Magikus
Price: $9.99
Theme: Board Games
Pieces: 109
Price Per Piece: $.09/p
LEGO Description:
As I promised before the LEGO Review contest started, here is my first review of a LEGO board game. I have many others, all but one I plan on reviewing. Let me start off first by saying that so far I have not been disappointed with any LEGO board game I have played, and each one comes with some peculiar or rare pieces, usually in bulk, as well as a larger than normal amount of printed tiles. There are also usually some microfigures included, each with nice printing. These board games are LEGO at it's finest quality and creativity.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
Now, onto the review of Magikus.
Here is the front of the box of Magikus. It is very printing, shows the actual game and was sealed in a thin wrapping of plastic wrap to make sure it didn't become stained or opened.
Here is the back of the box. It shows the dice, the actual 'board' for the game, as well as many of the pieces.
The first items that you will notice once the box is open (not shown here) are the instructions and the game play instructions. The game play instructions will come printed in three different languages, depending on what market region you are in. Mine came in English, French and Spanish.
Normally I would save this shot of the entirety of the set for last, but since it is a board game, showing it all set up makes the most sense.
The aim of the game is simple: be the first to collect all of the items and combine them into a spell in the cauldron.
The game starts out with the owl in the left hand corner and the bat in the right hand corner. Each player gets a collector block to put the items they are supposed to collect.
The first order of business for a player on their turn is to move the owl onto a brown row or column. This is the row or column that you will be collecting an item from.
You will now roll the dice. The color that you roll corresponds to the color item that you will be collecting. Red = Horn, Yellow = Wand, Blue = Skeleton Head, and Green = Potion. There are also two other colors, black and white. If you roll black, then you may take an item from another player. If you roll white, you may take whatever color item you would like from the row or column that the owl is positioned at.
You may take more than one of each item, meaning that you may roll yellow, take the wand, and then next turn move the owl to another row and roll yellow and grab another wand. This is hoarding at it's finest.
Once you have all four items on your collector box, toss them into the cauldron because you have won!
There are also some alternative rules that LEGO suggests to make the game more difficult/interesting/last longer.
You may make the black tile have more meanings. The bat will become a playable piece when rolling black, effectively blocking the owl from the row or column that you choose.
The bat may also become a collectible item, needed for completing the spell. You may also make this apply to the cauldron as well.
This game will last about 10 to 20 minutes. The alternative rules make the game more interesting and last longer and I highly suggest playing with them.
The pieces that Magikus come with are simple and interesting. The magic wands are always nice to have. A note of interest though: they are NOT translucent yellow. They are translucent NEON yellow. The camera just cannot adequately express this. Red horns are nice but not really rare, nor are the golden goblets. The translucent blue canisters are nice to have, as are the smiley skeleton heads. I cannot stress how many times I have needed more skeleton heads :D The owl is also nice to have, as is another bat. Animals are always a big plus for me.
The board itself is made up of some 1xX gray bricks with some flat 2x10 brown planks. The game also comes with extra pieces for up to 6 boards, although I'm not sure why because it didn't come with anymore flat 1x4 pieces to stick them on. There was also an extra translucent green round piece and an extra horn, but no extra skeleton heads nor wands.
The directions are very easy to follow and the game is super easy to pick up. There's no real thinking involved, just pretty much blind luck. This is not a strategy game.
You do not have to deconstruct this set completely to fit it back into the box. Storage is easy. Just take down the owl and the bat and the lid should be able to go back on.
Would I recommend this set? Yes, completely. It's very simple, yet still a fun way to pass time. The pieces are decent and come in a decent amount. The price is also right for the amount of pieces and the quality of all the pieces is perfect. It's a nice alternative to the individual board games that are not compatible with anything else. Anyone of any age would have fun with this set. The build isn't all that interesting but it's a board game, who cares? The dice is also nice. I now have 6 of them :D I haven't found another use for them yet but I'm going to try!
Go get this game! Go Go Go!
EDIT: For those of you who are interested, here is a picture of the LEGO Dice from the LEGO Shop website. Those are actual studs and you may put whatever you would like on there.
