Sit Down, Magic Maze, Strategy Card Game, Ages 8+, 1-8 Players, 15+ Minutes Playing Time

Product Information

Usually in ending a review like this I’d say something like ‘I’ve had some fun playing this under the right circumstances’. Wall breaches: the barbarian can breach the walls of the mall for all the heroes to move through it.

To set up the game, follow the instructions for the scenario you choose to play, which details how to set up the mall tile deck. The problem is, they don’t really know the mall that well, and they’ll need to abscond with their ill-gotten gains. However, if the Sand Timer runs out at any moment during gameplay, the Guards have rumbled your schemes and it’s off to jail, or a dungeon, or the guillotine. The tiles you’ll be moving around will have icons on them that tell you how you can interact with them.

The mall will continue to grow this way until all tiles are placed (Be very conscious of table space. Although you might miss all this because you’re too focused on delivering the heroes to where they need to be. Magic Maze, even though it is cooperative, is a game that I enjoy a lot given that it meets both of these criteria. The contestant would spend 10 minutes in a frantic haze before throwing everything into their trolley as fast as they can. Introducing additional rules including swapping directions with other players, to character abilities.

The one problem with this game is that the theme is weak and that makes explaining what you are doing in the game quite a bit tougher.The only way you can communicate is by placing (or tapping) the large pawn in front of the person who you think needs to take the next action. The tension builds from that moment where you move the Barbarian North, but now the puzzle dictates he must go West before you can move him.

I will touch up briefly on a Solo Game at the end of the section but for now will stick to a four-player variant. The only way for players to communicate is by either staring intensely at another player or placing the “do something” pawn in front of that player. Whether it’s Pandemic or Flash Point: Fire Rescue, Forbidden Island or Forbidden Desert, I prefer to keep time around the table competitive.Beholder: a Hero and the Beholder cannot stand or pass through a Mall tile where the other type of pawn is standing. Before taking the final leap and turning the sand timer over you can talk strategies and plot quicker ways to escape, or if this is your fifth time setting up having failed four times consecutively, feel free to punch the walls or go outside and scream at pigeons. Codenames at least manages to convert silence into something that can later be the grist for more refined conversation after the fact. I will say, though, that there seems to be more for players to do and more careful planning required in a four-player game than in a seven-player game. This creates some unintentional but wonderfully playful moments of bewilderment and mild frustration.

The visible confusion as they look back and forth over the characters, wondering what they’ve missed, but unable to ask anyone for help.

This cookie is used to a profile based on user's interest and display personalized ads to the users.