I examine the space-related gifts my son got for Christmas and let you in on the good, bad, and ugly.
Let's start with the board games. Keep in mind we already own Constellation Station (a big hit) and Planet Quest (also good although by now we have the cards memorized).
Mars 2020 - we've only had it 2 days and we've already played it a handful of times. You get to select your player from the cards, and your player has a different specialty which can help you avoid specific malfunctions. You start at Earth and move in ever larger orbits outward until you reach Mars' orbit, where you try to land in order to win. The difficulties are that you will have malfunctions along the way and have to stop at a spaceport (there is one in each orbit) to answer a question and earn the fix. The other difficulty is that the little red ball representing Mars moves at each turn also, making it both a strategic and educational element, because in reality Mars is always moving along in its orbit too. If you hit it just right, the game can go rather quickly, or you can find yourself chasing Mars around its orbit until it catches up to you from behind. There are lots of question cards which will make the newness of the game last longer. My rating: an A.
Constellation Space Race - This game differs from our other constellation game in that you get to see both hemisphere (the board is double-sided and you can choose to play the northern or southern side) and you get to move your spacecraft right on the constellations instead of around them. One of its drawbacks is that it involves cards, which on the one hand is educational and on the other makes its game-play limited until all the cards are memorized. As my son already knows all about the planets and constellations and stars, most of the questions are easy for us. The challenging questions are mostly in the space exploration category. It is a fun game that can be played quite fast - you draw three constellations and try to make it to each one and back to your base (Corvus) before your opponent. To move the amount you rolled you must answer a question. To make it more challenging and strategic, you can also move one of the two "UFOs" to a constellation your opponent is trying to get and capture it first, making them pick a new constellation card and go to a new constellation. Or you can go to the same square your opponent's rocket is on and make them move back to the home base and draw another constellation card, adding to the amount they must capture. And don't forget about the wormholes that allow you to jump from one part of the board to another. My rating: a B+ (but note - for some players with less knowledge this could earn an A - my son just prefers the Mars 2020 game.)
Discovery Ultimate Star Planetarium - This is one of the three items he got from the Discovery Channel Store. Technically he got this a month ago for his birthday but because we had an issue with a faulty toy he only recently got to play with it. It does indeed work, with a separate sphere for northern or southern hemisphere. You can put in your location and see what the sky looks like now or at a date of your choosing. You can find a constellation from the database. Add you can add a planet or the sun or moon or even a nebula to the view with a special projection piece. But the best part, in my opinion, is setting it to run for an hour so you can fall asleep underneath it. The drawbacks: it works best close to the ceiling, or even better if you happened to have a domed ceiling (I'm guessing you don't). It might be fun to try inside a tent - we haven't yet. And the price - it's very expensive. Due to the high price, I'm going to have to give it an overall rating of a B-.
Explore Space Software Activity - Another item from the Discovery Channel Store is this software package. You get one CD-ROM and two "trinkets" - a glow-in-the-dark space mobile with 6 spheres, an astronaut, and a shuttle, plus a plastic model of the space shuttle on a base that you have to put together yourself. This is an old fashioned, cheap plastic, you-punch-it-out-of-the-frame kind. Good luck getting it together and keeping it together, and fat chance a kid can do it. The software is so-so. It is mostly encyclopedic knowledge of categories such as The Big Bang, The Solar System, etc. A voice tells you some information and then you can read some information yourself. Very basic. The one fun feature is a trivia game. Answer questions about the information on the CD to earn a shot at asteroids that are threatening to destroy Earth (really they are just harmlessly circling above the atmosphere in the graphic). Take your shot and if you answer 20 questions correctly you save Earth. My rating: a C-.
Illuminated Universe Globe - Our last Discovery Channel Store item. In daylight it's a world globe, when it senses darkness a bulb inside lights up, obscuring the Earth images and showing a beautiful blue parade of the constellations. It may be a bit confusing because the constellations will look "backward" as you are out in space looking down on them. You have to try to imagine yourself as inside the orb looking up on the constellations. Not just the stars are represented but drawings of what each constellation stands for, such as a lion for Leo. It is a very attractive globe but again, very pricey. And it needs to be plugged in, but there is not an on-off switch on the cord, so if you do not want the lights on all night you must unplug it. So it's best to set it somewhere you can reach the outlet easily. My rating: a B.
Well I'm off to play another round of Mars 2020. I hope you got some great astronomy gifts for Christmas too!
