As a father to a set of 4.5 year old twins, I’m always looking for something to keep them entertained. And as we try and limit their screen time, I often reach for tabletop games. Usually, I can’t just toss the box at them and tell them to have at it, so finding a game that I don’t hate playing is helpful as well. But when they can play on their own, it’s a nice bonus.
Today, we are going to look at Go PoP! Presto. Published by Foxmind Games, it features their “Go PoP!” toy, a board with a series of silicone bubbles. Foxmind has sold millions of these playful contraptions, but this is the first time they’ve tried to incorporate them into a game. So let’s see what they’ve come up with.
Gameplay Overview:
In Presto, players are trying to complete a series of dexterity challenges using their Go PoP! board. Once everyone is ready, someone flips over a card and everyone races to be the first to complete the challenge. There are four different types:
Numbers: Pop the specific number of bubbles
Pattern: Pop bubbles on your board to match the pattern on the card.
Finger: Pop all the bubbles using just the finger shown on the card.
Pop: Pop all the bubbles on your board, then flip it over and do it again.
In all cases, you want to be the first to smash the stress ball guy in the center of the table as soon as you finish the task. Do so and you’ll claim the card as a point. The first player to 6 points wins.
Game Experience:
The box lists the age range for the game at 6+, but as I don’t have anyone in my house around 6 years old, I opted to rope in my 4.5 year old kids to test this one out. Age ranges for kid’s games are often hit or miss, so I usually let them try games anyway as long as it isn’t clearly outside their abilities. And for the most part, they could handle Presto. They did struggle at times with numbers over 10, and occasionally the patterns, but for the most part they were able to hold their own.
That being said, any adult is probably going to crush a little kid at the game, so you’ll most likely want to handicap yourself somehow. I usually play with my left hand or give them a little bit of a head start. As long as they are having fun, I don’t care who wins. And they seem to enjoy the game. In fact, they cared less about the score and more just about being the first to complete a card. We’d usually go through most of the deck before finally stopping as they would get excited to do every challenge.
As a parent, I like that they are learning skills from the game. Needing to recognize the number on the card, and then count it out on their board is great for reinforcing numbers and counting. And pattern recognition is helpful too. There are times they struggled with a few of those, but the kids never got into the meltdown range, so they must have been enjoying the Go PoP toy.
My biggest complaint with the game is just that I was having to constantly remind them to reset their board after each card. They’d pop 3 or four bubbles, the round would end, and then they’d want to immediately move on to the next card. So I’d usually have to remind them to clean their board first. But that’s a minor annoyance at best.
Final Thoughts:
As always, I don’t create a numerical score for kids games, as your experience will greatly depend on the age and experience of your child. But my kids, especially my daughter, seemed to really enjoy this one. She loved playing with the Go PoP toy and also beating daddy at times. My son seemed to struggle more with the challenges, so he probably needs to be a bit older before he’s ready to tackle some of these. But as an added bonus, even though they are younger than the listed age range, this was also a game they were able to play on their own.
Both an activity and a learning toy, Presto is great. From the Go PoP boards to the squishy stress toy monster, the kids loved handling all the pieces. For those wondering, I don’t think Presto has very much crossover appeal. This might be a game adults would play together once or twice, but primarily this is something you’ll be playing with your kids (or them on their own). But if your kids enjoy fast playing, real-time pattern games in the same vein as Spot It!, then they’ll enjoy Presto.
