Labyrinth Review

Michael

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Posted by Michael on Mar 15, 2017

Ravensburger's Labyrinth has been around for over 30 years and it is something of a minor family classic. It's seen multiple editions over the years including "Junior", "Master" and even Frozen sets, but the core concept has always remained the same whether it's generic wizards or Anna and Elsa. Players slide dungeon tiles into a matrix of them, which causes the furthermost one in the row or column to slide off- and of course, everything that line to shifts one space causing passageways to close and new ones to open. The goal is to move your wizard to the treasures shown on your cards to win the game.

If you feel like the walls are moving...THEY ARE.

It only takes about 30 minutes or so to play by the official rules but it remains engaging throughout as the board situation changes every turn. Some may not care for the complete lack of strategy this engenders, but others will enjoy the mutable challenge that working out the path to your next treasure creates by the time the round gets back to you. The one big complaint I have about the game, if it is a complaint, is that it can be somewhat too easy and the sense of competition is extremely light. It's a simple game with a novel, effective mechanic- the kind of casually brilliant family game that used to be the European design idiom's stock-in-trade. The idea of sliding the tiles in and off the board is an effective one that leads to plenty of light problem-solving and "aha" moments that will delight all ages. But this edition of Labyrinth- "vanilla" if you will- is especially well suited for young children.

I've been playing Labyrinth with my kids since they were four and five and now that they are five and seven, it's still a favorite that is regularly requested. One thing in particular I like about it is that the rules are simple enough that they can be seasoned to taste, so to speak, without spoiling the central mechanic. When they were young, we would draw one treasure card and work out together how to get a single wizard to it. Eventually, we did the same thing but made it a race. Now we play mostly by the printed rules. Sometimes we do first to five treasures is the winner or we may do a first to three for a shorter game.

Some treasures. Kind of a relative term, really.

Because of this, I would strongly recommend that parents interested in introducing this game to children go straight for this edition and avoid the Junior Labyrinth version. I believe most kids of reasonable intellect can grasp the concepts and get a handle on what higher levels of gameplay are on offer after just a couple of games with adult guidance. The Junior edition, in my opinion, oversimplifies an already simple game.

I do find myself wondering how much longer we have with Labyrinth every time we bring it out, however, and my enjoyment of it after 20 or 25 games has more to do with spending time with my kids than with the game itself. It's definitely one that seems to have something of a ceiling. The turn-to-turn solutions start to become more obvious, and the routine of rounding up your treasures starts to feel somewhat repetitive. Regardless, this is a great choice for families looking to game with kids.