Last Updated on March 19, 2019 by HodgePodgeDays
AD/Gifted. If there’s one thing guaranteed to make an 8 year old happy, it’s a Nerf gun. If you want to (at least) double that joy; arrange a Nerf battle in the park with some of his Nerf loving friends. We were sent the new Nerf N-Strike Elite Rukkus ICS-8 to try out, so we took it into battle to see how it fared.
The Nerf N-Strike Elite Rukkus ICS-8 features an 8-dart clip. The cartridge stays attached to the blaster, making it fast and easy to reload. You load 8 darts into the front of the cartridge, pump the gun to prime, and pull the trigger to fire.
We arrived at our chosen battleground; pockets full of Nerf darts (including the 8 that the Nerf N-Strike Elite Rukkus ICS-8 came with). We met up with Nerf enthusiast Jenny from TheBrickCastle and her family. It was cold and a bit wet, but there was a nearby cafe we could retreat to after battle; so all was well with the world.
We loaded up our Nerf guns with darts and battle commenced. The cartridge doesn’t come out of the Nerf N-Strike Elite Rukkus, so you have to slide it up and down to fill it, which is a little bit of a faff.
There was a bit of stop-starting as the boys got used to how you fire it. The mechanism is a bit sticky; we found we had to stop pretty often to figure out why it wasn’t firing. It was usually that the pump hadn’t been properly primed, or that the cartridge hadn’t clicked along enough for the dart to fire. Despite this, you can fire the dart pretty far and with a good degree of accuracy.
The Nerf N-Strike Elite Rukkus ICS-8 is made for people aged 8+. My son is 8 and really enjoyed this Nerf, it was just about the right size for him. He did get a little frustrated when the mechanism got stuck and we had to help him sort it out. It operates in a different way to his other Nerf guns. I think it’ll take him a few goes to really get the hang of it and be able to troubleshoot effectively.
We’re not sure who won the Nerf battle, but an awful lot of fun was had by all. We did like the Nerf N-Strike Elite Rukkus ICS-8; despite its sometimes tricky to fire flaws, it’s a fun Nerf and a great one to take into battle.
The Nerf N-Strike Elite Rukkus ICS-8 from Hasbro costs £19.99 and is widely available in lots of toy shops and online.
Disclosure: We were sent a Nerf N-Strike Elite Rukkus ICS-8 for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.