ThinkFun Robot Turtles Game

This is a fun little game to teach young ones very beginning and simple logic. Their goal is essentially to create a set of instructions (think: "go straight, then turn left, then use your laser to melt some ice") that you the adult enact, acting sort of as their computer. It can scale well to different age and maturity levels by changing what obstacles are on the game board and changing the layout. We haven't gone through all of the available options as my son isn't that advanced yet, but i see this having legs for a couple years (4 to 6) and maybe longer.

This game is not a long-lasting game (per-play), but I hope it will retain replayability for the coming years as my daughter gets older. The premise is fun, and so far my 4 year old daughter seemed to enjoy our first session (we played 5 games in a row, even introducing the ice walls on the 5th game)... I like that the game has increased levels of difficulty and complexity that can be engaged based on the skill and advancement of the players. It does seem like it is made more for play in households where there are more than one child/player, however, based on its advised gameplay rules. However, I went ahead and played both the "mover" and one of the "masters" roles with my daughter playing another turtle "master" and it worked well enough. The quality of the game construction is excellent. It far exceeds the general low-quality construction I find in most board games have purchased in recent years, so that was a nice plus. You do still have to punch-out the gameplay cards from their molds, but this is a pretty quick process, and with the thickness of the cardboard, they pop out easily and cleanly.

I got this game for the kids this Christmas. In short my 6 year old boy loves it. My 10-year-old is probably beyond it, but we haven't played the advanced aspects yet. I tried this out with an early 3-year-old and she really didn't get it. A 4-year-old boy did grasp but wasn't terribly interested. Small samples, but there you go. When you watch the marketing for this it makes it sound like every kid will love it - not the case. In terms of the game's extendability (because we're all IT people here right?) it's definitely there. You start super-easy and almost boring (this is how my 10-year-old lost interest I think) and then you add the wrinkles/challenges (game calls them unlocks, which kids understand!). The best unlock I think is the challenge of writing your instructions out completely, and then running the program, seeing if you get it right first time, and then debugging and rerunning the program. That was the first time it REALLY felt like we're learning programming. We haven't gotten to function frog yet - all the kids think it means the frog jumps over the obstacles, but the reality is much more interesting. You use the frog to call a function that runs that bit of code. The only challenge will be developing a map that lends itself to repeated sequence of actions (i.e. fire laser, move forward several times). I would think the instruction book could include some game designs that can handle that. One other gripe related to the last comment - the first thing the instruction book says in the game is: "don't read this instruction book, go online." OH COME ON! If I wanted to read directions online I wouldn't have shelled out $40 for a board game when I could have bought 10 programming apps for their iPad for the same money. The least you can do is respect my decision and support it. Board games have written directions that work. Nuff said. But all in all, great game, should be in every elementary school classroom. I look forward to playing this with my mini-me this week.

I initially read about this game on NPR's All Tech Considered Weekly Innovations Blog and I was extremely excited about the game concept and signed up on the creator's website for updates. When he announced that he would be selling through Amazon, I quickly jumped on the chance to get a copy. When it arrived I was a little disappointed, I expected cool bells and whistles, but instead the game appeared simplistic and I thought it would be boring. I WAS WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! My son (aged 4) LOVES this game which should be enough in itself (SERIOUSLY, how often do you see an extremely hyper, goofy boy want to sit still for hours on end to play a game) but when a programmer friend came by and watched my son play it and explained to me the importance of what that "simplistic" game was teaching I was hooked.... This game is not only a great educational tool for all of the future evil geniuses, but it is fun and offers mothers everywhere a bit of stationary fun.....

I was so excited to purchase this game for my five year-old for Christmas. The drawings, instructions and production quality is very good. The game is easy-to-teach and learn. My problem is that once you get the concept, it's quite boring and lacks "replayability." My daughter played it a few times in the beginning of January and now she doesn't want anything to do with it. She says, "I get it. Go left. Go right. It's borrrrrring. Let's play something else." In fact, I have to agree. We've assembled games with other kids and it's even more boring waiting for them to assemble their instruction sets. We've played card by card and also by putting together longer instruction sets. I remember the first few games as being very fund and interesting because it was new. But, I can't get her near it now. I haven't explained the sub-routine element to her yet, but the instruction sets are so limited that I really wonder how often anyone uses these in a meaningful way. Sub-routines are an important element of streamlining a program. But, this doesn't seem to be a practical component of the game. I probably am being generous with three stars, because I wish I didn't buy it. But, it was so well done that I gave it one or two mercy stars.

super awesome !!! both my kids, ages 10 and 14 absolutely loved playing this, it may be the most fun i've ever had with a board game - totally customizable, each of us took turns creating mazes for the other players

I won't bother reviewing the game itself as plenty of other people have already done so. What I will comment on, as it didn't seem to have been mentioned before, is that this game may lend itself to being played by a broad range of ages but since it is done by adjusting the complexity of the game it does not work well for multiple ages at once. My 4 year old and 11 year old both enjoy this game but not if they are playing together. It is either too complex for the younger or too boring for the older. This is a great game but we have found it isn't an option for family game night (which I am a bit disappointed by). My opinion may change as we play further (perhaps we will come up with a variation that works?) but thats where things stand for us now. Please do comment if you have found a way to make it work!

I wasn't sure what to think of this, but at least one child enjoyed it. It does indeed help to teach concepts related to software development without appearing to have anything to do with it. As for design though, the final phase which teaches Subroutines with the use of "leapfrog" cards was too big of a step. I had to break it up into four smaller phases to make the idea easier to digest. Otherwise it's an excellent idea and well executed. The fact it was created by a software developer who's also a dad is evident in that the instruction manual keeps repeating that it's mandatory for the adult to make turtle sound effects while moving the pieces.

Macht Spaß. Tolle Anleitung, schnell zu erlernen, Kinder finden es gut. In Stufen aufgebautes Spiel um auch nach häufigem Spiel durch hinzufügen von Hindernissen und Fähigkeiten die Spannung zu behalten. Mein 3-jähriger hat Spaß daran und weiß schon was ein "Bug" in einer Abfolgekette (Laufweg einer Roboter-Schildkröte) ist. Top.

Des règles du jeu bien pensées qui permettent d'introduire progressivement toutes les nuances du jeu aux enfants. Très belle qualité de fabrication, beau jeu, ludique. Mon fils de 5 ans adore, il a très rapidement compris et on s'amuse vraiment bien !

Dear shoppers, I have read many reviews of this game , I was foolishly impressed . Maybe the expectations were set high too. In all objectivity , this is very simple elementary game for 4 years plus kids ... Complexity of the game can be notched up at every level , however it's not as impressive as it's laurels or paid " reviews" . The game does get boring , an adult cannot simply spend hours designing the difficulty at every level. I would rather have my child play chess or Chinese checkers or Blokus as it needs skilful planning and strategy. Please invest on a good chess board instead. Also I was hoping to have some mechanised lasers or even sounds , instead it simply has cardboard cut outs for pawns and absolutely no other "multi media " effect . It's a game board with card board cut outs . The game needs to be steered by an adult , we cannot have a bunch of similar aged kids enjoy this by themselves . This is a certain drawback for me. I hope my comments help you make a more wise choice than mine .

El material es bueno aunque se nota que no es de una empresa grande cumple con buena resistencia y al tacto se sienten que son buenos materiales, los colores son fieles a las imagenes de afuera de la caja, instrucciones precisas y no tan amarradas excelente para los pequeños y para pasar un rato agradable si ya eres mayor de 18 años

Entretenido aunque algunas instrucciones no se entienden bien y mis hijas no pueden jugar si no estoy yo, claro está