Puzzle? Boardgame? Party Game? Perhaps all three? Anyway, flex your mental muscles in this off-the-wall farce! Four colorful robots inhabit a large grid, composed of four squares that can be assembled in 96 ways. The goal is to get a robot of a given color onto a specified spot in the grid. Robots, once moved, must continue to move in a straight line until they hit a wall or one of their fellow robots. They may then veer off at a right angle; this counts as another move. Although designed for competing players to see who can achieve the goal in the fewest moves, Ricochet Robots is perfectly enjoyable as a solitaire puzzle. The paths to your goal are usually tortuous and maze-like.

There are only a handful of games that I've played more than 20 times. This is one of them. It is, at its base, a puzzle-solving game, so if you don't like games like SET, then you won't enjoy it. Everyone sits around a board and tries to find a solution all at the same time. We played for a year without using what we now call 'the communist rule' which was conveniently never taught to me. What it is is this; in case two people name the same number of moves for the solution in the alloted time, then the person with the least number of points gets the new point. Whoever is behind has the advantage! This means even very weak players can hold their own against a stronger player. Great game, even with that rule included.

Games are often characterized by their mechanism of play, such as bidding games, tile-laying games, or the dreadful and always-to-be-avoided dice-rolling games. But Ricochet Robot is completely unique and, for this reason alone, is well worth adding to any game collection.

Absolutely any number can play, the only limiting factor being the amount of space around the board. Furthermore, players can come and go during the course of the game without disrupting the flow at all, making it perfect at a large gathering. But it's also a very good game and, I would argue, more interactive then has been described.

I do agree with many of the other reviews. This one can be taxing on the brain (is that necessarily a bad thing?) and there are definitely those who love it (my gaming group) and those who don't. But given the unique game play and the affordable price, isn't it worth finding out which camp you're in? I'm certainly in the first. Great game. Highly recommend.