Geomag Mechanics Challenge Strike Review

Reviewed by Melody Floyde

With Christmas rapidly approaching again I’m finding myself starting to think about what gifts I need to buy for everyone. In particular my two sons aged 8 and 11 who never know what they want, would be perfectly happy connected to their devices 24/7 and who I desperately want to buy fun and educational gifts for! When I was asked to review the Geomag Mechanics Challenge Strike I jumped at the chance as it sounded like it would fit the brief pretty well.

The Geomag Mechanics Challenge Strike is suitable for children aged 7+ and 1-4 players. It promises to combine learning about magnets and mechanical construction with a super fun game. Initial impressions when the box was delivered that it was a good size gift, the box was brightly coloured and appealing and there was no excess packaging. The parts themselves were also made with 90% recycled plastic which is always a plus these days. Upon opening the box to look inside I did feel slightly apprehensive about the number of pieces that would need to be put together to construct Strike (totalling 185) but the information on the website told me that “the construction itself and the subsequent gaming experience would be challenging and educational for everyone involved”.

So, I tried to encourage my sons to take a look and to join in building it with me. Unfortunately one look at the number of pieces was enough for them and they designated construction duties to me. Not to be put off I made a start, after-all how hard could it be if it’s designed for 7 year olds! There was an illustrated instruction book included so I was feeling optimistic that I could easily build the game in next to no time. This didn’t quite work out as almost an hour later I was still trying to construct it, and getting increasingly frustrated as it was very fiddly to get the bits to fit together solidly, and I found it fairly difficult to follow the pictures in the instruction book. I personally prefer some text to tell me what to do as well as pictures, but that’s personal preference and the booklet was very brightly coloured and appealing and I’m sure would be fine for others. Anyway, moving on I did eventually manage to construct Strike and to make it work after some troubleshooting (I think a degree in engineering would come in handy here!). And I did feel quite a sense of achievement looking at my construction.

The game itself is pretty fun, it works on the basis of a gravity motor which works as metal balls are thrown in to it, this makes the arm rotate to knock pins over (a bit like skittles), the pins are worth various points and there are lots of different suggestions of game variations in the instruction booklet. We’ve tried a few of them and have really enjoyed the challenge, our favourite so far has been “wrecking ball”. There is definitely a sense of satisfaction to be had in getting the arm spinning fast and knocking all the pins over in the least time. The website says it will provide hours of fun, unfortunately it seems to keep falling apart meaning it then has to be reconstructed before playing again, this however could be due to my poor construction skills and others may find their Strike stays together fine.

I would have liked to see some explanation in the instructions as to how the gravity motor works, as the boys have been quite fascinated with it. They really enjoy challenging each other to see who can make it move the fastest, and it does actually take a level of skill to do it successfully by throwing the balls in at the right speed. I do think we will enjoy playing with this as a family.

I think for any older children who enjoy science and engineering this would be a really great game for them. It’s both challenging and rewarding, along with being fun once you’ve got it up and running.

I really wanted to give this a positive review as I love the idea and the concept, and it is great quality. However, for me it was just too fiddly to build which took the enjoyment away. I’m also confused as to what I do with two random parts which are shown in the contents list but don’t appear to feature anywhere in the instruction book! Maybe I’ll work it out one day.

Rating: 3/5

RRP: £49

This product can be purchased from Amazon here.