Hullabaloo

If you're looking for a game to teach the competitive spirit to your children, you're in the wrong place. On the other hand, if you want a Twister-like game for the preschool set with a delightful sense of whimsy, have I got a game for you.

Hullabaloo's setup is simple enough for a three-year-old: Throw the little plastic mats out on the floor, push the "on" button on the bottom of the talking Hullabaloo machine -- and then follow the instructions.

You'll be jumping, running, skipping, flying, and any other manner of cavorting as you bounce from mat to mat. At some random moment, the game will declare that the person standing on the "X" mat is the winner (usually after about 1 to 2 minutes) and give the winner a command ("Winner, take a bow!" "Winner, do a victory dance!").

Children are encouraged to share mats (more than one person can be on the same mat at the same time), and any game where you have multiple winners in 10 minutes is obviously not trying to hone someone's killer instinct.

But that's not the point. The point of Hullabaloo is unadulterated fun... and it delivers that by the truckload.

This game works with kids as young as three years old, and it is a great game for families to play together. The silliness makes for wonderful bonding moments.

With Hullabaloo, the Cranium folks are making up for the debt of badness they incurred by releasing the original Cranium game on the world by putting out a really great children's game.

Hullabaloo is for 2 to 6 players, ages 4 and up. It was designed by Forrest-Pruzan Creative and published by Cranium (now owned by Hasbro).