Toy Review by Deanne - Magna Force

Magna Force Game – use the magnetic wand to remove the pillars, but don’t topple the tower over!

Magna Force is just like the classic block-stacking, stack-crashing game Jenga, but with magnets! The goal of the game is to remove as many pillars as possible before the tower topples over. Novita kid Deanne shows us how the pillars are removed using the powerful magnetic wand. Here’s her review of the Magna Force game.

What’s In The Magna Force Game Box?

6 transparent discs
30 magnetised pillars (colour coded)
2 magnetic wands
1 colour-coded dice

Therapeutic Benefits Of Magna Force Game

Manga Force is a great game for building problem-solving skills and developing kid’s hand-eye coordination. The aim of this game is to have kids take their time and develop a strategy about which pillar they’ll choose, all whilst keeping their emotions and excitement under control. Kids will need to manage their anticipation as they slowly remove each pillar and wait to see what happens –will the tower topple over, or will it stay standing?!

When playing Magna Force, kids will work on their patience, practise encouraging others, and learn to manage their disappointment if they knock the tower over. Taking turns with other players as they remove the pillars one-by-one lets kids practise politeness too. Once the Magna Force tower has crashed to the ground, kids can also work on their cooperation skills as they rebuild the tower for the next game.

Magna Force is a tricky game that requires a lot of coordination. This may encourage kids to practise asking for help which is an important life skill to have and can be learnt from lots of fun games kids play.

Practise Great Social Skills With Magna Force

To make the game more social, you could always ask a question each time a player adds or removes a pillar. An easy way to do this is to create a list of 30 questions (one question for each pillar) and print out/glue each question to the back of a coloured card – 5 green cards, 5 orange cards, 5 pink, 5 red, 5 blue, and 5 white.

Here are 30 example questions you can download and print out at home.

Every time a player adds or removes a pillar, they will now need to match the colour of the pillar with the corresponding coloured card and answer the question on the back.

If the player has already answered that question during a previous game, they can pick any other coloured question card instead. If they don’t feel comfortable answering the question, then they can say ‘pass’. When the player has finished answering their question, it is then the next player’s turn.

Asking a question each time a player adds or removes a pillar is a great way for kids to make friends as they share and learn more about one another. It is also a great way for kids to practise important communication skills like speaking clearly and not shouting, listening with understanding and empathy, and maintaining eye contact.

How To Play Magna Force Game

The Set-Up

Unlike the pre-assembled Dino Meal game, Magna Force begins with the set-up.

To begin the game, roll the dice. The first player to roll a blue gets to place the first pillar on the table.

In a clockwise direction, players take turns rolling the dice, finding the coloured pillar which matches the colour they rolled and continue to place the pillars upright on the table until at least four are standing.

Once four pillars are placed on the table, the next player to roll gets to choose between:

1. Adding another pillar, or

2. Putting a transparent disc on top of the pillars which adds a new level to the game

Every time there are four or more pillars in the layer, the player has the choice of adding a pillar or a transparent disc to make a new level.

Set-up continues until all 30 pillars are placed and the tower is five or six levels high.

The Challenge

Once the tower has been set-up, it’s time to pull it apart.

The next player rolls the dice to see which colour pillar they will need to remove with the magnetic wand.

If the player successfully removes the pillar, they get to keep it and the game continues. When a player makes the tower topple over, the game ends.

The player who makes the tower collapse loses the game. The other players add up the pillars they successfully removed. This becomes their score. The player who has the most points wins!

To make Magna Force easier to play, you could ask an adult to help you build the tower, or remove the dice from the game. Without the dice, players can choose any colour pillar they like when building or dismantling the tower.

To make the game more challenging, throw in a second dice with numbers 1 – 6 on it. When a player takes their turn, they will now roll two die and have to add or remove that number of coloured pillars. For example, if a player rolls a yellow and the number 3, they would have to add or remove 3 yellow pillars – playing this way certainly speeds up the game!

Make Your Own Magna Force!

If you can’t visit one of our metropolitan or regional offices to borrow Magna Force, you could always make your own version at home!

First off, get your kids to create their own dice with this downloadable dice template. They will need to colour in 1 side green, 1 side orange, 1 pink, 1 red, 1 blue, and leave 1 side white (which is ‘roll again’). Once that’s done, cut out the shape of the dice and glue the flaps together to make a cube.

Next step, find some paper plates to use as discs, and something to use as pillars. If you have a set of dominos at home, these work perfectly as there are 28 tiles in a set. You could also use Jenga blocks, Lego pieces or even toilet paper rolls as pillars. Alternatively, you could make a MEGA Magna Force game with cups and bottles as pillars and cardboard from an empty cereal carton or tissue box as discs.

If you decide to use dominos, you can assign each colour on the dice with a specific number. This way, players know which pillar to place or remove when they roll. For example, if green = 1, players need to place or remove a domino with a 1 on it. If orange = 2, then players need to place or remove a domino with a number 2 on it. And so on.

If using specially allocated numbers makes the game too difficult, or if you simply don’t have a set of dominos at home, you can always use coloured Lego pieces as pillars or even buy some coloured stickers sheets and stick them onto toilet paper rolls or whatever you’re using as pillars.

The last thing you’ll need to do is find some tweezers, small pliers or mini-BBQ tongs. You’ll need these to remove the pillars in your version of the game as they won’t be magnetic like they are in Magna Force. If you can’t find any tweezers, then you can always just use your hands!

And that’s it! Your very own version of Magna Force is ready to play.

Helpful Information