Buzz Blast Game Includes Highlights Hidden Pictures
When you were a child did you receive Highlights magazine in the mail? I didn’t, but my neighbors did and I’ll always remember wanting to get a nice colorful marker to search for those special Highlights hidden pictures. There are some great Highlights educational games on the market now, like Buzz Blast, that are in part inspired by their hidden pictures games.
Buzz Blast is a really simple, portable game for kids ages 7 and up. There are 4 different types of challenge cards in the deck with categories that include Silly Sentences, Tongue Twisters, Check and Double Check and Brain Play.
12 cards are taken from the deck. 1 card is placed on the device. The timer is activated with a simple push of a button. The first person follows the instructions for the challenge on the card, then passes it to the next player. The person left holding the buzzer keeps the card. Who ever has the fewest cards at the end of the game wins. The challenges are honestly a lot of fun. Silly Sentences allows kids in “Mad Lib” form to fill in the blank to make a silly sentence. Tongue Twisters has kids repeating tongue twisters 2 times before they pass it on. Check and Double Check cards include those really fun Highlights hidden pictures where children need to spot 1 of the 12 differences before passing it on. The Brain Play card encourages kids to answer a challenging question. The timer will make a sound the entire time and ends with a silly sound like a cow mooing or cat meowing. The person left holding the timer takes the card. Whoever has the fewest cards after all 12 are played is the winner.
I was able to have a lot of fun using this game, even when working with 1 other student. I stacked the deck with cards I knew he would like, and focused more on using the Check and Double Check and Silly Sentences cards because they were more closely related to the goals we were working on. At the end of the game he wrote down his favorite silly sentence, drew a picture to illustrate it and loved sharing it with his friends. This game has a lot of versatility, and can be modified to play with multiple children. It can be played in a short period of time and the instructions are very easy for young children to read and follow.
Discovery Bay Games provided this game free to facilitate this review. The opinions are my own.