Maze

$60, Android, iPhone

Teaches: spacial relations, logic, creativity

CTR Rating: 76%

CTR Review

This is a DIY (do it yourself) VR adventure that lets you design a marble maze by placing walls onto a grid. The concept is innovative, but the implementation could be much better, and easier to use. Next, you add traps and choose start and end points. You can then download the free iOS or Android app to "scan" your maze using your camera (lining up can be a bit tricky) and then play in virtual reality, from the point of view of your marble. This is a very clever idea. You learn that sometimes your maze doesn't translate cleanly -- fortunately there's a well designed maze editor that lets you move or remove walls, and so on. You can also add photos, sounds and riddles to your virtual maze. This process is amazing when it works, but we found that it can crash the app when you customize your app. Fortunately there are some pre-made mazes that you can play (but they're not yours). There are enough materials for about two mazes. It is not possible to reposition the maze walls, once they are taped down. Works with any Google Cardboard viewer (included in the kit) and your iOS or Android smart phone.