Recently Played: Labyrinth

[ellyssian]

Labyrinth - 2-4 players ages 8 and up

This game's been around for a couple of decades, but I've never played it. I picked it out as something all the kids could play, including Mr. B. There is a flavor of the game out there for kids ( Junior Labyrinth, ages 5 and up) and an advanced version ( Master Labyrinth, ages 10 and up), but this one, rated for ages 8 and up, seemed the best fit. The Junior flavor has larger sized pieces, thus a smaller area of play, but looked to have the same mechanics. The Master game has a final dragon battle and guards and changes the mechanics a bit, thus making it not fit my purpose of entertaining Mr. B.

Still, before we played it, I wavered a bit and actually held off on bringing it out for a while. I finally decided to give it a go, and he picked it up without a problem. In fact, he won the game.

The game is played on a standard sized board, but most of the playing surface is made up of tiles, about two inches square, that are slid in from all four sizes. Some of the tiles ~ both the sliding ones and the stationary ones which act as guides ~ have treasures on them. There are cards with pictures of the different treasures, so language is not a part of the game play. The cards are divided amongst the players and kept in secret. You have to get your share of the treasures by traveling to them, in order.

You start each turn by sliding the extra piece into the board in a location of your choosing. You can then travel as far as you want in an attempt to get to the treasure. As the maze shifts with each turn, this can take some planning and some patience. Once you get all your treasures, you have to get back to your home location in one of the four corners. The first player to do so wins the game.

For Mr. B, we did make a few changes to the rules ~ we played the cards face up, so we could help explain to him where he needed to go, but I expect next time we'll be able to try the standard rules. To make this face-up variant work for a kid, we also tried to help ~ or, at least, to not hinder Mr. B ~ with the placement of our tiles, as well as providing him some advice.

It might not be a fit for the serious gamers out there (who sometimes really need to step back a bit and remember that gaming should be fun =), but it's definitely a good choice for a family game night. With a little help from the other players, you can stretch that age range down two or three years and the kids will have a blast.