Reviews (2)

My 5 Year Old Finds this Challenging. My 4 Year Old Tries.
I have a 5 year-old boy and a 4 year-old girl (yes, alot of work). This is a unique game for young kids. Most games which center around matching shapes or images are often much too easy for children. With this game, kids really have to pay attention. There are 16 game tiles with picture combos of animals on each tile. The trick is that the tiles rotate the pictures (a lion appears with a bird, with a crab, with a turtle, with a horse, etc,). In total there are 16 different combination of pictures on the tiles and on the board. Kids need to match the tile with the corresponding picture on the board. It is really challenging for kids because they have to pay special attention to the picture combo on both the tile and the board. So they might have a tile with a lion and a crab, but they need to be careful not to be too quick (they are racing against a timer) to match it to the picture with a lion and a bird. The game comes with a timer so that if a child wants to play on their own, it keeps there interest to race against time instead of another playmate. When kids play together, they get some practice keeping score on the score pad provided. This is a solid skill building game for younger kids, I would say between 4 - 7 year olds.

It Catches the Eye
It seems pretty natural to me to have a kids' version made of Eyecatcher. I own the original (family) game and bought this edition for my 8-year old. He has taken quite a liking to it and so far it holds his attention. I haven't tried the Parents-Kids method yet that's written in the rules, but it looks pretty clear.

The main difference between the two editions is this: the family version has 4 color patterns on each 'game tile' (or plastic rectangle), and this kids' version has 2 animal images on each game tile. Of course this makes it easier and also better suited for kids (which child doesn't like animals?). However, it's the same idea of matching game tiles to the board squares during the time allowed, which is catchy. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Busy for hours!
From where i live, it is a 16 hour drive down to Disney World, depending on traffic. My children are ten and thirteen. My thirteen year old knows a lot about bible trivia so we made teams. Kids vs. parents. The kids had fun keeping score and "kicking our butts" at this game. The kids were able to answer most of the harder adult questions as well. We didn't get through all the questions, but form what i've seen, it looks like a great product. However we are still checking. As some products change things and say somethine entirely different form the bible. If your kids have been going to sunday school or some other bible learning edvent, I encourage you to quiz them by using this product. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Great For Beginners
The Saitek Travel Chess Computer has many of the virtues of its more powerful cousins at a fraction of the cost. It has a multi-move "take back" feature, 64 playing levels, teaching modes, and a rudimentary stock of openings. It can be slow and, like just about all computers, will make the same tactical blunders repeatedly. Its playing strength is strictly for beginners but at the highest level it can be challenging to the beginner who will soon move into the intermediate ranks. The Saitek is a useful, entertaining teaching tool for the child who knows the moves to the game. It can be a boon companion on a long car trip or flight (it can beat the woeful on-board chess programs) without all the beep-beep and toot-toot of those mindless hand-held computer video games. The manufacturer's suggested age range of eight years and up is too cautious; this game can be both entertaining and beneficial to the child of four who knows how the pieces move. It is not overly daunting. It will build confidence.

improvements could be made
I'm not an excessively strong chess player (at my best I'm in the 1500s). If you're around 1200 or 1300 and patient this will be a fine game to carry when you travel; but it's too slow and even on the highest level surprisingly beatable even by me.

However, if you're even worse than that, if you just need practice avoiding blunders, the levels are fine. You can move up as you improve; at the highest level you'll need a little positional understanding as well as tactical discipline to beat it consistently. So it's a decent trainer for beginners.

Past that, it needs to be faster and smarter; I suspect there are cell phones that can beat it. I'm not an expert though. Shop around before you buy this one, at any rate.

One final note: the pieces are very small, they are not magnetic and they do not settle very securely into their places on the board. That is, they fall out and get lost too easily. ... Read more