Dr. Eureka

Dr. Eureka
Blue Orange Games

About the game

The brilliant Dr. Eureka has important experiments for you to complete!  Pick a challenge card, 3 test tubes and 6 colorful balls to solve his scientific formula.  Carefully move your materials from tube to tube without dropping them, and position them as illustrated on the challenge card.  This brain teasing party game can be played solitary or competitively. 

What we thought

First and foremost, the game reminded me of the Tower of Hanoi challenge.   Let’s face it – it is a challenge that can be stressful in a competition mode.   Nevertheless I like the originality of the game as it is a great way to explore the Tower of Hanoi concepts.

The game is for one to four players (a bit disappointing for a family of six but it’s okay because we could always do a mini tournament of three people at a time and compete that way against each other).  

I will admit that my kids were a bit stressed at first – going to fast in trying to complete the challenge.   Balls were rolling on the table and so on.   The game is quite simple to be honest.  You pick a card which illustrate the challenge to complete.  Using your skills you replicate the tubes but moving the balls from one tubes to another.  You can flip the tubes upside down to make it quicker in order to complete a challenge.  Once a challenge is won the card goes to the winner.  The first person who win five points (cards) is the winner.   So the game can be quite fast – about 15-20 minutes of play time.   When you come to think of it, I find this is the perfect game to allow the kids to switch mode between two subjects while homeschooling.  For example, if doing their mathematics has been difficult, this game would allow them to change their thinking a bit before doing something else that might require some attentiveness.

So we setup the game to play and the kids decided to pose before starting the challenges.

There was lots of errors at first but after a while, the kids were able to get the hang of it.  We played on the table which made the balls bounce when it slipped out of the test tubes.   A fellow blogger suggested to play on a carpet on their review but when you house doesn’t have any carpet it is kind of difficult.  Besides, I personally prefer to play at a table where you can be sitting comfortably.   You just have to slowly speed up your technique and make sure you know how to handle the test tubes and the balls to finish first and yell “EUREKA!”

Here’s a close up of the technique of switching the balls from one test tube to another.

Challenge complete!

The game will help you to develop fine motor skills, visual perception, focus and attention as well as processing speed.   And I have seen these being developed the more the kids were playing the game.  For example, the visual perception is essential to make sure you have the same thing as the card… a slight difference came make you loose the challenge and the card.

When my husband came back from work, the kids proceeded to tell him about the game.  He sat down with them and looked at it.  He concluded that the game would be good for dyslexics like himself and two of my kids because it would help them to concentrate and make sure the balls and tubes are place properly in order to win the challenge.

As parents we were impressed with the game as it helps to develop visual perception, focus, attention, and processing speed.   The younger two really enjoyed it but my second born wasn’t too thrilled at first.  However, with time he warmed up to the game and now I think he can see the benefits of playing it especially if it can help him with the attention he needs while doing school.

Dr. Eureka is available for purchase at your favorite gaming store – even on amazon.ca and amazon.com.

  

Disclaimer: Thanks to Blue Orange Games for sending me the game. I was not monetarily compensated for this post . Please note that the post was not influenced by the Sponsor in any way. All opinions expressed here are only my own.