Nerf 360° Battlezone Review

Has it really been a month since my last post? Wow, work is killing me. Along with being unable to do Nerf events. Let’s fix that, shall we?

Last week, I was fortunate enough to get a free care package from Wilder Toys, one of the companies licensed to make Nerf play accessories. Included in the package was the 360° Battlezone, an electronic target set with different difficulty modes. And it’s by far my favorite of their products coming this fall.

Reliving an Old Experience

Way back in 2019, Nerf launched the Ultra line with a Championship in NYC, and I got to try out some of the games at the launch party. The Ultra line may be dead, of course, but the actual game experience was fantastic. In particular, the first game featured targets that surrounded you, which would light up periodically – you then had to hit them for points. It was fast paced, and stressful in a good way.

That’s the mindset that goes into the 360° Battlezone. Set up the targets around you, select the game mode with a button press (based on what color is flashing), and hit the buttons again to start. Once a target is hit enough times, it will celebrate with colors before turning off. Don’t hit it enough times, and it unceremoniously powers down.

The modes are:

• Training mode (white): Hit twice in 1:30.
• Robots (blue): Hit twice in 1:30 (with fun sound effects of course).
• Dinos (green): Hit three times each in 2 minutes.
• Zombies (red): hit 5 times in three minutes.

To be clear, the units aren’t communicating with one another in any way. You’re simply setting everything up, triggering them all to start, and they’ll randomly go through their ambient noises, sound effects, and flashing colors (shoot when red, NOT when they turn another color). Its easy enough to set up, using either the extending base for tables/shelves or the hanging slot for nails/screws. If you really wanted to make things interesting, you could buy an extra pack and have even more targets going at the same time. Though at that point, I’d recommend something with a much higher rate of fire…or else a teammate.

Each target takes 3 AAA batteries.

But Does It Work?

The answer is yes!

Granted, they’re made for indoor use…but when you have a porch with posts to hang things on, it’s easy to hang targets all around you, do your thing, and bring them back inside afterwards.

The targets are easily triggered by dart impacts – since it’s meant for stock 8+ blasters, I used my N Series Infinite. At the recommended range (5-7 feet away each), it’s spaced pretty well for trying to monitor all the targets and swing the blaster around in time to hit the targets. The really fun part, though, was doing the hardest mode (Zombies) at night, when I already had some natural background noise. Having three targets generate car alarms, door knocks, cats meowing, and radio calls added to the experience, and I had to react quickly when the actual target (zombie noise and red light) appeared. I’ve managed to beat it since filming the above video…and now I’ll have to try it with more distance between me and the targets.

Oh look, it’s that easy to adjust difficulty!

Last Thoughts

At $25, this is the most fun I’ve had with a blaster game accessory in quite a while. The 360 Battlezone is easy to set up and operate, the sound effects add to the experience, and the modes vary enough in difficulty for even an experienced player to have a challenge. And that’s just with the recommended setup.

Pick one up once they appear online!