The Joy of Gaming - The Magic Labyrinth

We're always on the lookout for new and interesting games for our daughter. She's growing up so fast that it's hard to waste out money on games that are ONLY for little kids and have no interest for adults. For example, we bought Animal Upon Animal, which is great for our young daughter, but we seriously love it as adults as well. When my husband bought this for my daughter, I laughed, because I had it on a list of interesting games to buy for our family.

The Magic Labyrinth (2009)
Essentially, you are moving your pawn (Magician) around the board, trying to make it to a certain symbol that you randomly selected from the bag. But the pawn is a magnet and on the other side of the board is a metal ball. Under the board is a maze and when you hit a wall, the ball drops and you start over. It's a race to see who will make it to the symbol first and earn the token. Players have to remember where the walls were and try to work around them. In order to know how many spaces you can move a turn, you roll a die. Again, if you hit a wall and your ball falls, you have to start over.

Everyone we have shared the game with has loved it and, to be fair, it has magnets... kids LOVE magnets. A definite addition to any family collection and a great game for any event you might attend where kids are playing games. I brought this to my school's Family Night Frenzy in the game room and it was the hit of the room. Several people told me they were going home to buy it right away!

If you're into the art and playful visuals of the game, the artist, Rolf Vogt, is also responsible for a similarly enjoyable game, The Enchanted Tower (2012). I recommend checking it out.

A great addition and one my daughter loves playing!

Am I Back? We'll See

Now that things have found a more level ground again, I think I might be able to return to my blog. Life was too much, too overwhelming, and too unpredictable. A summer off has allowed me to reset some of my systems and help my batteries charge a bit more. Heading into the school year is always going to be hectic, but it's nothing I haven't handled before under more duress. Even though, with this new perception and frame of mind, it would always completely backfire on me.

Over the last year I have played next to zero games. I have, though, played an excessive amount of RPG. I've written about that before, where my husband, our friend, and I are taking turns running our preferred RPGs. It's been going really great! I, though, am apparently really caught up in writing stories for my Marvel character and it's very involved!

But now that the craziness of life has taken a little vacation, I thought it might be time to get back into my groove of sharing some games with my The Joy of Gaming entries. Might even invest myself in some other things if I can get my mind heading in that direction.

So as the school year gets underway for myself and my daughter, I am hoping to turn Thursday nights into game night with my husband. It might even help us get out to our local game group's game nights. Trying to building that routine, because routine is what keeps things consistent and going. Well, with some sporadic moments of unstructured insanity.

Essentially, lets see if I'm back for good! Stick around for more!