Sphero Mini (Red) - Coding Robot Ball - Educational Coding and Gaming for Kids and Teens - Bluetooth Connectivity - Interactive and Fun Learning Experience for Ages 8+

This hopefully short review will feature 2 parts. A casual fun side, and "I like to develop video games or robotics" side.CASUAL:First off, this will drive on carpet, as long as it's not too thick!This thing this fun right out of the box! It has all sorts of intuitively built functions, albeit with a couple issues.Driving it around, it has multiple fun ways to accomplish this task.The stick controls work well but are finicky. However it's still quite fun. Feels like you're directing a drunk driver around, as it seems to function like a weirder version of a quadcopter drones' headless mode.Frustrating and hard to control, but extremely fun.The other driving modes are weird but neat. It has a tilt control mode, which is hard to get working properly, as it still feels like it has a weirdly programmed headless mode. So it can get confusing.It also has an entertaining "golf" mode. The golf mode is fun but is hard to learn at first. Your swiping of your phone is hard to get used to, because the angle and side you're swiping is asynchronous to the way you aim the actual ball. Swipe any way you want, and it will only go the way you aimed before you swiped.The other driving modes are poorly made gimmicks, not worth mentioning.The games are fun, but the controls make it irritating and sometimes not responsive.Yes, it comes with games. You use the ball as the controller to move a ship across a screen, or drive a car.Very neat!If these were the only functions of the ball, I would give this ball a 3.5 out of 5, or a 4 out of 5. Fun, but eventually an adult like myself will grow tired of it. This concludes the casual part of the review.Are you a game developer or robotics developer? Yes? Enjoy your new toy!If you install the education app, you will quickly find yourself in a funland! It seems to run on javascript, and at the time of this review, I haven't checked that completely. However, I've looked into it's engine.Yes, this app seems to have a javascript powered engine, which functions similar to Unreal Engine 5's blueprints system.THE FUNCTIONS REALLY SURPRISED ME! (but if you're serious about having fun with this ball, buy the advanced version)This ball has axis positioning check features, collision check bools, airborne bool checks, landing from airborne collision check bools, sound effect functions, LED color change functions, variables, functions, loops, and probably more than what I saw in just a couple minutes of looking into the app.It absolutely blew my mind when I looked into the app.I seriously recommend one of these if you want something to mess around with for farts and laughs.But if you want a fuller experience, you should probably buy the 200 dollar version.OVERALL: I love this ball! I can't wait to see what I can do with this coding wise!

The Sphero mini is a super fun little robot. The apps make it a great option for all different ages. The user interface is really simple and easy to understand. I’ve used it with my own kids during homeschooling and with larger groups during a technology program. I’ll definitely be getting more of these in the future.

Ball is very small and I purchased this as a stocking stuffer. It’s a great toy though. Easy to use and fun. This can actually be a toy for a kid or an adult. I don’t have a car but I’m sure they would love batting this around.

I disliked when I don't remember where it's facing, because it goes in the wrong direction. Otherwise this is an awesome product!

This item is very good for kids that love coding, driving and more

These are so fun for middle schoolers to adults. My kids loved playing with them so I bought my nephews these for Xmas. They love coding so this fit in with their robotics love! Small and compact. Great quality as it goes off jumps, runs into walls. Great choices of fun accessories too.

Works. But boring after 10mins

The media could not be loaded. I liked this and very cool to start into programming and also play with obstacles.