Review: GRAVITRAX PRO Makes Vertical Building Easier and Look Cleaner
Ravensburger recently launched the new starter set for GraviTrax PRO with three expansions releasing this month. They were also kind enough to send me a set of the items to review and I was excited. The new approach to vertical track building really appealed to me. I was sent the starter set, Vertical Expansion, Mixer, and Splitter. I’ve had a blast playing with them and so has my daughter.
If you’ve ever played with GraviTrax before, you already know how this works. You get to create awesome marble tracks and then release the marbles to go on the paths you’ve created. You also probably know that vertical builds felt more limiting in the things you could do. This is the number one difference I’ve seen with GraviTrax PRO. They now have pillars, walls, and balconies which making vertical builds not only feel more open, but look more awesome. You can see one of the builds from the instruction booklet above and see just how awesome and open the track looks.
I absolutely love the walls, pillars, and balconies. They’re a genius idea that really open up all sorts of new avenues. They also mean you don’t need as many height tiles. This allows you to build bigger and look less cluttered.
In addition, there are new tracks that curve to the right, left, or even just create a steeper drop for the marbles to follow. I really like the design of these and the idea. However, I did find problems with them always reaching far enough. There’s a spot on the track pictured above that requires one of the curved tracks and it just barely touches the bottom tile making it prone to fall off. This means I have to constantly check on that part of the track. This is a bit of a bummer, especially since the track is one that they give you instructions for.
The starter set includes 12 pillars, 6 walls of different lengths, 16 single balconies, and 4 double balconies plus 2 transparent levels to give you a lot of options for going vertical. You also get some a magnetic cannon which was previously an add on. This is sufficient for hours of fun. If you need more vertical tools though, the Vertical Expansion doubles the number of pillars, single balconies, long walls, and medium walls. Sadly, it doesn’t come with additional short walls which I think is a bit of an oversight. The Mixer tile is supposed to add some randomness for your tracks and can be fun. The marbles are dropped onto a swirl-like shape that then will allow marbles to go in one of three directions depending on how they fell. Meanwhile, the Splitter can have some interesting effects on your track because if your marble doesn’t go the right direction, it will fall and go in one of two different directions. This one was the most exciting add-on so far.
If you like GraviTrax or have thought about trying them out, I highly recommend them. They’re a lot of fun for kids and adults and GraviTrax PRO has really upped the game. I’m still not sure why they included the PRO name, since the pieces all feel the same as the non-PRO versions, but the new additions for vertical building are absolutely amazing. Other than some of the track pieces being too short, my only other complaint is that I wish they would give you reusable bags to use for storage or come out with a different storage solution. Doing something in that area would’ve definitely helped it feel more Pro. You can purchase and pre-order the GraviTrax PRO line now from the following outlets:
Vertical Expansion: Amazon
Mixer: Amazon
Splitter: Amazon
