Fun New online site for kids by Mega Brands Toys

So I came across a website by Mega Brands today that is really neat. You know Mega Brands, they make Mega Bloks, Rose Art, MagNext , and Board Dudes. Mainly they provide innovative and creative play sets and construction sets for boys aged 5-12 and craft sets for girls of all ages. If you have a boy I am sure you have heard of MagNext toys, if not they are a magnetic building set for building bigger, stronger and faster constructions.

Now Mega Brands has set up a special area on their site for kids to play in a safe online world. The area is called Magnext and it is an online communtiy for kids to meet, play games, and safely chat in a monitored environment (but you don’t have to tell your kids that!) Signing is is free and really easy. There are two options when you first sign up: 13 and under or 14 and older. You choose a username, password, and then enter your email address and pick your character ball. You do not need to input any other personal information other than your country. You also do not have to download anything or pay for anything.

To play the one of the games you enter the MagNext Arena. You can check the information on any opponent such as level, country they are from, and more. It was neat to see players from Latavia, Mexico, Panama and more. You do have to choose an opponent and at the time I was trying to play the lobby was empty so I had to wait for players to arrive. After a minute a few players arrived and I was challenged. The game is very easy and I could see kids really enjoying it. To play you use the Up, Down, Left, and Right arrows and click the appropriate key when prompted. You need to press the correct keyboard keys to complete connections faster than your opponent.
When you win, you will receive points, gain XP, and are awarded MAGZ. You then use the MAGZ at The Shop to buy paint to decorate your ball, buy accessories to wear, and buy action skills. You need to keep playing though in order to unlock the levels of items to purchase. With the Xp’s that you gain you use them to increase your level; I am still a Level 1 Rookie. You can also chat with other players only using a list of approved messages regarding playing the game.

There are also other games in the MagNext world to check out and it is just an overall fun little world to explore. With kids being geared towards computers with all the social networking sites and toys (Webkins, Littlest Pet Shop, Club Penguin) I feel Magnext is a neat are to play in, especially for boys since many of the sites I mentioned before are somewhat more geared towards girls.

So what are my overall thoughts? I enjoyed the game and got addicted to seeing how fast I can push the Up, Down, Left, and Right keys. I will definitely be playing again when I want to wind down and just goof off around the internet. It is a nice break from online surveys, Entrecard dropping, and just getting lost in cyberspace. Even though my son is only two years old, I think he would get a kick out of it and he will definitely appreciate the game in a few years. I would feel completely comfortable letting my boys play this game on their own in a few years and I like that it is Free and backed by Mega Brands toys. So if you are looking a safe and fun site, MagNext is perfect and it is free to play indefinitely and they can even find and challenge their real world friends online.

Here is an image of what a game looks like. You can see in my picture that I am a pink ball with a crown currently and right now I would have to push the Up arrow to connect my two red Magnexts.