KLASK Review

No, KLASK isn’t Ikea’s latest board game shelving unit; it’s actually a tabletop game like air hockey that uses magnetic pieces.

Read our KLASK review to learn more about this fast-paced game of skill.

KLASK Overview

KLASK is a dexterity game for 2 players in which you compete head-to-head to score points.

Scoring points can be done in many ways by using your Striker to manipulate pieces — the orange Ball and the white Magnets — on the board.

The first player to score 6 points wins the game.

KLASK Components

The components included in KLASK. (Each game has 1 spare Ball and Magnet.)

Similar to tabletop sports games like air hockey or tabletop tennis, in KLASK, the players position themselves on each end of the game’s board.

Each player tries to protect their goal from being scored on by their opponent using their Striker (a black magnetic piece that looks like a tall, thin pawn).

Each Striker is placed on the surface of the KLASK board and is controlled by a magnetic Steering Handle (black cylinder) underneath.

A view of the board showing the Striker and Steering Handle in place for both players.

You may only move your Striker during the game by using your hand to control the Steering Handle under the board.

Thanks to the magnetic pieces, your Striker will look as though it is dancing across the board’s surface all on its own.

However, a vertical piece of wood in the center underneath the board prevents players from moving their Strikers into their opponent’s area.

This player’s view of the board, noting the piece of wood on the underside that prevents them from crossing into their opponent’s area.

Each game of KLASK also uses an orange Ball and 3 white Magnets.

Players use their Striker to try to control the Ball and shoot it into their opponent’s goal; the Magnets are there to help you score points by trying to impede your opponent.

A game of KLASK set up.

How To Play KLASK

After each player has set up their Striker and Steering Handle, set up the 3 Magnets on their designated spaces on the center line of the board, with their metallic end facing up.

(This prevents them from being repelled by the magnetic Striker — go science!)

Then, the youngest player takes the Ball, places it in one of their side’s corners, and the game begins.

There are no turns in KLASK, so you play simultaneously with your opponent until someone scores a point.

Scoring Points

There are 4 ways to score points in KLASK.

The first is if the Ball ends up in your opponent’s goal, you score 1 point. However, the Ball must stay in the goal — having it go in and then bounce out is not enough.

This player scores 1 point for the Ball in their opponent’s goal.

The second way is if 2 or more of the white Magnets stick to your opponent’s Striker. (If only 1 Magnet sticks, continue playing as usual.)

Two Magnets are stuck to their opponent’s Striker, so they score 1 point.

The next way to score is if your opponent’s Striker drops into their goal. When this happens, you’ll hear a loud thunk noise (or what’s known as “klask”).

Sometimes, your Striker will drop into the goal, but you’ll be able to get it out. Unfortunately, unlike the Ball, this doesn’t matter; if you hear the “klask,” it’s a point.

This player’s striker went klask, so their opponent scores 1 point.

The final way to score a point is if your opponent loses control of their Striker and can’t regain it by only using their Steering Handle.

(This usually occurs when your Striker somehow ends up in your opponent’s area and your Steering Handle can’t reach it.)

This player can’t regain control of their Striker, so their opponent scores 1 point.

No matter how many different scoring conditions you meet, a player can only score 1 point at a time.

So, if a player’s Striker drops into their own goal at the same time as 2 Magnets get stuck to it, their opponent still only scores 1 point — not 2.

After a player scores, everything is reset to their starting positions and the player who didn’t score kicks off play.

The first player to reach 6 points wins the game!

KLASK is such an enjoyable action-packed dexterity game.

As I mentioned earlier, the game’s flow is quite similar to air hockey, but the additional ways to score points add more skill and depth to the gameplay — making it closer to tabletop dexterity games like Crokinole or table shuffleboard.

Scoring

Initially, all I wanted from KLASK was for it to be air hockey with a ball — simply get the ball in your opponent’s goal to score a point.

Adding the other scoring conditions felt odd at first. Quickly into my first game, though, I realized how important these other scoring conditions were.

The other 3 ways to score make KLASK more strategic — and slightly less chaotic — because you must be aware of so much more than just your Striker and the Ball.

You need to be mindful of how forceful and quickly you move your Striker so that you don’t break the magnetic connection between it and your Handle.

In a split second, your opponent can capitalize on your moment of error to score a point (or you could lose control of your pieces and score it for them yourself).

The other scoring conditions also mean that you can use the Ball for more than just shooting into your opponent’s goal; you can strategically use it to knock Magnets into your opponent’s area and try to score that way.

Component Quality and Cost

All the components — from the board’s construction to the magnetic bits — are of excellent quality.

I also appreciate that an extra Ball and Magnet are included because pieces can fly off the board during games depending on how enthusiastic the players are. (If needed, you can also buy spare parts for KLASK that are sold separately.)

As such, it’s not an inexpensive game. However, as someone who is familiar with the price of custom wood game boards (for Crokinole, for example) and considering the quality of the included components, I think KLASK’s price is quite reasonable.

Still, its box is awkward and doesn’t fit nicely on a typical board game shelf, so you’ll need to think about how you want to store or display it.

Version 2.0

Since I purchased KLASK, the publisher has released a 2.0 version of the game that includes some cosmetic changes (how the scoring is on the board) and component modifications.

The first component change is the white Magnets that have been rounded even more to minimize their flying outside the board area.

The second component modification is the Striker, which now has a sticker pad on its base to protect it from scuffing up the board’s surface.

Whether this modification actually improves the situation or not is up for debate online. (Unfortunately, I haven’t played the 2.0 version, and the Strikers haven’t damaged my board yet, so it’s hard for me to comment on which is better.)

Final Thoughts

KLASK is a fantastic, high-energy dexterity game. If you like the speed and pace of other similar games like air hockey, don’t hesitate to look into KLASK.

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