Game Reviews

That said, the meat of the game is firmly in Pentium country, with rich colors and textures expected for a latter-day sim, but not taxing enough to slow down frame-rate on any low-level P200MMX. If you own "X-wing v. Tie Fighter", you'll find the same level of graphics, but with more imaginative single-player missions. As a fighter pilot with the dread imperial star fleet, you fly those tiny little insect like ships that seems to drop like flies in the 3 movies. Besides the expected campaigns (all pre-scripted, you can't go on until you finish all primary mission objectives) and "historical" missions, there's a nifty pilot's proving ground, an enclosed maze and shooting gallery that convincingly recalls the Death Star innards from the 3rd movie. However, the missions require you not only destroy waves of fighters or large ships, but inspect and even capture other ships. Also, a complex storyline sends imperial starfighters against a variety of enemies, many not quite as noble as the stalwart rebels. Star Wars is best when highlighting the moral ambiguity of its surrounding universe, and Tie Fighter doesn't dissappoint, and your enemies will include Rebel X-wings, but also pirates and profiteers, defectors and other traitors and various alien races who don't know that they need the emperor's permission to war against each other. There's even a clever subplot in which you have two missions - your commander's and those of a special imperial emissary. Most of the time, the two are in line, and neither asks you to controvert the orders of the other. It creates a level of depth and suspicion mising from the original x-wing.

If X-wing collector's ed is this good, I'll pick it up as well. If you've already got the original versions of both games, I'd suggest getting the new X-wing, since the original was the older of the two and would have the best improvement.

Splitting, stealing and 'locking' words form the core of this game and all of them really make you think and dig quite deep into your well of words. The rules aren't written too well(some more examples of the probable scenarios would have been helpful) and so we had to try playing it a couple of different ways. But once we got the hang of it, the game was roaring fun. Its fun analyzing the words to see how to split or steal them and the rules have been designed well to make things quite fair.

Definitely addictive once you start playing. But as another reviewer mentioned, 3 or 4 players makes it a lot more fun than 2.

The recommended age is 8 but younger children (supervised!) are just as enthralled. I had to improvise on the instructions, but I've taught the concepts to two 3 year olds - my buddy's son and my own. You will be amazed that they get it!

It is the greatest travel game. My son got this when he was 3 years old, and 4 years later it is still his first choice when we ask him to pick some toys for a trip........and he has a GameBoy!!

It is very durable, constructed very well and has seen no wear in 4 years of regular use. This is one of the toys that'll, literally, last you a life-time.

This is definitely a precursor for any parent looking to teach their kids Chess. Solving each situation requires you to think a few steps ahead.

This is probably the least expensive way to develop a new dimension in your child's brain.

VARIATIONS:
This toy also comes with a single "Red Frog". The objective is to leave the red frog standing.

OTHER SIMILAR TOYS:
FlipIT - This toy made by the same company, is a more difficult version of Hoppers. It is a 4X4 grid with Turtles instead of Frogs. The turtles can be placed on their bellies (green side up) or can be turned-turtle (orange side up).
One jumps over the turtles but the turtles do not come off the board - they just flip over. They flip over each time they're jumped over - green to orange and orange to green. The objective is to turn all turtles the right (green) side up.