The AMAZEing Labyrinth - Board Game

I absolutely love board games. All of them (except Monopoly, f*ck that game). I own too many and I can't stop buying them. My biggest problem, besides apparently being a shop-o-holic, is that I don't really have anyone to play with. 

My friends who love board games live too far away. My family are sick and tired of me begging asking. I can nag them into playing something with me every now and then, but then it has to be something kid-friendly. Nothing wrong with kid-friendly games though, there are some great ones out there.

So let me introduce you to one of them - The Amazeing Labyrinth (pun intended). 

If you enjoy board games you might have heard of this one, it has been around since the mid 80's and spawned numerous spin-offs. I've only played the original version because honestly I don't see why you would need to change anything, it is perfected the way it is already.

The concept is simple, you and your frenemies are stuck in a labyrinth and need to find treasure (I guess a mouse is a treasure when you're lost and starving in a labyrinth). To get to the treasure you have the possibility to change the layout of the labyrinth, optimally to create a path for you and ruin the plans of your co-players. Each turn a player moves a piece of the labyrinth to create new accessways, or just be a meanie and block a part off for another player. It has a nice balance between luck and tactic, because you can definitely draw some unlucky or lucky treasure cards.

And that is it. There is a kids version that just makes the board smaller, but honestly I already think the concept is simple enough to grasp for even young children, though younger than 10 probably need some help planning their routes and some helpful (rather than spiteful) route shifting from co-players. I've played this with my kids from when they were around 2, in which the idea of finding the corresponding treasure on the map from your card is the main draw. Usually the battle stands between me and my partner and often enough we end up fighting each other hard enough that one of the kids come out winning.

This also means that it is a great game to throw on to the table when you've got friends over who don't often play board games and don't want to spend 30 minutes understanding the rules. Just like with all the best board games, the real challenge of The Amazeing Labyrinth are the co-players, not grasping the rule set.

I remembered playing this as a kid and was lucky to find it cheap on online auction, simply because I wanted the same old version I had as a kid. This board game is popular here in Sweden, readily sold in toy stores and easy to get hold of. I can definitely recommend it if you're looking for an "easy to get into, fun for all ages"- kind of board game.