Klask & Klask 4-Player
review by Brendan
Hello! Do you like fast competitive dexterity games, such as air hockey or foosball? If so, you'll love Klask! Klask is basically air hockey with magnets, a very simple and fun game that's easy to pick up and play with minimal instructions! There are two versions of Klask; the original two player version, Klask, and Klask 4, a follow-up that expands the game board to allow for four players at once! I'll be reviewing both below!
First off, the original, Klask! The box contains a very easy to assemble rectangular board for play (snap on some legs and you're good to go!), paddles with steering magnets, little white magnets, some scoring chips, and a ball! As a neat perk, the box itself is also a storage device, allowing you to safely store the game and the pieces away when you're done (it even has a handle for carrying around!), so don't throw away the box! Once you're assembled, you'll notice that the board is raised off the ground with the legs. You take your paddle and put it on top, then place the bar-grip steering magnet underneath and BAM! They'll connect very easily, and you can move the bar to control the paddle on top. This may seem counterintuitive, but it does factor into the gameplay and also prevents you from accidentally smashing your fingers like you can in air hockey. You then set the white magnets in the center, and place the scoring chips on the scoring track. Once everything is ready, the youngest player gets to kick off the ball from whichever corner they choose!
Well, how do you score? There are four ways! First, the most standard way of scoring is to knock the ball into the opponent's goal, an indented pit on each side of the board. If the ball stays in (flying so fast into it that it bounces out won't count, sorta like mini-golf!), you get a point! Second, if two of the little white magnets stick to the opponent's paddle, you also get a point! Since your paddle is a magnet itself, it means getting too close to these magnets is a risk, so avoid them if you can! Third, and sorta rare, but if the opponent loses control of their paddle to the extent that they can't reclaim it, you get a point! In my opinion, the paddle and steering magnet are pretty firmly locked together, so this is mostly just a penalty to prevent people from flying around like lunatics, you need to TRY for this scenario to occur. Finally, the fourth way to score is the titular KLASK! A Klask is what happens when your opponent isn't paying attention and accidentally steers their own paddle into their goal. It'll make a KLASK sound and get stuck inside the pit, trapped by the magnet!
That's it! Get playing and have fun! The rules are very simple, but you can pick up on strategies as you play along! Those tiny little white magnets? They can get knocked around by the ball, changing the available room to navigate on certain sides of the field. With enough skill, you can get good at knocking them towards your opponent's side intentionally, letting you get more aggressive as their range of motion gets pressured by the threat of the magnets! Or amp up the pace and aggressively bounce it on the sides of the board, trying to trick your opponent into Klask'ing themselves as they go back and forth trying to stop the ball! As you score points, you roll your scoring chips over from 0 to 6, with the winner being the first person to score 6 points!
Next up, Klask 4! Klask 4 shares a lot in common with the original, such as the scoring system, magnets, and handy storage box, but it does differ in some major ways! First off, the board is one big circle, with each player getting one big pizza slice shaped piece of the board to themselves instead of half of a football field. Secondly, instead of points, you have lives! Everytime you have a ball land in your goal, get struck by two magnets, lose your paddle, or Klask yourself, you'll lose a life! Lose all five, and the game ends immediately! The winner is whoever has the most lives by the end of the game, so every little bit counts! The wider field means you have to be way more aware of the sides than before, as you can expect the ball from any angle and need to worry about three opponents instead of one! Aside from that though, it's basically just Klask with more people, so fans of the original can get started right away without needing to learn a whole new game.
Klask and Klask 4 are both very fast-paced and fun games! They're both made of light materials, have smart design, and having a convenient storage case is very neat! Between the two of them, I do prefer the more controlled and competitive original Klask, but Klask 4 is great for family events or just get-togethers in general, having a lot more varied and chaotic matches than you could expect in the original! Give it five minutes and you'll be hooked with whichever one you start with though, I promise!
Klask & Klask 4-Player are available now from our webstore.
