A review : LEGO Starwars Battle of Hoth game.

Last week, I was sent an email with a verrrry interesting proposition. On the very week of Aesop's LEGO birthday party, I was asked if I would like to review the new LEGO Starwars game. Um, letmethinkaboutit, yes! Please!
I 've thought and thought about quite how I would write the review, this is my first time after all, and I've decided that I'll tell you a wee bit about the game and also share some of Aesop's thoughts on it. That is who it was intended for, after all!

As most of you will know, Lego has been making games, as well as building sets, for a wee while now. This is very cool for a number of reasons : mostly because Lego and games are two of the best things ever. As a mother of two block-obsessed boys, anything that provides another way for us to play Lego is very welcome. This game, especially, combines two of Aesop's absolute favourite things in the world. It really couldn't have been a better choice for him.
(Aesop described the game as ' Excellent. Perfect. Amazing'. )

We planned to play this game at the party, I figured that a group of boys, full of lollies and party fun would be the perfect testers (it can be played with two people, or in two teams). But, alas, we didn't have the fore thought to pre-build the board. I guess I thought it would be quite straight forward, but after half an hour of the boys still trying to get it sorted, we decided to pack it up and move on to something else. This, luckily is the only negative thing we have to say about the game. (And, I should add, after the initial set-up, it is not necessary to dismantle completely to store it. Meaning that the next time you play it's pretty much ready to go!)
(Aesop described the building of the game as ' Very, very, very, very, very hard.')

We grabbed the opportunity the next evening  to finish setting up, and have a few games.
The instructions we very straight forward, and the game has elements of Chess and Chinese checkers. It gets the brain going, but also involves a bit of luck and the added fun of the characters being familiar (to us Starwars nerds..) is a bonus.  Aesop had no trouble getting the hang of it, and we all really liked that there were variations that could be made to further the game if you wanted.  Keeps things interesting!
(Aesop said the least cool thing about the game was ' That some of the pieces couldn't attack as far as I wanted them to.' and that his favourite game piece was ' the AT-AT walker.' He recommends the game to 'anyone who likes LEGO or Starwars.')
(That said, he goes on further to say ' you don't have to know about Starwars to like this game, but it would if you have seen the episode because then you will know who you are moving!')

All in all, I think this game will be a very welcome, and useful, addition to our games cupboard.
I can't honestly say that I could afford to splash out the $69.99 to buy it at full price just to add to the collection, but it would be a wonderful gift from the grandparents, or a special treat for Christmas etc.

(Here's a cool video about the game, too. 'Cause videos are fun.)