[REVIEW] 3838: Lava Dragon

[hatcher]

Indexed

Pieces:131
MSRP: 19.99 CAN

From Brickset:
Lava Dragon 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 build-able LEGO Dice and changeable rules, LEGO Games is a great way of having fun together with family and friends. Prove you are the bravest knight of all by being the first one to summon the dragon from the top of the volcano. Avoid the lava and block your opponents as you climb to victory. With the LEGO Dice no two games of Lava Dragon are ever the same. For 2 to 4 players. Game play approximately 15-25 minutes. 1 build-able LEGO Dice 1 rule booklet 1 building instruction booklet 4 LEGO micro-figures.
http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=3838-1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

After the enjoyment my kids and I got from Magikus, I decided to crack open this game and see what we thought of it. This game is a lot more complicated than Magikus is, as it is listed as being for ages 7 and up, but even I (the adult in the room) found even the basic game hard to grasp at first.

On to the review. Here's what the box looks like. I do like the cartoonish characters they include on the boxes, even if they don't come with the game.

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And the back. The back provides a brief description of how to play and shows a some features as well.

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The contents of the box. There is a building instruction book, and a how to play book, a LEGO dice and two bags of pieces.

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This game comes with Micro-Figures. They are incredibly small, and one piece. I had to try about 5 times before I got even a semi decent picture. I really like the yellow Knight's cross style helmet. These are your game pieces. Each one starts in a different lower corner of the volcano and tries to climb to the top.

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Here is the game board, or volcano. The Knights move in very odd way, which I'll get to later. They can only move up if they are in a position with a single layer above them. The orange cones represent lava, which block your progress.

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The dragon sits on top of the volcano, and object of the game is get your Knight to the top row first, and summon the dragon. First one to ride the Dragon wins. The most interesting part of the game is the dice. The dice starts with only 2 1x2 orange tiles on it. The rest of the dice is blank. Each player is given a supply of coloured movement tiles(1x1 tiles). On your turn, you roll the dice. If the side of the dice comes up with an empty space on it, you attach a movement tile to it, and you move your Knight once space. If the side of the dice comes up with the orange tile on it, you can move one of the lava cones to block your opponent. If the dice comes up with movement tiles on it, whatever coloured tiles are showing, that player or players can move too. The dice changes as the game goes one. (BTW, the wrenches included in the game are used to remove the tiles from the dice after each game.) It slows the game down a bit, but it is a very clever twist.

The advanced game has extra features you can play with, such as brown tiles on the dice to represent climbing ropes, and a LEGO axle that you use to represent a lava eruption to presumably knock your opponents off the mountain. My kids are too young to even understand the basic game (they lost interest during the first, and only game we played) to even try the advanced game.

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You win by getting to the top row, and then rolling one of the two orange tiles, to summon the dragon. Here, the blue Knight won.

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Now, I suspect that older children might quite enjoy this game, and I might even pull it out again in a few year, but right now, its just not working for me. However, even if you aren't interested in the game for game play, there are still reasons to buy it. It comes with a large number of 1x1 tiles, which are semi rare, and the micro-figures. I would never pay full price for it if you just want the parts, but at least in my kneck of the woods, this game didn't sell very well, and has been reduced in price substantially.

I give it a 6/10 for game play and 8/10 for parts.