Matthew BaileyToday, we are going to be looking at the Exit Kids game Midnight Spooktacular, released by Kosmos as part of the general Exit series, but designed as a kids’ version with a spooky Halloween vibe.
First and foremost, this is generally meant for younger children, probably around seven years old, depending on their ability. When we did this, Henry (4), Toby (7) and Jack (10) teamed up to solve it while I sat on the sidelines and just watched.
The general idea is that you have to get the Frankenstein character dressed. To do that, you need to solve six riddles. These six riddles each come on different cards and cover a range of puzzle types, including logic puzzles, visual observation challenges and spatial awareness tasks.
There’s a really good mix, and the kids really enjoyed doing them. Part of the challenge is not just solving the puzzle but actually figuring out what the puzzle is. This is one of the biggest issues because, while the game advertises itself as resettable and replayable (and technically it is, since each type of puzzle has six different versions), they all follow the same format. Once you’ve done a puzzle once, you could easily do it again.
The playthrough probably took the kids about 25 minutes, with two specific puzzles taking a little longer to work out. Once you know what to do, you could probably complete the whole thing in about five minutes, which obviously isn’t ideal.
The components are the usual Exit quality. They’re absolutely fine but nothing special and definitely a far cry from some of the more premium escape room games. However, given that these are by far the cheapest, I think the component quality is perfectly acceptable for the value.
Don’t get me wrong, this is really good fun, and the kids had a great time playing. It was a lovely way for them to spend 25 minutes socialising and working together as a team. It made for a nice half-term afternoon activity. But you do need to ask yourself whether you’re happy to spend around £10 for 25 minutes of entertainment, because even though it’s technically replayable, you’re probably not going to replay it.
So, to sum up: are you happy spending about £10 for roughly 30 minutes of engaging fun for your kids? If the answer is yes, this is a solid recommendation. If not, there are probably other things you could spend your money on.
