Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Superb fun between Jenga and Kerplunk - but watch you don't lose the balls October 18, 2008
MM Turner (Birmingham, England)
8 out of 12 found this review helpful
WobBally is one of those games which makes you think "why didn't anyone invent this before?". Basically it's a tower about 25 cm high of large, coloured ball bearings separated by rings. What holds them in place and stops them wobbling about? you ask. Absolutely nothing.
WobBally arrives in a clear plastic case which holds everything in place. You put it on a flat, hard surface and turn the case while holding the base still, and, in some ingenious way, this levels the tower. You know it's level, because a single metal ball bearing at the top of the case ends up staying in a centre spot. Then you remove the plastic case. Don't do this until you are ready to play! I opened the case with WobBally on my kitchen table, saw it wobble slightly, and noticed there was a bit of stray thread somewhere. "I'll just pull that out" I said to myself, not having read through the instructions. Disaster! The entire tower instantly collapsed, sending the coloured balls bouncing all across the kitchen (I'm still looking for one, if you see it anywhere). Once you've located the balls again, it doesn't take long to reassemble the tower. And this, more or less, is the game.
If you actually read the instructions, you discover that you are supposed to prod the balls into the tower with the supplied prodding sticks, neatly housed along with the spare balls (good thought!) and some plastic stuff for retaining balls no longer in use, in a tube in the centre. You take all that stuff out before you play. Just like Jenga or Kerplunk (remember Kerplunk?), you take it in turns to prod balls in, until someone makes the tower collapse, and that person is out. You're supposed to all shout WobBally! when they do, but that doesn't actually affect the play. Once you've mastered that level, you can play with the coloured dice, which tells you which coloured ball you have to play, and once you have that down, you can additionally play with the numbered dice, telling you which level.
So, exactly how much fun is this? Enormous fun. The moment you take the lid off and see the whole thing wobbling around, you know it's going to be great. Once you've seen the tower literally explode into flying coloured balls, you know it's incredibly great.
Of course, you've already spotted that this is only going to carry on being a great game as long as you haven't lost too many of the balls. The inclusion of spares tells you the manufacturers were aware of this. My recommendation is to play in some kind of tray with a high raised side. This isn't going to stop the most excitable balls, which will still bounce out, but it will help.
This is a very cleverly designed game. Obviously, in plastic, it's not going to survive a great deal of small child anger. Actually, it seems to be a game ideally made for older groups, especially students. I see all night WobBally parties on the horizon...
This is one of the most captivating games I've seen for a long, long time. Absolutely brilliant.
Now it's back to the kitchen to look for that final ball...
Quick review as I already have withdrawls... October 18, 2008
Anna (London)
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
I quit smoking 2 weeks ago, but it's ok, because I have a new addiction! My flatmates and I have been playing for 2 hours non-stop, and we've yet to grow bored. You could accuse us of being absolute simpletons and, to be fair you'd have a point, but it wouldn't detract from WobBally's uber-awesomosity.
One of the reviews for this is a video, and that's gonna be far more descriptive of the process than this luddite could ever manage with mere words, so I'll explain the fun factor instead, and a couple of issues. Although, really, there are only 2.
The biggest problem is we've already lost a ball. It's been sucked into an alternate dimension (the one reserved for all of our spare socks, I shouldn't wonder) as it really is nowhere to be found. The balls are a little smaller than expected, so they're sort of easy to lose. But it comes with spares and, eventually, after you've lost enough of them, you can stack it with one less layer, so it's more annoyance than tragedy.
Next, rebuilding the structure is a little time consuming. You need to do so layer by layer and there are 7 of them. But, all good things come to those who wait. And this game is Good Thing.
One of the scoring fields for this is educational value - truthfully, I can't see that it has much. However, it's actually a wonderful exercise in dexterity and, at a stretch, gravity. There's also some value in its colour/number system. But mostly, this is just honest to goodness, multi-coloured, old fashioned, giggle-filled, family fun. As the box says: "Watch 'em wobble and bobble." Watch them wobble and bobble indeed.
Now if you'll excuse me, the layers are stacked and I've some flatmates to wobBall into the middle of next week.
Enjoyable family fun October 19, 2008
acid_win
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I'm actually writing this review with my children giving their input. We have just finished playing it for the first time with an hour having elapsed and have had great fun. It is in keeping with classic toppling games such as Jenga and Kerplunk that you would place this game. The game is based on an unstable tower balanced by balls. The aim of the game being the person to not cause the tower to fall. Each player has a turn to knock one of the coloured balls from the tower without causing it to topple. In the case of my children it didn't matter whether you made it topple or someone else did as the suspense of watching others before you in precarious situations and escaping added to the fun.
My 6 year old's comments:
She loved the fact that when the balls were tapped too hard it made other balls fall out and weakened the tower making it more difficult for the next player in line.
My 12 year old's comments:
"Excellent game, it took me off the Wii for a while". "We definitiely have to play it with.... when they come over".
Good points:
The game is contained within the same housing that it comes in which makes for great storage and minimizes loss of balls. Easy to play and set up and playable for children young to old.
Room for improvements:
If you are playing this game in a carpeted living room on the floor then this is fine as the chance of losing any balls is quite remote. However, as there isn't a separate container to catch the balls that fall from the tower this could lead to balls being lost under tables, chairs, fridges etc.
We used a large bowl to contain all of the fallen balls as well as a towel to reduce the bounce of the balls once the tower had fallen. With a few minot tweaks then this game would be perfect. That said my ratings are based on what my children said and they both gave it 5/5.
Great Family Game October 18, 2008
romreader (Gosport, Hants, UK)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
As the name of the game tells you Wobally does Woble there are over 120 small coloured balls. It is easy to play making a fun game for all the family in those dark evenings when you want to interact with the family without a computer or a tv for a while.
The game can be played in different ways with Dice selecting who goes first with a standard dice, then you can get each player to roll a second dice with the colours of the balls on to indicate which colour to go for popping out a ball with a tiny stick as a tool.
It can help with a childs development of colour and teach them tactics of the game.
One good idea is the ball in the top of the game that lets you know how level the game is acting as a spirit level, which ensures that the game is level before taking off the outer cover. Great A+
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