Customer Reviews

Zathura; Adventure is Waiting

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

My five year old LOVES the Zathura movie, so I thought I would be the hero Dad and buy this for Christmas...

CONS:
1. Does NOT look like the game in the movie
2. Some assembly required, putting stickers on that peal off.
3. The button ejects a card about 50% of the time, spinning Zathura at the end.
4. A lack of detailed game rules.
5. Cheap 'made in china' product.

PROS:
1. Winding and pushing the button like the movie.
2. My boy loves it and wants to play it over and over again
3. Encourages reading, counting and taking turns
4. The Cards look great
5. Love the robot.

VERDICT: While I wish they would have made a closer replica to the movie's game and thought the game play through a little bit more, the game is loved by my boy and that's why I bought it.

This is a fun interactive game. My 6 year old and 4 year old thoroughly enjoyed it (and had no illusions of being blasted into space). It's not just about each individual's race to the end - many of the cards give instructions that cause each player to interact with the others. Teamwork is involved to make decisions that keep the house from being damaged, sometimes involving sacrificing your own strategic position for the safety of all.

The quality of the card console is poor. Our spinner works fine. However, the board is warping and I will probably have to exchange it. Hopefully there will be another in stock - the team concepts and interactivity make this a great family night game.

OK...I rarely write reviews, but after playing this game with my six year old son three or four times now, I just HAD to add my "two cents". I have never seen such a ridiculous game in my life. This is simply someone's vain attempt to make more money off of the movie with absolutely no attention to whether or not the game a)works b) makes any sense at all and c) has even the slightest point.

If I went through all of the questions that we have after reading the directions 100 times (there are so many gray areas), I'd take up too much space. Suffice it to say that it is simply a joke how little time went into planning this game. PLEASE do not waste your money! Its only redeeming quality (and the reason for two stars on how fun it is) is that my son and I have literally laughed our way through the game as it occurs to us just how ridiculous it is. (That said, the little button thingy for the card ejection is, admittedly, sort of addictive, but NOT worth the cost of the game.)

I support the comments that others make: this game is so poorly designed, it is laughable. I cannot imagine that the designers or writers even sat down to play the game once. Forget trying to follow the directions; they left out many important rules. The board doesn't work, especially the way the pieces fit into it, and what a terrible ending with a spinner that doesn't even work like a spinner. What is up with that? Forget this game.

After watching the movie Zathura, we were very excited to play this game. However, the game is so poorly constructed we couldn't even play it. The cards in the console do not come out, and the spinner, which you are supposed to "spin" on your turn, does not spin at all, barely moving from one number to the next. I suppose you could play this game with a dice and simply turn the cards over, but it would not be as fun, and would certainly not feel like you were playing the game as displayed in the movie.

One of the most worthless and poorly-thought-out games I have ever had the extreme displeasure to play. The gameboard is warped and doesn't sit flat, so the pieces slides around and players lose their places. The card "ejector" doesn't work, period. We finally took the cards out and made a draw pile on the table, which pretty much wiped out the only possibly novel aspect of the game. My kids were bored silly, even though they thoroughly enjoyed the movie of the same name. Don't waste your time or money.

My kids really enjoy playing this game. We havn't run into many of the problems others have with this game. As long as you place the weight provided in with the card dispenser and turn the knob twice, the spinner and the card dispenser will work everytime.

I don't know quite what to think about the game. I guess I was just expecting something better than what we ended up with.

CONS
1. While the game comes with rules, there are a lot of gray areas and that can make things confusing. On the other hand, you have the opportunity to "fill in the gaps" yourself. What we have done is to keep track of the decisions we made regarding what we did when we hit the gray areas.
2. The workmanship of the game leaves something to be desired. When we first tried the card dispenser, it would dispense the cards OK, but would not latch properly when you turned the key. I ended up taking the dispenser apart (caution, there's a spring inside that you need to watch out for) and cutting the notch slightly deeper to help make it latch when you turn the key. It now works perfectly. From reading other reviews, there is apparently a general quality-control issue regarding the dispenser.
3. When you spin the spinner, it's often hard to tell which number is showing and you have to have to make up a rule about what to do when the spinner ends up between two numbers.

PROS
1. The kids like to play the game. I would say that it is especially enjoyable for those under age 10.
2. Turning the key and pressing "GO" is a fun way to dispense the cards.
3. I really like the way you can ask for other players to help you out of mutually bad situations. When you ask for assistance, either you or another player may have to sacrifice a better board position for the good of all the players. You don't find this kind of thinking often enough in games.
4. Although this game does not really match the game from the movie, it's probably as good as you are going to get for the money.

If I had to do it all over again, I would buy the game. However, I would lower my expectations.

Just set this up on Christmas morning and the card ejector only works about half of the time. This game is DEFINITELY NOT worth the money. I'd take it back but we already have all the stickers on the game. Even if the card ejector worked, it's not all that fun. No strategy or imagination at all- my 8 year old will most likely shelve this one and go back to Monopoly and scrabble.

I great disappointment if you have seen the movie. The cards in the game we have keep getting stuck and you have to constantly open up the back and fix the button to make the cards come out. The overall quality of the game is poor. You have to put the game together everytime you play it and the board gets damaged everytime. My kids ages 3, 6, and 7 still do get some enjoyement out of it, although they get upset everytime it breaks.