SetUp & Rules
Setup is simple and involves randomly placing 33 cardboard tiles onto an empty board, with one tile left out. A deck of treasure cards is shuffled and dealt out amongst the players and each player chooses an avatar which starts out at a different corner of the board. Taking turns, a player chooses a card from their deck (without showing it to other players) and has to navigate to the tile on the board containing the treasure shown on the card.
This is made more difficult by the fact that on each turn, players use the spare tile to push a tile out of the board (which then becomes the extra tile for the next player), creating a new path for them to traverse across. The maze paths constantly change on each turn, making creating a path to your treasure more and more difficult.
Gameplay and Difficulty Levels
The game is incredibly easy to pick up and play, with both of our young children understanding the rules in a few minutes. The difficulty and potential frustration (particularly for those under 6) comes in seeing your perfectly laid out path to your treasure, suddenly disrupted by someone shifting a tile. This is the fun aspect of the game, but perhaps not for kids under 6! That’s why we’d recommend the junior version of the game - the board is smaller and it’s quicker to grab the treasures as a result.
Quality and Design
The board and tiles are made from solid cardboard that feels like it’ll last a long time, though the playing pieces are a little flimsy. One annoying aspect of the design is that the tiles don’t glide smoothly over the board when being pushed - they need to be perfectly aligned to be pushed (there are small notches throughout the board to separate the columns of tiles and if they’re not perfectly straight, it creates resistance when trying to push tiles through, which can cause tiles to pop up).
Overall Rating
This game gets a lot of replay value in our house - it’s a perfect blend of both luck and strategy so younger players aren’t too disadvantaged.
Tantrum o-meter:
Children's Enjoyment:
Parent's Enjoyment: