Take Your Kid's Love for MagNext from His Bedroom Floor to His Computer Screen

In case you couldn't tell it from the last few weeks' posts, my nephew's must have toys this year were the Wii and Bionicle Legos. Last year, however, his must have toy, other than the Nintendo DS, was a large MagNext set. For those of you out there without kids, nieces, or nephews, MagNext are those building sets made up of round, straight, u, and other-shaped magnets. Theoretically, children are supposed to build everything from buildings to roller coasters with these magnets. In reality, however, the only thing that they build with them is a new take on the banana peel. In other words, they tend to leave the things on the floor, just out of sight, so that when you get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, you step on one of them and down you go. Worse, your dog finds one of them, thinks it's a really cool treat, swallows it, and then spends the next day at the vet's office, getting it magnet surgically removed.

Now don't get me wrong. I love MagNext and similar toys. I think they're much better for kids than say guns or action figures because they actually cause the child to think. However, I don't think that all children are responsible enough to have them. Every time I step or sit on one of the magnets, I think, "I wish there was some way for Chandler to play with the magnets that doesn't involve him leaving them all over the house and car." Luckily, now there is a way--virtually. MagNext has a new site, MagNext Virtual, where kids and adults alike can play games based on the building sets.

To enter MagNext Virtual, you must first choose a sphere that represents you in the game. You can choose from six different colored balls and, once in the MagNext's virtual world, add a halo or a sheriff's hat to your sphere. Later, once you gain mags and XP's by playing games and hanging out in the game's rooms, you can go to the MagNext Shop and decorate your sphere even more.

After setting up your spherical avatar, you can then choose to play one of three games, each of which is in a different room. First, you can choose to enter the MagNext Arena, where you have to challenge another player to a game. I hate to admit this little fact, but I was too chicken to enter the arena. I'm halfway decent at playing the Wii, but when it comes to games that require the use of arrows, my brain and my fingertips sometimes shut down. Plus, I didn't want to suffer the shame of being beaten by a ten-year-old somewhere.

The next room and game that you encounter is the Spheron. This game I actually did play, as it was single-player only. The object of the game is to maneuver your MagNext race car around a series of obstacles that have been built with virtual MagNext magnets until the car basically run out of gas. The longer that you maintain your car's speed and thus the farther that your car goes on the race track, the more points that you get. I did fairly well on my first try. On my second try, I didn't rev up my car's engine enough to make it a foot down the track. Luckily, no one but my dogs saw that little embarrassing moment.

The third game is the iCoaster. This game involves replacing the missing tracks on a roller coaster that has been constructed out of MagNext pieces. As you encounter each missing section of track, you must choose from four possible pieces that fit it. If you choose the right one, the sphere continues on, and the game rewards you with an "awesome." If you choose the wrong piece, the sphere drops off the track, only to be saved by an open parachute.

I have to admit that the games were rather fun, even for a 32-year-old. I can see my nephew playing them, should my mom ever get a computer with enough RAM to operate them. We tried to play the games over Christmas, but my mom's dinosaur of a computer just couldn't get up and go long enough to operate the site. I told Chandler that we could play them on my computer if they come to Atlanta for my birthday. I can see him playing it for hours, if for no other reason that to earn enough points to pimp his sphere, so to speak. He loves doing the same thing to his Miis, online Neopets, and Guitar Hero characters.

If you have children, nieces, or nephews who love their MagNext building sets and are ready to take their love of the toys to the next level, you should sign them up for the site. You can even sign yourself up. The more people that you get to sign up, the more mags that you earn, the more moves and other characteristics that you can purchase in the MagNext Shop, and the more fun that you can have. I'll definitely be playing again. Maybe if I practice enough, I can finally beat my nephew at a non-Wii game and work up the courage to enter the MagNext Arena. Hey, it could happen.