes and this depends on how quickly you can get the sticks in because actually slotting the tubes together is very quick and easy. When you've done it the game can start.

It is important to play Ker-Plunk on a smooth flat surface so that the marbles will keep still and won't be rolling around all over the game. To play is very simple and all you have to do is decide who is going first and then take it in turns to slide out the sticks and put them in a little pile next to you. If you move the wrong stick the marbles can fall through and this means your opponent is winning.

My grandaughter is very good at this game and usually beats me even though I do not let her win. You need to have a steady hand to pull the sticks through smoothly because any jerking will upset the marbles and they will fall through even quicker. I think it is a game of skill because players have to work out which stick is likely to disturb less marbles, but it is also a game of chance.

I think it is a fun game and because the marbles drop into the base of the game there is no mess because as soon as we have finished playing we just gather the marbles and sticks together and then unclip the tubes. It all goes back into the box so that nothing gets lost. My cats do not like it when we play because the noise of the marbles dropping through scares them, they always go out when they hear the first marble fall.

Because there are small pointy sticks and marbles in this game I would definitely say that young children should not play it until they are old enough not to be putting things in their mouth. I think the right kind of age for Ker-Plunk would be about 7 because by then their hand to eye coordination is good enough to pull out the sticks accurately.

Summary: Playing Ker-Plunk is fun for children and adults