It takes a few minutes to assemble. There are instructions, but you really don't need them as you can just glance at the box that feature the Carcade Track Set from many different angles. After snapping all the plastic pieces together, making sure their tabs securely 'click' in place, you can put on the stickers in the appropriate places to finish it off.
If memory serves me correctly, you will need 4 'D' batteries as well as 3 'AA' batteries to get the Carcade set up and going. You'll need a Phillips screwdriver (medium or small tip) to open up the battery compartments and secure them.
I was really surprised at how powerful and how quickly the cars come shooting out of the chute. There's a electronic trigger that shoots the cars out, and there's plenty of bangs and crashes to keep the kids excited.
I liked how the top end of the Carcade came with a score-keeping/score-tracking component, and it actually works. For a two-player game, you aim and shoot your Hot Wheels toward the slots where the lights are on above to earn points. You point and shoot. The blue component up top keeps score and features some revved up music plus some audio recording egging you on, or to tell you if time is running out.
There's a single player mode, and a two-player mode. No volume control. It's a loud toy. You've got the cars banging and crashing, and you've got the music and the computer going, but hey, isn't that the point of Hot Wheels? :)
The only thing that didn't really impress me was that the orange slide at center, the one that comes down toward the end of round (so that you can shoot your car up the middle and into the special pocket for extra points), the bottom edge of this slide doesn't evenly match up with the smooth surface of the main slide. It makes it difficult for the cars to make their way up the ramp to get those extra points. But it's not the end of the world. The toy is made of plastic (so there you go), and the kids don't seem to mind (or notice). I did as an adult. Also, if you're only playing with the one car (there's only 1 included in this package), you'll have to reach up and grab it off the yellow landing pad (if it actually made it in) from the top of the ramp to start over again.
I would say that 5 out of 6 times, it's smooth game play. On the 6th try, the car usually gets stuck or flips over wheels-side up or gets stuck in the return chute, but it's part of the fun and kids are pretty quick about turning things right side up and they keep going.
But yeah, the kids, boys and girls, ages 3 through 12 really enjoyed playing against each other, trying to achieve a high score. We had it on the ground and they were gathered all round it and while it may not keep an adult's attention for longer than a couple of rounds or two, it certainly kept the children's attention. They were pretty much fighting over it, arguing who's turn it was.
Three-year-olds may have trouble with it, but someone in kindergarten or even a four-year-old should have no problems grasping the concept of Hot Wheels, point-and-shoot, pinball-style.
I liked how this toy gave the kids even more uses for their Hot Wheels. It's definitely a keeper!
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