Go on shake your booty (Twister Moves)

Member Name: sandra101

Product:	Twister Moves
Date:	04/11/08 (260 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: gets kids moving, can be played alone or with friends

Disadvantages: Gets very hard very fast, needs lots of room to play

We got this quite a few years ago for my son but my daughter aged 4 is the one playing with it now and she loves it.

- - Whats in the box - -

There are four plastic mats with 4 large coloured circles on them red, green, blue, and purple and the home space and CDs.

- - How do you play - -

Place the four mats on the floor, you will need a fair bit of room for this as the mats are about 2 ½ feet square each. You can't make one big square out of them if four people are playing as they will end up bumping into each other, so spread them well out.

The game is a mixture of simon says and dancing. Press play on the CD player for the music and instructions, which tell you the moves, eg at the beginning you put your feet on the home space of the mat, stick on the CD and the DJ's will explain what happens such as if the male says a colour move your left foot onto that colour and if the female speaks you need to move your right foot to that colour.

The first few tracks are really simple and even a four year old can keep up (as can her mum) but the instructions get faster and faster and you find you have to move, jump and twist around really fast. Being honest I get completely lost once hands etc. are brought into play and the DJs are shouting out instructions with no space at all in between but my son when he was interested was able to last a lot longer.

If you keep up with the DJs you are still in the game but if you don't you are out. This part of the game is obviously going to cause a great deal of arguments if the children themselves are playing and acting as judges. As its fun to watch them playing I would advise that an adult acts as judge if more than one child is playing and makes sure everyone knows that their decision is final and that no whinging, crying or shouting when someone is put out is allowed.

To win you have to stay in and keep up without making mistakes until everyone else has been eliminated.

My son got a fair amount of use out of this as it came out every couple of weeks for an hour or so for about two years, he played it alone and with friends who came over. My daughter is a little young to have friends who call over but is quite happy to play this on her own as she is a real dance fanatic and although the box says its for those over 8 younger kids can keep up especially with the first few songs and then makes up her own moves when she gets lost in the instructions. She loves it when her brother or I occasionally join in.

- - Do I recommend it - -

This is a fun way of getting the kids to take a bit of exercise and I remember when my son got it he actually worked up a sweat when he was jumping and dancing around so anything that does this must be good. If the kids already have a dance mat for one of their consoles then they will possibly find this a little outdated.

The original twister moves can be found on offer quite often for £9.99 which is probably as much as it is worth but there are some new variations on it such as a High School Musical one which will obviously cost more.

- - Warning to Gropers - -

Don't buy this if you are expecting it to lead to groping and strange positions with fellow grown-ups like the original twister as there is no bodily contact involved whatsoever unless you count accidently hitting someone on the head when you are busting your moves.

Summary: Its worth £9.99 for a good laugh. Good for Christmas parties