Cardboard Corner: Review of The Magic Labyrinth

There are probably five or six games that I love playing with my children more than any other games we own. And the reason is simple: the playing field is even. The brain is needed but my children have an equal chance at winning, which creates an atmosphere of truly fun competition—joking, cheering, and over-the-top boasting. And with The Magic Labyrinth (2009) it’s likely my kids will be joking about ol’ dad’s fading memory.

While at heart a memory game, Magic Labyrinth brings so much more to the table in terms of a hands’ on, competitive experience for 2-4 people. The game box is constructed such that players build a walled labyrinth inside, then cover it with the game board. Players then take the meeple of their favorite color (complete with strong magnet located inside), and place it on their corner of the board’s grid. After, each player puts a small metal ball under the board so that sticks to the other side of their meeple/magnet. One player draws a token from the bag, places it on the appropriate symbol on the grid, and play begins. The first player rolls the die, and moves their meeple that number of spaces through the grid, guessing where the walls are under the board and thus trying not to have their metal ball knocked off by them. If their ball gets knocked off, they collect it, return to their corner, and await their next turn. Slowly, players build a mental map of the shape of the walls under the board. The first player to successfully navigate the hidden labyrinth to the token, collects it, another token is drawn, and play continues. First person to collect five tokens, wins.

Magic Labyrinth is a game whose success hinges on physical design. And it’s superb. Designers having done all the hard work, players get to experience the fun of blindly navigating a hidden labyrinth using the memory of past failures and successes. Nothing gets my children laughing like the sound of dad’s metal ball going clunk into the box as he runs into a hidden wall. And with the dice limited to numbers 1-4, it’s easy to catch up. A player can be close to a token, but by rolling a one and another player rolling a four, have the token swiped out from under their nose—provided they can successfully navigate the labyrinth, of course.

With the construction of the labyrinth, there may be concerns about limited replayability. Fear not. Turning the board 90 degrees results in a whole new mental map needing to be built, just as building a whole new labyrinth under the board does. Instructions come with two labyrinth designs, basic and advanced, but it’s possible for people to come up with their own, which only adds to replayability.

And so while Magic Labyrinth is indeed a memory game, there are likewise elements of deduction (If I know there is a wall hidden here, that means I need to try a different direction to get the token…) as well as spatial understanding. Knowing a wall exists even if you can’t see it is one thing, but having the knowledge and confidence to move around it and try another direction is something more. Building such mental mini-maps can be an important part of the development of children’s spatial skills. One thing for certain, however, is that the building of dad’s memory skills has already been handed over to his next generation.