Combat toys like Battleship have been around for quite a while, like those dueling robots where you achieve victory by causing your opponent’s head to spring up. I suppose when kids grow up, they get into card combat games like Pokemon. Oddly enough, Lone Shark games, the makers of Pokemon and the popular Magic: The Gathering have created a game that takes player-to-player combat to a new level with Verticon. Verticon is a game that you can buy for about $24.95 on Wild Planet, and players can duke it out in mid air.

That’s right, mid-air. Did you ever use a hair dryer to magically “levitate” a ping-pong ball? Well, Verticon works on the same principle, except you use two balls. The Air Battle Arena gives a gust of fan-blasted air that makes the balls float, and the first one to knock the opponent’s ball out of the levitated area wins.

There is a little strategy involved, as players can decorate the balls with weapons. That’s right, tiny plastic axes and even ball and chains come into play. I honestly don’t know how good they work towards defeating your opponent, and I’m also not certain of how much of a game of chance this really is. You do have some control over the airflow, which can make those balls fly really high, believe me.

There seems to be a big storyline and the balls themselves are like characters with their powers and limitations. I would not be surprised if this became the next Pokemon, but kids of any age should get a kick out of floating ball fighting!

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