Recommended Age:	6+
Players:	2-4
Cost:	$29.99
Company Site:	www.plasmarttoys.com
Objective:	Be the first to reach the top and survive the last drop.
Contents:	1 Ramp, 1 Drop Shot Tower, 1 Drop Shot Ball, 3 Gates, 4 Marbles, 1 Special Die

Drop Shot is another great game by PlaSmart and my favorite part is you drop a ball and it randomly goes on the game board. This game is a great one for any age from around 3 to adult. It’s fun and easy to learn.

Drop Shot is very easy to learn, pretty quick to play and so much fun. There are smaller pieces so if you have kids who put things in their mouth you should play with them to be safe. Older kids (or 3 year olds who don’t try to eat things) can play this on their own which frees up time for you!

There was the handy video supplied by the company website. Now here is my explanation of how to play followed by the slight adjusting you could do in order to play with someone as young as 3. Their favorite part is of course dropping the ball…I mean who doesn’t love doing that though.

The board is plastic and only two pieces so its really easy to set up, however it is also pretty easy to knock down. You have to slide the bottom part into a slot on the part that stands up. This is great because it is so easy but it also means that if you push even a little on the top it can fall over. We only really have that problem when my 3 year old daughter plays though as she likes to set her hand on top before she drops the ball…the tower part falls over a lot when she plays.

Objective:

Be the first to make it to the top row AND survive the final ball drop.

Setup:

Set aside the Drop Shot Ball and Gates. Choose your marble colors (if only 2 people are playing you can choose to be either 1 color each or 2 colors each) and figure out who goes first. In our house we roll to decide…no matter who is youngest. Put the bottom part into the tower part at the slot opening. It just rests there so don’t push on its top. Choose your starting area and you are ready to play.

 Play:

Each player will roll the Die and either move, play (or move) a Gate or drop the Ball. A few rules (of course) depending on which action you are doing though. I’ll cover them all of course and probably (hopefully) not confuse you.

• Moving
  • You HAVE to move the exact number on the Die. If you cannot move that many spaces than you lose that turn.
  • You can move Horizontally across lanes ONLY if the marbles in those lanes are out of their start spots
  • You can move up in a lane towards the top of it but NOT Diagonally.
  • You cannot split rolls into different directions. If you roll a 3 you cannot move 1 Horizontal and 2 up.
  • You do NOT need an exact roll to make it to the top space.
• Gates

If you roll the Blue Horizontal Line then you have to place a Gate. If all the Gates are placed then you can (but don’t have to) move a Gate around the board. You can place Gates anywhere on the board there is a slot for one. Gates act like barriers so marbles cannot jump over them but they do stop the Drop Shot Ball.

These are sort of hard for a 3 year to understand as far as strategy but they pick up real quick that you put them down or move them when that Blue Line appears. She doesn’t understand how to use them just yet but my son is catching on pretty quick.

• Drop Shot Ball

If you roll the Yellow Circle then you have to drop the Drop Shot Ball. Select a spot at the top of the Tower and prepare for a Knock down. If it doesn’t roll down a lane you are allowed to re-drop it.

The Drop Shot Knock Down ends when the Ball stops or falls (or rolls) off the ramp. It can knock two players down at the same time if they are in the same lane. If this happens they should be in the same order they were in when the Ball started just wherever they stopped moving.

• Knock Downs

Knock Downs can happen when the Drop Shot Ball is dropped and rolls down the lane of a marble. The ball will either push the marble down a few spaces or that marble gets knocked back to the very beginning of the board. Not the start space but the first spot. It can also be stopped by a gate.

There are two other ways to knock another player down is to land on their occupied space or jump over another player’s marble.

Winning:

When any player reaches the top space of any lane the game gets paused. That player then drops the Drop Shot Ball no matter the roll or anything else. If their marble survives the Drop they win! If it doesn’t survive and instead gets Knocked Down then play continues as normal. If there are more than 2 players than you can continue play to see who comes in 2nd, 3rd and/or 4th place as well.

This game is easy to learn and to teach with the exception being the use of the Gates. Kids as young as 3, like my Diva, will understand the rolling, moving, placing or moving Gates and of course Dropping the Drop Shot Ball. She does like to make up her own moves though so I have to watch her as she moves her marble. She rolls a 2 and suddenly she is half way up the board…cheater.

The Gates are the hard part and ONLY because it involves strategy. They will pick up on not being able to go through them, placing them and moving them but not so much the why you shouldn’t put it right in front of your own marble but maybe behind it instead idea. Other than that  (and pushing the ball in at the top thus knocking the tower part down) they will be able to play no problem.

This is one of the few games meant for 6+ that I haven’t had to actually adjust for my 3 year old. I love that is simple and quick because my kids LOVE playing it and it doesn’t actually matter if their marble gets knocked down. In fact I think both of my kids cheer when ANY marble gets knocked down.

I love playing games with my kids and finding a game I can play with BOTH my 5 year old and 3 year old is kind of amazing. Usually we have to adjust for the Diva and the Gentleman and I have to play by the rules for her or play by ourselves. When it is just us 3 though we like to try to play together and Drop Shot is now our favorite 3 player game.

“My childhood may be over, but that doesn’t mean playtime is.”
~ Ron Olson