It’s okay though – game session only last about fifteen minutes so while you’ll almost always dissolve into a mess of mixed signals and failure it doesn’t sting.

Unlike most cooperative games where every player has their own piece (Now Boarding, for example), in Magic Maze you’ll all be simultaneously and collectively guiding these four pieces. For example, one player may be able to move east and use escalators, while another may be able to move west and use portals. Magic Maze is a co-op game that effectively neutralises this by having everyone play in really time and not allowing them to talk! There are several timer spaces in the mall that, when activated, force the players to flip the timer and pass their action tiles to the left.The limitations; firstly each player can only move the characters in a limited direction / with limited actions. Ventilation shafts: the dwarf can open ventilation shafts for all the heroes to move quickly from one end of it to the other. For other players, the big red pawn is a mark of shame or failure, and they shut down whenever it’s in front of them, only making the other players bang the pawn more. This game is a favourite at The Treehouse and is pretty much guaranteed to be an exhilarating and high-adrenaline experience. Codenames at its best gives you something to talk about even if it does require long periods of intense cogitation in place of the conversation for which you might have been hoping.

If the sand timer ever completely runs out, all players lose the game: Your loitering has aroused suspicion, and the mall security guards nab you! Magic Maze is simple and straightforward enough for most audiences, and it’s just plain fun, but it won’t be for everyone. If there’s one small issue with Magic Maze, it’s that the group’s focus is so intense on the characters, that no one is looking to see if time has run out. My advice would be to start with four players as it seems to be the sweet spot between organised chaos and complete entropy. I usually don’t like when sand timers are used in games (see our Spaceteam review), but it is definitely necessary in this one and can’t be replaced by a digital timer.Magic Maze is a multi-award winning real time, cooperative game, requiring quick thinking and excellent team work. Hanabi’s cooperative hand management is enchanting, the narrative in Robinson Crusoe makes the teamwork acceptable, and there are few thrills that equal solving a case together in Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective or exiting an escape room with skins intact. Honestly, I haven’t quite figured out how to do this within my normal writing style, but I’m kind of a “first draft best draft” kind of dude, so here we go. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.

In a turn based game where you have the luxury of time it would be bad enough, but here every second you spend is genuinely wasted. Still, I don’t think I’d refuse the game at any count, which is saying something for a game that advertises play for 1-8. Just as he does though, the sand timer drips down and it looks like no-one is in a position to turn it! Each Hero reaches their respective exit space (the exit sign with the colour and symbol of the corresponding Hero Pawn) and when all four heroes reach their exits, you are free!The first seven slowly introduce all of the rules of the game, and then the last 10 add in additional challenges. The problem is, they don’t really know the mall that well, and they’ll need to abscond with their ill-gotten gains.