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Ravensburger Labyrinth
by FridaysArePurple
I would just like to start this review by saying that I absolutely love this board game! (And apologies for the title, I couldn't help it). The concept behind it is very simple which means that it is suitable for practically all ages but it's a lot of fun to play. It is a mixture of strategy, random luck and a race to the finish and ... it is suitable for between 2 to 4 players.
At the start of the game, players need to place the 34 labyrinth pieces randomly on the board. Some of the pieces are straight pieces of path, some are corners and others are T-junctions. Due to the random nature of placing them on the board, some will line up nicely and create accessible routes across the labyrinth whereas others will be blocked off and end in dead-ends. There will be one piece left over but fear not! All will be revealed later...
There are 4 coloured pieces, one for each player, which need to be placed on the corresponding coloured dot in each corner of the board. The 24 treasure cards then need to be dealt out between the players but there will always be an equal number for everyone whether you are playing with 2, 3 or 4 players. Each card has a picture of an item of treasure on it and the same treasure will appear on a labyrinth piece somewhere on the board. The aim of the game is to land your playing piece of each of the treasures in the labyrinth that you have the card for and to be the first person to get back to your starting position.
There are no dice involved in this game so it is traditional for the youngest person to go first and to continue on in a clockwise fashion. When it is you turn you are able to move you piece as far as you want or are able to through the labyrinth, stopping either when you land on one of your pieces of treasure or when you reach a dead end / the edge of the board. On each turn you are also allowed one shift of the labyrinth. This is where that left over labyrinth piece comes in! All you have to do is place the piece against another one on the board and slide the whole row of labyrinth pieces along until another piece falls of the other side of the board. This rearranges the pieces in the labyrinth and changes the routes the players have to use to get through. To make it a little bit more tricky, there are also pieces of the labyrinth that are permanently attached to the board and are not able to be moved. You are able to do this either before moving your counter or after you have done your move, it's up to you. Obviously you either want to make the labyrinth look better for yourself or make things difficult for your opponent!
Technically speaking, each player is supposed to select one treasure card at a time to find so that it is completely random and you don't know where the other player is heading. However, a great variation on the rules I like to play for 2 player games, is for both of you too look at all of your cards in advance and come up with a vague plan of the order you want to collect them in. You will know by default which treasure the other player will be hunting as they are the ones on the board you don't have a card for. You can then dedicate your efforts to sabotaging the other player's progress and shoving dead end pieces of labyrinth next to the places you know they are trying to get to, which is a lot of fun! It is particularly amusing when someone's playing piece is on the piece of the labyrinth that gets pushed of the edge of the board as the next player has the power to place them back on anywhere they like! This is also a good kamikaze strategy to get yourself out of a tight spot and hope that you end up somewhere better.
In summary, this is a great game which is simple to play and really enjoyable. If I have convinced you to give it a try, it is available £14.99 on Amazon. So if you enjoy board games, this is a great one to add to the collection. I think it's great, 5 dooyoo stars from me!
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Ravensburger Jolly Octopus Game
by karalouk
My daughter received a game called Jolly Octopus last Christmas. It's made by Ravensburger and is available in most toy shops, supermarkets etc. It generally costs around £15.00 which I think is a little overpriced but not extortionate. It comes packaged in a large sized cardboard box which looks very eye catching. My daughter was very ... pleased to receive it, especially after seeing it on the adverts!
The game consists of a plastic platform, a number of plastic tentacles, an octopus head, a pair of plastic tweezers and a number of plastic coloured crabs. The game doesn't fit in to the box when assembled so you have to assemble and dismantle each time you play. This isn't too much of a problem as it's pretty quick and easy to set up - just clip the tentacles on, stick the head on top and place the crabs around the plastic platform. When assembled the game looks like a big green happy looking octopus sitting on a rock (with crabs scattered over the rock).
To start the game you must push down on the octopuses head. This sets off a harp noise and the Jolly Octopus begins to spin around whilst waving his tentacles up and down. When the harp noise has finished the first player grabs the tweezers and attempts to grab a crab of their colour choice from the rocks below the octopus. As my daughter is quite young (she received the game when she was 4 and now she is 5 years old) we usually just grab any crab to make things easier. Each player takes their turn to remove crabs. If you touch the octopuses tentacles (or 'tickle' them) whilst attempting to remove a crab, the octopus will stop and laugh hysterically. This means you lose your turn and the next player has their turn. The winner is the player who successfully removes all of their crabs first or who has the most crabs after they've all been removed.
The lower down crabs are easier to grab than the higher up ones, so my daughter usually sneakily removes the lower ones and leaves the hard ones to me! There are also 2 settings - an easier and harder setting, although I don't think there is a huge amount of difference (it moves slightly faster on the harder setting, this is the better setting for when adults are playing in my opinion). The rules are simple and are easy enough for all young children to grasp.
The game seems pretty robust, although there are a few issues with the tentacles. Sometimes when we touch them, it doesn't set off the octopus. Sometimes we touch the tentacles quite hard and he doesn't laugh, but other times we gently brush past the tentacles and it sets him off!
The game requires 3 x 1.5V batteries (which are included and our batteries are still working after a year) and is suitable for 1-5 players (although rather stupidly there is only one pair of tweezers included so you have to pass them around). The age recommendation is 4-99 years! We have enjoyed this game many times as a family. My daughter likes Jolly Octopus and will get it out from the toy cupboard every now and again, although I must say it doesn't get played with as much as some of her games (it's not one of her favourites). It's quite tense and can make you jump if you make the octopus laugh! My daughter thinks it's hilarious (I find the octopuses laugh rather odd, it sounds more like a monkey!). I should imagine that most young children would enjoy this game but I doubt it would seem very fun to older children (my 8 year old nephew wasn't too interested!). Each game usually lasts us a few minutes of picking and knocking the crabs off. I'm not really sure if I recommend the Jolly Octopus, it's not bad.. it's quite fun.. but it's not one of my daughters favourite games and there are better games out there. I award it 3 out of 5 stars.
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Ravensburger Rush Hour Traffic Jam Puzzle
by -michelle-
Rush hour traffic jam puzzle game
I have always been one for puzzles etc. I love doing anything that means my brain has to work that little bit harder. So when I saw this in Woolworths many moons ago, I decided to give it a go as it looked like something I would enjoy playing. I think I paid around £7.00- £8.00 for it at the ... time but you can pick it up for about £10.00 these days. Amazon sells it at present.
The puzzle consists of a plastic base on which there are several little brightly coloured plastic truck and car shapes and a little red car shape that you need to move and get out past the cars and trucks that are blocking it. Also provided with the puzzle are a set of 40 cards which show you how to set up the base before you begin to try and get your car out, these cards get progressively harder as you go along. The idea of this puzzle game is really simple. I had to get my little red car from one side of the base to the little exit by moving all the trucks and cars out of the way that were blocking me, but I could only move them either back or forward depending on which direction it was placed in, and this all depended on the cards and the actual game card I was using at the time.
The cards start at beginner right through to expert. At the start the puzzle is very easy and I managed to whizz through quite a few of them, I did actually begin to think that maybe I'd wasted my money, however as I made my way through the cards I did find myself taking more and more time over each puzzle, as they do get more and more challenging.
But not to worry if you do get stuck, as all the solutions are provided, just in case you get to the point of pulling your hair out or throwing the whole thing across the room.
Quality and durability
I like the way the base or game board if you like, has a little draw on the side for you to keep the cards in and there is a space for you to stand the card up that you are currently working on. It is a very neat little thing which would be ideal for taking with you on a long car journey or similar. The quality of the puzzle pieces and the base are very good, tough and sturdy like it's built to last a very long time.
I have had this little puzzle game quite a while now, considering I got it from Woolworths shows I've had it a fair while. My husband and my son have made their way through the cards as well, not sure if they cheated or not but we've all had our fair share of fun with it.
What I think needs improving
If I had to pick any fault with this Rush Hour puzzle game, I would say apart from it needing more game cards it also needs a better lid because to me although the lid does fit on top of all the cars/trucks, it never seems secure, so I just feel a better fitting lid is called for.
Out with the old in with the new
To be fair I personally don't think puzzle games such as these are as popular as they once were due to all the great Apps you can get for your iPod/iPhone etc. They seem to have killed the physical puzzle games that were once very popular. But maybe there are still some people out there whom enjoy sitting playing with the physical game/puzzle or whatever. After all not everyone has got a device to download Apps, although nearly all probably have, I guess it's just a case of moving with the times. I just think it's such a shame.
Thank you for reading my review which may also appear on other sites.
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