Moving Maze Makes Treasure Hunting Tricky! (Ravensburger Labyrinth)

Member Name: keeperofthematri

Product:	Ravensburger Labyrinth
Date:	13/07/09 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Teaches strategy, makes you think about the consequences of your moves

Disadvantages: None

I first got this game in the mid 90s & after reading review it appears it may have changed a little. Anyway, this is about the original version of the game.

Packaging:

The games comes in a standard game type box with a picture of an adult & two kids playing the game on the front. On opening the box there's a brown plastic "tray" which holds:-

+ 34 maze cards
+ 24 treasure cards
+ 4 wooden playing pieces
+ I playing board.


The game:

When you open the board the first thing you notice is that there are 16 fixed, non adjacent, squares on the board. These are all an equal distance apart from each other & are arranged in a 4 x 4 grid formation. The 4 corner squares each have a different coloured circle which corresponds the the colours of the four playing pieces:- blue, green, red & yellow.
The remaining 12 squares each have an item on them. These will correspond to half of the items on the 24 treasure cards.

+ Shuffle the maze cards & lay them out at random on the board between the fixed squares. This creates a maze of chance & may allow you to reach some locations easily whilst others may appear inaccessible. One maze card will be left over. You'll notice that some of the maze cards are "t" junctions, some are straight pieces of maze & some are turns.

+ Shuffle the treasure cards & deal them out. There are 24 of them so it doesn't matter whether there are 2, 3 or 4 people playing, you will all get the same number of cards.

+ Select your playing piece & decide who is going to play first.

+ Look at your first treasure card but don't show it to anyone else. This is the first treasure you have to reach. Take the extra maze card & push it into the maze until one maze card comes out of the other end. The aim of this is either to allow you to move as far as you wish in order to reach your treasure, or to prevent an opponent from reaching their treasure. One you've moved the maze you can then move your playing piece. More than one playing piece can occupy a piece of maze at the same time.

+ You are not allowed to move your playing piece before you move the maze.

+ You must move the maze, even if you can reach your treasure without having to do so.

+ You may not reverse the move made by the previous player.

+ If you moving the maze pushes either yourself or another player out then the playing piece is moved to onto the piece of maze that you have just inserted into the board.

+ Once you've reached your treasure lay the card face up so that the other player(s) can see it. Look at the next card in your pile to see what your next piece of treasure is.

+ Play then passes to the next player.

+ Once you reached all your treasures you must then get back to your starting position.


The game is recommended from age 8 - adult. There are a couple of variations that you can play if younger children are taking part in the game:-

+ Allow the younger children to view all of their treasure cards & select the order in which they'd like to reach them.

+ Allow the younger children to end the game when they reach their last treasure rather than having to return to the starting space.


The Verdict:

I've always liked this game ever since I bought it. There's an element of luck to it but also an element on strategy. You need to create a maze path that will alow you to reach your goal whilst keeping your opponents from reaching theirs. This is particularly important towards the end of the game when there are few treasures left to find, or when people are trying to get back to their starting points. You don't only need to think about the part of the maze you are moving & how you position the maze piece you are moving onto the board, you also need to think about the spare piece of maze that will become free & will pass to the next player. Obviously passing a "t" junction piece to the next player is a lot more useful to them than a bend is.
The game will allow children to develop an awareness of strategy as they'll learn that their actions not only have an impact on their own progress in the game but that they also have an effect on what the next player is able to do. Gameplay can last upto 30 minutes so it's a reasonably paced game that isn't over as quickly as something like "Guess Who" but doesn't last for hours like "Monopoly". All in all, it's an easy game, without complicated rules, that requires the players to put some thought into precisely what move they're going to make.

At time of writing Labryinth is available from Amazon from £14.99

Summary: Strategic Maze Game