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

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Well, I’ve already covered last year’s SdJ winner ( Kingdomino) another nominee ( The Quest for El Dorado), and the kid’s SdJ ( Ice Cool); makes sense that I should probably round out the SdJ nominees and talk about Magic Maze.

Magic Maze, even though it is cooperative, is a game that I enjoy a lot given that it meets both of these criteria. The game is won when all the pawns have exited using the doors of their color before the timer runs out. The tiles you’ll be moving around will have icons on them that tell you how you can interact with them. In the end that’s my problem with Magic Maze – it doesn’t manage to shape silence in a way that leads to a more enjoyable evening. 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.Pauline stares at Roz, Roz stares at Jasmine, and you stare at your action tile wondering what everyone sees that you don’t. Magic Maze is a multi-award winning real time, cooperative game, requiring quick thinking and excellent team work. Once you solve the puzzle you can move on to harder pastures, but the reality is that this is a puzzle that feels quite similar each time you play it no matter the level of difficulty – adding 5 tiles just doesn’t add much more.

The “do something” pawn is big and red, matching the color of the shame-faced players it’s placed in front of. Magic Maze is the current trigger for this moment of self-reflection because it is a game that is obviously joyful and yet I have experienced absolutely zero joy from playing it. 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. Don’t get too used to this though – whenever the hourglass flips over, you’ll trade these off to another player like the world’s most frustrating game of pass the parcel. I can use these actions on any character, so together we have to move the pieces around the mall without talking.Sounds easy, but when you are trying to direct four different pieces, to four different places without talking the challenge becomes clearer. The best Magic Maze gives you is the comedy of silence – to have an entire table staring at you waiting for you to make the obvious move that you can’t see. Magic Maze is simple and straightforward enough for most audiences, and it’s just plain fun, but it won’t be for everyone. There are several timer spaces in the mall that, when activated, force the players to flip the timer and pass their action tiles to the left. The great thing about using them (other than getting more time that is) is that you are allowed to talk.

The cookie is used to calculate visitor, session, campaign data and keep track of site usage for the site's analytics report. You will be guided step by step through all of the modules, and each of them comes with a tutorial that will help you practise the new rules before adding it to your "real" games of Magic Maze. Each Player can move a Hero Pawn any number of spaces and at any time in their designated direction. It’s already a tense game and is made even more tense when someone is hammering that big pawn on the table in front of you. Games, provides an interesting glance on the fantasy world as you take on the roles of four Heroes’ with a not so heroic quest.However, while players are cooperating and may move any character, they may not communicate–either through pointing, gesturing, or talking. If it makes you feel better, there are 17 Scenarios in the base game of Magic Maze; my group has managed to get up to (but not beat) Scenario 6. Fog of Love has a better tutorial, sure, but this is more of a “unlocking modules” as you play through, which keeps the games fresh.

I reviewed Escape: The Curse of the Temple (the game that most people think of when they first see Magic Maze) favorably when it was released, but I have since lost interest in it because frequent play resulted in a kind of rote exercise that made the spark of fun from the early forays and failures disappear. Just as he does though, the sand timer drips down and it looks like no-one is in a position to turn it! There’s someone, somewhere, with a spreadsheet showing an itinerary and schedule for every last microsecond of the heist. Guard: a Hero and a Guard cannot stand or pass through a Mall tile where the other type of pawn is standing.

Some Action Tiles have more than one symbol; you may use any or all of the Actions pictured on the tile (and honestly should). My advice would be to start with four players as it seems to be the sweet spot between organised chaos and complete entropy. Each Hero reaches their respective exit space (the exit sign with the colour and symbol of the corresponding Hero Pawn) and when all four heroes reach their exits, you are free! When you flip the hourglass, everyone gets to talk for as long as they like – but the sand keeps on running.