ThinkFun Gravity Maze Marble Run Brain Game and STEM Toy – Award-Winning Educational Toy for Kids 8+ | Spatial Reasoning Skill Development | Engineering and Building Game | 60 Logic Puzzles

Intuitive Intro to Fundamental Physics and Problem-Solving, Mediocre Build, Amazing Game!
Bought it for my 6-year old nephew, and he loved it!
The game is set up so that my nephew could figure it out intuitively with minimal guidance.
The game introduces children to fundamental concepts of physics and problem-solving mechanics in a very natural way. A ball rolling down the hill won’t suddenly drop down in a straight line or turn on its own, no matter how much you want it to.
The game rules are simple. There is a starting point and an end goal that are placed in a fixed orientation on the grid and a list of which pieces can be used freely to reach that end point. There may be additional fixed pieces on the grid at start, depending on the level.
I pointed out the dots that help indicate orientation of fixed starting pieces, which one was start piece, and which one was the end piece, and my nephew was off on his own in minutes. His experience with Lego model sets made the importance of orienting the starting pieces correctly easy to pick up.
The game gradually introduces levels of complexity: longer paths, double-stacked pieces, free pieces that need to be laid horizontally, solutions requiring the ball to cross back through the same piece multiple times, etc., allowing the learning process to progress intuitively. My nephew needed some encouragement and guidance at some of these progression points, but again, the uptake once he figured it out was both natural and rewarding for him (and me). Conceptually the game is a blast, even for adults.
Like others, I find it extremely regrettable that a game with such well thought out mechanics, has some pretty obvious build quality and design issues. The pieces just don’t snap satisfyingly into position, and an excited 6-year old might find himself getting a little frustrated when pieces fall out of place as he frantically rushes towards a solution. Additionally, the dots assisting with orientation are functionally sufficient, but could be more visible, and a side panel on the ramped cells labeled with an arrow indicating direction of the cell’s inner path might also decrease the frustration of setting up the board of glaringly bright fluorescent clear plastic pieces, freeing up more time to be spent on the satisfying effort of solving the puzzle. I wouldn’t mind paying another 5 to 7 dollars for a set with a more solid and polished feel.
Still, the build is serviceable, and in the end, only a minor nuisance compared to the enjoyability of the puzzles themselves.

Fun!
My 8 year old loves this! I was a little timid about purchasing it because I thought it might be too complicated. But he really enjoys it and it’s a lot of fun. It’s a good value for the money and quality is great. We spend a few hours a week playing it and he will try to create his own routes by himself. Love it!

Fun toy
Creative fun play encourages strategic thinking.

Love this game! Great for adults who liked those marbles with plastic tracks back in the day
I needed a nostalgic moment by doing activities that I wanted to do really bad as a kid. I remember my friend had those plastic towers with the plastic tracks where you could play with them, and think about how to get it all the way to the bottom. Those were awesome, I think this game is a great like logic version of that, that is more friendly for adults too. The puzzles definitely get harder so it will take a while to complete. I am still playing with it too. Great job on the design! Love it!