Carrying on through my kid's games cupboard I have come across this great game. Screwball Scramble is a game of skill and determination as you race around the board trying to get to the end before the clock ends (1 minute)

So on the board we have to insert the timer as the board cannot be put away with this standing upright. There are no batteries required which is another plus. We have two silver steel balls but you only need to use one.

You need to navigate the ball around the course. There are seven controls on one side of the box which have a picture on the front of them to tell you what they are for. We start with the tilting bridge which you need to manoeuvre to move the ball along, and then the magnet moves the ball around to the next challenge. Two metal bars need to be put into place for the ball to roll down them onto the wobbly maze. At the end of the maze it then rolls to 4 red towers where you have to hit the ball up into the top of them. You then have to hit the ball up through a hoop into a covered maze. It then goes into another lever which you take round to the catapult and you have to throw it through a hoop onto a bell.

All of that in one minute before the timer goes off!!


I would say for the first couple of attempts try and do it without the timer. It is not as easy as it seems. The buttons and controls are all labelled by pictures and have to be used more than once sometimes around the board. It is a skill to be learned. There has been many times where you have to fish the ball back out from under the board or you flick it under the table and you have to search for it. In fact I have had to replace it with something similar now!

The clock that fits onto the board has a button on so you can stop it should you actually complete the task in time, it is put on using a wind up mechanism and this is quite loud but this adds to the tension of trying to complete it in time.

This is a great game to test your skill and co-ordination as well as patience and my kids are better at it than I am. It can be quite addictive as after they have finished playing it I am often still sitting there trying to beat it and won't stop until I have. You will be amazed how hard it can be.

As I have said previously we now play with a different ball as we have lost both that came with the game so you need to be careful with it. It is good to be played solely as well as competing over who can do it the fastest. It is a clever obstacle course but once you have had enough practice you should be able to storm through some parts of it better than others. It's the red towers that get my every time.

It is recommended for 5 years and over and I definitely agree. The ball is quite small and not something to be messing around with. The board is also probably too tricky for anyone younger.