“Let’s warm up with ‘Magic Maze,´” I said at a board game night. We proceeded to play it exclusively for the following four hours. 

“Magic Maze” is a cooperative board game in which players move four pawns around in a mall without taking turns, steal items, and get out. But don’t take too long – there’s a sand timer, and if it runs out, players lose. This would be a simple task if players were allowed to talk or point. To layer onto that, each player can only move the four pawns in one or two directions.  

With four pawns to keep track of, this game is utter chaos. There was a game when another player and I were trying to accomplish the same task, but there were two different ways to get there. In these situations, occasionally a pawn will be moved back and forth in a game of tug of war between two players when both ways are right. 

Each game is entirely different. The tiles that make up the board are flipped over when the correct color pawn reaches the edge of one of the existing tiles, so in each game the “mall” will look entirely different. 

Instead of being a one-and-done, this game is separated into levels, each level adding new tiles to the board, new rules, and new abilities for the four pawns. One of the levels adds a new rule that has players rotating the card that indicates which direction they can move the pawns each time the timer flips. 

With the right group of people, “Magic Maze” is brilliant. The players are focused, locked into the game. This is what happened when I ended up playing the game for four hours. There’s a sense of accomplishment for each player. I felt a sense of accomplishment and pride that we were able to do so much without talking. In these situations, “Magic Maze” is hands down one of my favorite board games. 

This is at its best and brightest though. “Magic Maze” is a true test of attention. Imagine driving a car that has about a 25% chance that the steering wheel turns right at any given time. That’s the experience I’ve had when I’ve played this game with the wrong group.  

While this game is brilliant, I have one other criticism that has nothing to do with the gameplay. The game design is on point, with an attractive concept that introduces new levels that build in new rules naturally. The picture on the box of the game looks childish and the theme is strange: the pawns are four fantasy heroes who steal their weapons from a mall. 

It’s a funny concept, but the whimsy of it had me pass by the game multiple times in stores until my Dad decided he wanted to give it a try.