SET NAME: Magikus
THEME: LEGO Games
YEAR: 2010 (2009 in Europe)
$ of Pieces: 108
MSRP: $9.99 (USD) $12.99(CAN)
AGES: 6 and up
$ of players; 2-4
From Brickset: Magikus from LEGO® Games: A new way to play!
Introducing LEGO® Games, the world's first collection of games that you build, play and change. With the unique buildable LEGO Dice and changeable rules, LEGO Games is a great way of having fun together with family and friends. Be the first to cast the magic spell in the cauldron! With the help of the owl you must be the first to collect the four special ingredients from the shelves. Steal ingredients from your opponents to slow them down and help you win the game. A simple yet extremely engaging game for 2 to 4 players. Game play approximately 10-20 minutes. 1 buildable LEGO Dice 1 rule booklet 1 building instruction booklet Award Winner: iParenting Hot Toy Award.
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I picked up this game the other day as it was on clearance. I thought I was just going to get it for the parts, but after putting it together, I discovered its actually a good kids game. On to the review.
Here is the front of the box. Now some might be a bit disappointed to find that the two wizards shown on the cover are not included in the box. In fact, there are no mini or micro figures in this game.
The back of the box. On the back you see a bit of how the game is played. More on that later.
The contents of the box. Two bags of pieces to assemble the game, a rule book, an instruction manual on how to build the game, and a LEGO dice.
The game "board" is a staircase like structure with coloured tiles on each step. Notice that on each row, the four coloured pieces are in different order.
Here is the completed game board. The bat in the upper right corner is not used in the basic game. The owl is an important part of the game, as are the four green/red/yellow/blue pieces. These are used to hold your ingredients. The dice has been completed with coloured tiles.
Extra pieces. These are used in the advanced game.
Ok, so once you complete the game board, its on to the game. The goal of the game is to be the first player to collect all four ingredients for the magic potion you are brewing up. You need one of each colour. The youngest player goes first. On your turn, you do two things. First, you move the owl. The owl can sit on any of the 8 brown tiles. The tile he sits on indicated which row or column you can take an ingredient from. Once you've moved the owl, you roll the dice. If the dice comes up red, yellow, green or blue, you take that coloured ingredient from the row or column the owl is sitting on. If you already have that colour, you take a second one to prevent your opponents from getting it. If there is no ingredient of that colour, you get nothing. If you roll white, you can take any colour you want from that row. If you roll black, you can steal an ingredient from one of your opponents. If none of your opponents have any ingredients, you roll again.
I played the game with my two children, ages 5 and 3. Now the game says its for ages 6 and up, but I think that most 4 and 5 year olds would have no trouble with this game. My 3 year old kept forgetting to move the owl, so I had to do that for him, but otherwise he had no trouble comprehending the game. In fact, he won four times in a row as the game is completely dependent on the luck of the roll. There is no real skill involved. The game is very straight forward.
Now, the advanced game is bit more challenging. To play the advanced game, you remove the red/yellow/green/blue bricks from your scoring tile, and mix them in with the spares. Then, each person draws 6 randomly. So, you may end up with 3 yellow ingredients 2 red and 1 green. Each person will have a different ingredient list. You keep your ingredients list hidden. You play the same way as the simple game, trying to collect your ingredients first. But, there is another catch. The bat is now part of the game. You need to be in possession of the bat as well as your six ingredients to win. How do you get the bat? Well, when you roll the black colour, you now have options. You can now do one of 3 things. You can steal an ingredient from an opponent as before or you can move the bat from his black tile and place him on one of the brown tiles. This prevents the owl from being placed there and blocks that row or column from being use to collect ingredients. The final option when rolling black is to take the bat as your ingredient.
My kids loved this game, and have asked to play it daily. Even if you don't like the game, it has a lot of nice parts that are highly reusable.
I would give this game a 4/5.