Review: Laser Chess

 I was so excited to be able to try out Laser Chess from Timberdoodle's 7th Grade Kit recently.  I learned how to play chess when I was a child and taught my husband how to play on our move from NC to Ca many years ago.  As our children were growing up my husband taught both our boys how to play and they all enjoyed playing against each other. When I heard about this game I got so excited thinking our youngest son would love it! I mean what's better than chess and lasers? (LOL)

Laser Chess is a two-player game that combines the strategy of chess with the fun of the laser beams.  The players take turns moving or rotating one of their mirrored pieces on the board and then firing their laser beam in hopes of striking one of their opponents pieces.  The ultimate goal is to light up the other person's king and win the game.  26 playing pieces are included in the game with the game board, instructions and 5 different board setups.  Those 26 pieces include 2 Kings, 4 Switch pieces, 4 Defender pieces, 14 Deflector pieces and 2 Lasers. One part of the game that is super tricky is that if the laser hits one of your own pieces that token is eliminated from the game. You not only have to strategize to take out your opponent's pieces, but to not hit your own in the process.  

 

My husband and our youngest tried playing the game first. They both were struggling to understand how to play it. I read the instructions, went over them with them and left them to play and go to the book for any help they needed. They still struggled with how to play the game. I tried playing with our son as well and was a bit confused myself. We tried playing through the game with the instruction book to look through as we played. We understood the ultimate goal of the game as well as how to move or rotate the pieces. We seemed to continue to hit our own players with the laser beams and struggle with the best moves to make to try and win the game. The more I thought about it I wondered if our knowledge of chess was making this game harder for us. Our son, 13, kept wanting to know which pieces was like a rook or knight and got a little frustrated that they weren't similar.  Ultimately I realized that while this game is super cool and many kids would catch on easily and quickly it just didn't work that way for our family.