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When I say you play, I mean you play all those characters. Because no matter how many players there are you will all control the four characters. Oh, and your control of them is limited to direction tiles. Up to eight players can play, although it seemed like 4 or 5 was best suited for us and over 6 would have made it a struggle to keep it all running somewhat smoothly together. Skill/Complexity All players need to be ready to take the next action and be constantly aware of the ever changing situation on the board to work together to progress as thieves within the shopping mall. In reality, theft is somewhat looked down upon by hardworking shop keepers, the law, your parents, and any normal decent human being. Magic Maze completely disregards the mundane societal obligations like “Not Steeling Things” and throws you into a heist scenario, frantically dashing through a randomly generated fantasy mall where time spirals out of your control along with remnants of your sanity. There’s a lot to like about Magic Maze and the mechanics with the restriction rules work so well and make it the game it is. It surprisingly better to play than expected!
Magic Maze is a real-time cooperative game in which you try to help four fantasy characters steal some adventuring equipment from a shopping mall and escape before time runs out. Oh, and you can’t talk! The intelligence behind Magic Maze resides within its utter simplicity, the game itself comprising of little more than fourBasic Steps: As time of play is around 15 minutes this makes it a time filler game that doesn’t require a lengthy commitment of time from players. This can be advantageous for groups just wanting to enjoy a few rounds of a short game with friends or family. Last year, designer Kasper Lapp re-entered the Magic Maze world with Magic Maze on Mars. A phenomenal standalone sequel that has not received as much on a fanfare and I cannot fathom why. Magic Maze on Mars takes all the good parts from Magic Maze, expands upon them and puts the game into a far more believable and immersive theme. It makes for, in my opinion, a better game. But there are some considerations. Less is more Real time, timed games can do this to people. Removing the ability to talk adds a lot of frustration for some people. The “Do Something” pawn is a horrible way to let these players release their tension.
Everything is so clear to me, how do they not see it? My incredible brain sees everything yet everyone else appears to be baffled. All they have to do is move one piece and we can get things going again. Maybe if I tap the “Do Something” pawn in from of them one more time they will get it. No… that’s not working. Why are they all staring at me? Why are they frantically hitting the table in front of ME with the “Do Something” pawn? Oh… we’re out of time because I missed something…” Each player can only perform actions displayed on their Action Tile, however all players can perform actions at any time. You don’t have to take turns. The only rule is that if another player has committed to doing something then you cannot stop them (don’t grab the Hero Pawn out their hands and commit to rude gestures) until they have let go of the Hero Pawn they are moving. If they’ve made a blunder, simply wait until they’ve finished before correcting. I hope that covers the basics of the main actions going on within the game. We found they all nicely fit into the gameplay especially as we progressed. Real Time & Cooperative The rulebook contains tutorials which serve to teach the rules in a gradual way. It’s a clever way of helping children to understand the rules but it also means everyone can start playing sooner rather than later.
Place “Tile One” in the middle of the table. (1A side up is easy for beginners and 1B is for those who’ve played a game or two – Feel free to choose whichever). Magic Maze is a great way to learn just how unaware you can actually be. Magic Maze is a co-operative, real-time game released in 2017 by Sit Down!, that was nominated for the Spiel des Jahres award. In this game players take on the actions available to four heroes who are trying to steal new weapons from a nearby mall and escape with them. This means no one person controls the Mage, you all do.Once the sand timer is flipped, everyone will work simultaneously to move the characters around the mall, but no one can talk. 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. The fastpaced interaction between players while progressing through harder scenarios keeps players wanting to restart the next level of the game which gives it some points in the replayability department as well as player engagement. Oh, did I forget to mention that part? That’s right, you can’t talk. You do however receive a large red wooden pawn called the “Do Something” pawn. This is a fantastic tool for ruining relationships, frustrating your wife, or for looking like a fool. You can’t do anything else to communicate other than place this pawn in front of another player. Dwarf and Elf special abilities. The Dwarf (orange Hero pawn) is able to move through the small passages in the orange walls and the Elf (green Hero pawn) can explore a new tile, while all players are allowed to communicate.
The game comes with 17 scenarios that you can go through. The first seven slowly introduce all of the rules of the game, and then the last 10 add in additional challenges.Perhaps the best component is what I call ‘the big red dobber'. This is essentially a massive red pawn that you can slam in front of someone when you think they should be taking a move. Which is hilarious until it is done to you. Magic Maze for children ages 5 and up was also published in 2018. It has the same mechanics as the main version with everything being much more kid friendly, especially the theme. It is recommended to start out by reading about the guards and anti stress tokens and the details of each expansion module.
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