I really love Dr. Eureka from Blue Orange!  Quick overview of the game (if you haven’t been lucky to play it yet!) is that you have to get the balls in the right order in your test tubes by pouring them back and forth.  The quickest player gets the card and then everyone starts racing to complete a new card — but they have to start where their test tubes left off on the last card.  It’s got speed, a little logical thinking, and a sprinkling of mad-scientist appeal.  Now they have 2 follow-ups to Dr. Eureka: Dr. Beaker (which I will review here) and Dr. Microbe.

Keeping with the speed scientist theme, Dr. Beaker is all about how fast you can manipulate the balls in your beaker.  The beaker itself is pretty cool, the aqua-colored (it’s not yellow like the pic at right) ball holder ring at the bottom of the beaker moves in a circle around a space in the middle that holds 2-3 balls and has a small opening on one side to move balls in and out of.  Someone flips a card and everyone uses their little stir stick to move the ball holder around and move balls in and out of that central area to get them in the correct order.  Get the balls in the correct order in your beaker first, you collect the card.  If you’re playing with more than 2 players, everyone except last place will collect some cards based on where they finish.  Play to 10 cards to find a winner.

The game play between the two is similar as you’re getting balls in the right spot as quickly as you can.  The mechanism in Dr. Beaker is really fun to play with!  It’s a little harder to see what you’re doing than Dr. Eureka, but you’ll never accidentally lose a ball during play with Dr. Beaker.  So which one do I like better?  Dr. Eureka just because I felt that there was more logic to it and I’m an adult who digs that kind of stuff.  The kids I tested Dr. Beaker with definitely felt that Dr. Beaker was pretty awesome, so maybe it would have been their pick out of the two.  Overall, I think this is a nice follow up to their science-y line of games, and the beakers are just so fun!  And it’s interesting to note that Blue Orange was known for not doing plastic and using mostly wood before they came out with Dr. Eureka.  Dr. Beaker is really an impressive plastic game — but then they’ve always understood the value of a quality product in a good-looking box.

Dr. Beaker Stats:
~$22 Amazon, local game stores
2-4 players
~15 minutes
Ages 8+

If you love both Dr. Beaker and Dr. Eureka, you should try out the third in the series too: Dr. Microbe.  It is also a speed game where you use tweezers to pick up different colored/shaped squishy microbes and get them into a petri dish in the correct order before anyone else. It’s also 2-4 players, ~$20, Ages 8+

And if you’re looking for a younger version of Dr. Eureka, check out Go Go Gelato.  Essentially the same game, just for ages 6+, 2-4 players, ~$20.

FYI: Dr. Beaker was provided free of charge from the manufacturer with no guarantee of review (I’ve got to like it).  Use the links below to support The Game Aisle or go to your local toy/game store and support them!