Shocking Roulette

For most people, roulette conjures up glamorous images of luxurious casinos, plush locations, Bond-esque blokes, blinged-up babes and infuriatingly suave croupiers. Electrocution, on the other hand, conjures up images of Old Sparky, the shocking demise of Jaws 2, dodgy wiring and licking 9V batteries in the playground. Poles apart, you might think...

But just like countless other ostensibly contradictory items - peanut butter and jam, biscuits and gravy, Brian May and 5ive, Little and Large - the two have now been ingeniously thrown together to form one phenomenally enjoyable distraction. Shocking Roulette is exactly that. Shocking and, er, roulette. The idea is genius: up to four punters insert a fingertip into one of the sleek electric chambers and then somebody presses the start button. This sets into motion a buttock-clenchingly tense countdown sequence of beeps and lights that realistically imitate the sound of the ball on a traditional roulette wheel as it bounces towards its final resting place.

When the countdown stops, this malicious little plaything randomly delivers a full-on electric shock to one unlucky player. Well, it's more of a jolt really, but it's certainly enough to grab your attention and cause you to wince as you turn the air a delightful shade of blue. At only 14cm wide and 6cm high, Shocking Roulette is small enough to take down to your local, making it the greatest method ever invented for deciding whose round it is/who smells/who goes to chat up the tattooed barman/who stands on their chair, strips and sings "Oops I Did It Again" in the style of Joe Pasquale.

It's also a fantastic way to wheedle out the wimps, as you'd be amazed at the amount of people who pull out at the last second just to avoid a harmless jolt from three AAA batteries. Shocking Roulette has incalculable amusing uses - you'll never have to spin the bottle, flip coins or pull straws again. And let's be honest, any game that refers to participants as "victims" rather than players has got to be worth a look. A total buzz!