Play Impossible Gameball

This is hard to decide how to rate. On one hand, my kids seem to love it. I have a 10 year old son and 9 year old daughter and they loved this right out of the box. There are some pretty neat aspects to the Play Impossible Gameball. For instance, the recharge stick is an awesome idea and design. It charges the ball in 20 seconds - which seems amazing, but in reality it is probably because the ball doesn’t require much juice to operate so it doesn’t take much juice to charge it. Maybe I’m wrong and they’ve come up with some incredible new way to suck the power right out of the batteries, but I’m betting that it is a relatively simple “occasion razor” thing and it just doesn’t take much power to run the IC inside the ball.Another plus is the app. It is very well thought-out, it is easy to use and appears to have been actually tested to make sure that it isn’t frustrating or difficult to use.The games are largely fun and relatively easy. The ball looks fairly well constructed and hasn’t died yet from the kids playing with it.So what’s not to like?Well, as others have pointed out - it isn’t clear if this ball is really measuring what it claims to be measuring, or if it is actually measuring some very rudimentary accelerometer data and inferring complex deductions from that data - inaccurately. It just doesn’t seem like it is correct a lot of the time. When you are instructed to throw the ball a certain height into the air, it doesn’t feel like it is accurate in measuring your throw. Other measurements seem suspect as well.That is kind of a big deal because that is what makes this ball a “WOW” thing. Anyone can throw together a package like this and pretend the kids are doing it right and tell them they set a new record. But to accurately measure things and really have them achieve the goals, THAT is what is neat. And I’m just not convinced it is doing that all the time.So, I’m giving it four stars. As the parent, I would give it three stars, based on the relatively high price tag (about a hundred bucks when I bought mine before Christmas 2017) and the doubtful accuracy of some, or many, of the challenges. As a kid, my children would give it five stars since they didn’t have to pay for it and they think it is fun. That puts us at an (accurate) average of four stars and that is what I am giving it. I would add that a teenager might be less pleased than my kids, they might be more likely to doubt the measurements than my pre-teens.Still, all totaled up, this was one of the “winners” under the Christmas Tree this year and it is a great indication of where technology and sports are headed. We will soon have bats and balls and golf clubs and more, that tell us every minute detail about our swings and hits (and misses) and more and it is going to be an amazing time to be alive!

Since receiving the Gameball a couple of weeks ago, my kids (13 and 11) and I have been playing with it tons. Out of the box, the ball paired well with my phone (Pixel). The rapid stick charger did its job. The visuals as you watch the ball charge are cool.We still haven't tried all the games, but here's our take on the ones we have played:Skyscraper: You have to toss the ball a specific (cumulative) height within a fixed period of time. **Warning: This game was very addictive and is my current favorite game.Water Balloon Toss: The game requires you to increase your distance (air time) between every throw. You also have to catch it gently enough without the "balloon" bursting. For us, this game replicated the stress of a real water balloon toss without getting wet!Challenge: The reflex and spinning challenges got a lot of play time in our house. These were fun, but I could see how this game would be exponentially more fun with multiple balls. So, we might buy another one for a friend or a cousin.Hot Potato: This was very fun, but I couldn't get my kids to actually catch and then throw it. The ball "exploded" mid-air several times, so we didn't have a definitive winner/loser.The app design is simple and clean. The games are easy to navigate.Only obvious change in my opinion would be to make the charging stick rechargeable instead of using AAs.

This ball was a hit at both Holiday celebrations where balls were given as presents. The first celebration was on Christmas day 2017, when a 7 year old received a Gameball. After all the packages were opened, this was the first toy to be played with. The ages of the people playing with the ball was 7-15 (also including one grandfather). What a hit. Everyone loved the amount of games that came with the ball and that no matter how much you played, just a 20 second charge and you kept playing.This is definitely where the future of toys are headed. Use the cell phone or tablet that every kid is attached to, and make it the hub of physical entertainment. I have never before seen kids do physical play while interacting with the electronic phone or tablet they love. The second holiday event was a few days later. A 12 year old boy received the ball. It was the highest item on his wish list of presents. It was wonderful to see him play with his 17 year old brother before picking up any other toys. They must have played 6-7 different games (activities) that were all available with the original download. The games included are fun and some are VERY Challenging.We are looking forward to any new toys that work like this from Play Impossible.

We had high hopes for this game while in quarantine. I bought these for my kids to play together for Easter. I bought 2 from the “Amazon Warehouse” deals... supposed to only have a scratch or blemish... one is completely non functional, it syncs with the app, but that it all, you can’t make it play the games... the other one works perfectly, and is fun, however it’s Flat! We pumped it up with air and a few hours later it is flat again... you could still play with a flat ball, but for over $70 I think it should hold air and do what it promises. We will be returning both.