Cranium Hullabaloo

Kids will have a great time playing and learning about shapes and sounds. View larger.

With large, bright buttons, even little ones will find the controls easily to navigate. View larger.

What We Think Fun Factor: Durability: (what this means) The Good: Catchy music, clever concept, easy to learn and play. The Bad: Console might not be loud enough if your surroundings are noisy. In a Nutshell: Hours of goofy yet educational fun. At a Glance Ages: 4 and up Requires: Three AA batteries, Phillips screwdriver

Do a Funky Dance!
The talking musical console adds an element of excitement and unpredicability to the game. You never know what it will tell you to do next! The catchy music and the instructions to "do a funky dance!" at the end of the rounds especially appeal to kids. (Later, when you're not even playing the game, you can say, "Do a funky dance!" and they'll start dancing excitedly all over again.) The pleasing pallette of colors in Hullabaloo are appealing to the eye, from the purple, green, and red console to the multicolored play pads with their slightly retro images. These brightly-colored, sizeable play pads are hard to lose.Yet they are also easy to put away when the game is over.

Get Your Goof On
We especially enjoyed doing the funky dance at the end. We would even do a funky dance at the beginning of each round too-- the music is so catchy you just can't help it! At times, we wished the maximum volume of the console was higher. We also would have appreciated being able to put the batteries in without using a screwdriver. But overall, we found this game to be fun and energizing, with just the right amount of goofiness thrown in. It proceeds at a good pace -- slow enough so that kids have time to process the console's spoken directions, but fast enough to keep things exciting. The rounds are short so you don't get bored. And there are thousands of combinations of moves so you'll probably never play the same round again, not matter how many times you play!

What's in the Box
Talking musical console that directs play, 16 play pads, instructions.


Amazon.com Review
This game is sort of like Twister meets Simon Says. Lay the Hullabaloo pads around on the floor about two 'kid's feet' away from each other. The pads are different shapes and colors and have pictures and words on them. Turn on the game console and the cheerful music begins, a happy voice welcomes you to the game and then gives the simple directions you'll need to play. "Jump on a square shape," "Slide over to a red shape," "Hop to a shape with an animal on it" and so on. Then it might tell you to freeze, or to put a body part on one pad, and then a different body part on another. Then, it'll tell you that if you are on a particular pad at the end of that round, you are the winner. We found it to be fun, and easy to understand--though we did wonder how long it might hold a child's interest. --Megan Sullivan