Ravensburger Labyrinth

Name: Ravensburger Labyrinth

Number of Players: between 1 and 4, but 4 is best and 1 is less ideal

Recommended Ages: 8 and over

Average Playing Time: Approximately 20 minutes, but often runs longer

Overview

Originally known as The aMAZEing Labyrinth, Ravensburger Labyrinth was so successful that it started an entire popular series of Labyrinth games. While the game creators designed the game for children, it requires a great deal of strategy and is often enjoyable for adults as well. The game was designed by German psychologist Max Kobbert and published in 1986 by Ravensburger.

How to Play

The Ravensburger Labyrinth rules are fairly simple and easy to pick up.

The game board has a series of tiles, some fixed and some moveable. These tiles make up the titular labyrinth. The moveable tiles can slide in and out of the rows on the board. There is one tile not in the labyrinth at all times and each player takes turns sliding this extra tile into a row in the labyrinth. This moves the rest of the tiles in the labyrinth and pushes another tile out of the board. This tile becomes the tile that the next player puts in the labyrinth. These tiles cause the labyrinth to constantly shift from turn to turn, making the game tricky as it is very difficult to plan ahead.

At the beginning of the game, each player gets a certain number of cards with treasures listed on them. It is important that you not look at the cards ahead of time as you are only supposed to know about one treasure at a time. Each player tries to move their game piece through the shifting tunnels of the labyrinth to get to the treasures listed on the cards. Once you reach the destination and treasure on your card, you must reveal the card to the rest of the group and take a new card from your pile.

Winning the Game

The goal of the game for each player is to collect all of their designated treasures and then get back to their original starting spot on the board. The winner is the first one to complete the task.

Strategies

The Ravensburger Labyrinth is not a particularly complex game and a lot of it is based on what your competitors do. However, a few strategic moves will help you win the game, such as:

• Each player gets the same number of treasures to collect. If you see that one of the other players is nearing the end of his stack of cards, you may be able to figure out where the other person is trying to go and block his progress by putting tiles in his way during your turn. This will slow the other player down and give you more time to catch up.
• As with any maze, this labyrinth has potential dead ends. Using your turn to trap other players in dead end parts of the maze is another great way to slow down your competitors.

Final Thoughts

Ravensburger Labyrinth is great fun for adults and children. It is geared more towards children, but also encourages enough planning and strategizing that adults will enjoy themselves. How challenging the game is depends on who you play with. If you play with adults, the game may be much more difficult than if you play with children. Depending on which and how many people are playing, the game can run a little bit longer than advertised on the box. This is fine for adults, but may be difficult for young children, the ones the game is marketed towards. Overall, the Amazing Labyrinth is an enjoyable strategy game that the whole family can really get into.

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