We didn’t see the first Game On, but our host Matty - a burly, bearded Australian - sarcastically informs us at the start that the premise of Game On 2.0 is just the same.
Matt is lost in Gameland and needs the audience to help him get out by completing a series of challenges related to popular video games. Answer a question, throw beach balls at Pokemon figures, shout loudly to choose one link or another, and so on.
The free show is aimed squarely at game-playing kids, so it’s disappointing that some of the graphics on screen have less pizzazz than an accountant’s PowerPoint.
The show wasn’t helped by technical problems on the first afternoon show - the speakers sounded blown, ear piercingly tinny. Some of the character costumes were in transit from Australia.
Kids did rise to the occasion though with much shouting at appropriate points, and dancing for the frequently lobbed “boogie bomb” (Fortnite players will know the reference).
Parents were given nerf pistols as they enter the show and asked not to give them to their kids til the appropriate moment. Much to my kids’ delight that was when I was invited up to the stage with another dad, and the crowd of kids gleefully peppered us with pellets.
However, the nerf element backfired later when one small boy refused to stop firing his pistol and Matty's playfully rude humour boiled over. Wielding a foam noodle in one hand, he wrenched the toy from the child’s gripped fist, bringing on the tears.
If you are not prepared for kids' comedy that's a little rough and ready, you should wait for a later iteration of Game On.
Runs til 19th, free