Oops!

Oops! - Help the magician "get himself together" in these 50 challenges.

Oops! is a one-person logic, strategy game by MindFox. Simon is the magician and he accidentally divides himself into several pieces and then needs your help to reassemble himself. Kind of a goofy premise, but you get the picture.

The playing board is also the storage box. The back of the lid is white and has indented round spaces where the pieces will stand. Set up the pieces according to a challenge from the puzzle book, then follow the rules to move the pieces on the board so the stack always ends up sitting in the hat.

The game pieces are all hard plastic. There is a box with cover/game board, a head piece, 7 body pieces, and a hat piece. You will be moving stacks of pieces, picking up more and more pieces as you go. The pieces are smooth plastic and are made to stack. However, they don't snap in place or fit snugly together and I found myself dropping them from time to time as I moved the stacks around. With practice it got better.

The puzzle book is an easel-type book that is spiral bound, so it stands up nicely. Turn the book around to see the solution if you get stuck (if you make it to the hat, you already know the solution:). The 50 puzzles are divided into four categories for difficulty and get harder as you go. Here are puzzles 1 and 50 with the solutions:

Left - puzzle.  Right - solution.

If you would like to read more about one-person logic puzzles, check out my post What's in Your Therapy Box? Logic Puzzles Edition. 



Object:
Get all the pieces stacked on top of the hat. 

Set up:
Choose a puzzle from the book and place the pieces on the board in the same positions.

Play:
There are several rules for play. They are:

• Pieces and stacks move horizontally and vertically, never, diagonally.
• A single pieces moves one step, while a stack will move several spaces, one step for each piece in the stack (4 pieces = 4 steps). Movement must always end on top of another piece, never on an empty space.
• When moving stacks, changes in direction are allowed, but you must take the shortest route to your destination.
• A stack may not move through or jump over another piece, you must detour around it.
• Once stacked, pieces must remain stacked and must always move together.
• The head must always be on top. The hat will always be on the bottom, the last space you move to. The hat never moves.

Try this:

• Play a game as the individual watches. Problem solve out loud as you go so that they can learn the strategy. Then take it apart and let them set it up and play as you watch.
• Take your time. If you mess up, start over. Only one puzzle requires eight steps, the other only take between five and seven steps.
• Give minimal clues, letting them solve as much as possible on their own.
• Work a puzzle and do all moves except the last, and let the individual do the last move. Then work another and do all but the last two, then three, etc. until the individual is working them alone.
• Work on visual discrimination, eye-hand coordination, spatial relations, logic, problem solving, manual dexterity, process skills, executive functioning skills, play and leisure exploration and participation.

If you are interested in purchasing this game or just want more information, click on the image below.