Pumpazing Children's Game Review

There has been much hilarity in the mellow household over the last week since we received a copy of the brand new game, Pumpazing!

Pumpazing is a bright and loud game for the family to play together and it has really inspired the competitive spirit in Lara. The game is designed for preschoolers to be fun and to help them develop their fine motor skills.

The aim of the game is to be the last person to hold onto their cards. Each player takes it in turn to pump the arms of the bright blue character, Zingy. You keep on pumping his arms in and out until either one of the brightly coloured zinger heads whizzes off into the room, or until Zingy shouts "Uh-oh". If you are unfortunate enough to receive an "Uh-oh" you have to sacrifice one of your cards.

Pumpazing has the suspense of a party game where each player gets excited (actually a bit scared) about whether it will be their turn when Zingy finally says "Uh-oh". It is loud because you can't help but cheer each other on to pump faster and faster and it is a bit crazy with plastic heads popping off all over the place! Pumpazing is unlike any other game I've ever played!  One of Lara's favourite parts of the game is searching for all of the four zinger heads after they have zingged off - they disappear into all sorts of nooks and crannies!

Pumpazing isn't the kind of game I want Lara to be playing in the same room as her baby sister as there have been a few close scrapes when the zinger heads have zingged off in Holly's direction - we shall reserve Pumpazing as a game to be played with friends when her baby sister isn't close by!  I think Pumpazing would be perfect for a big family gathering or a children's party and would work just as well outdoors (perhaps even better as there is more room for the zinger heads to fly off).

I also found that at 3 and a half years old, Lara struggled a bit with the pumping action. I know it is designed to help her improve her motor skills (and I've noticed it improve since she got it) but usually it can take quite some time for Zingy to decide what he is going to do and Lara has to put every single ounce of concentration she has into pumping the arms and often ends up handing him over to us to finish it off. I think he would benefit from slightly shorter pump cycles to keep littlies interested.

Pumpazing costs around £19.99 and you can find stockists at www.drumondpark.com.