Fraser Anderson
Germany
Herrenberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
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This past week I was able to try out Weykick at a games convention in Germany (Suddeutsche Spielmesse 2008) and here are my impressions of the game.
Components:
The game comes with the board, two players, a ball, and two magnets. All are constructed of good quality wood and feel very solid in the hand. The board is elevated by about 12cm or so as players need to put their hands underneath to play.
There were three sizes of board available at the booth I played in, a mini "travel" sized, a standard size, and a larger hexagonal board that supported four players (2 per team.)
Gameplay:
This reminded me a little of upside down air hockey. The wooden players on the top of the board each contain a magnet in the base. The players put their hands underneath and hold a magnet "controller" in each hand. The players then slide these controllers around the bottom of the board, which in turn moves the players around the field. There is a wooden barrier in the centre, preventing the movement of players into the opponents field.
The players must then move their pieces to strike the ball towards the opponents goal, as simple as that. So the game comes down to some dexterity on how well you can offensively strike the ball and defensively block your own goal with players. A game is won when one side reaches 10 goals.
Play moved fast and furious with me and the magnets held the pieces better than expected. Excessively rapid moves would cause the magnets to lose contact and thus control of your pieces, so you need to be a little bit careful.
Overall impression:
As I said, this gave me a feeling similar to air hockey, but a little less violent. I thought the quick pace and super easy to understand technique were great. I was literally up and going in seconds, no instruction was necessary as it was completely intuitive.
This is a light fun game, one that I can imagine being very good to play with kids. I am sure that quite some skill could be built up at this over time, I thought it was a good one.
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Ian McCarthy
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
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Thanks for the review. I'm wondering if you could also post some details regarding the components, i.e. what are the "controllers" made of and what is under the soccer/football players, separating them from the board ... felt maybe? Is the board well-varnished so that they slide better? Some pictures would be nice, as well as some comments on the strength of the magnets. Do they feel like neodymium (strong) or are they more like refrigerator magnets (relatively weak).
This also looks like a possibly fun DIY project, so I'd love some more detailed info and/or pictures.
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Fraser Anderson
Germany
Herrenberg
Baden-Wurttemburg
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certainly.
Simply put, everything is made out of wood. There are a few different models of the game but it is all wood.
board: wood, either painted or not. I see from the manufacturers website that it appears to be Beech (Buche.) Board is painted/varnished with a very smooth finish and the players glide well on the surface. All of the components are of very very fine quality. All paint used is of course child-safe. Germans are sticklers on craftsmanship and this is no exception.
Players: also wood, presumably Beech as well, they have some details painted on and the bottom of the player has been hollowed out to allow the magnet to be placed inside. The Magnet side is then covered with Felt.
Controllers: Yet more wood. These resemble a smallish wooden hockey puck, with the top hollowed out and a magnet inserted inside. The magnet side is then covered with felt.
ball: A small painted wooden ball.
The magnets feel quite strong to me and the players moved quite responsively.
I would recommend checking out the manufacturer's website. It is all in German, but if you click on "Fussball" and then "Bestellung" you will get to the purchase page, which has lots of photos and even the dimensions of the boards in cm. If you have the skills, I would recommend trying it on your own, they are quite pricey to but and may be a little too expensive for a casual purchase. They start at around 120 Euro per set.
There are also some quite decent photos in the gallery here. check out the Weykick on on ice galleries too, there are some close ups of the players on there.
http://www.weykick.de/index.html
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Ian McCarthy
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
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Hey, thanks so much. I really appreciate the info and the link.
This game reminds me of third grade, when a friend of mine in class made a bunch of magnet cars. I made some too and we would drive them around cardboard cities, directing with "controller" magnets from the underside just like in Weykick. You could even flip the magnets around and make the cars wreck or do crazy things.
"Germans are sticklers ..." Very true, my wife is German. 
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