Ravensburger Harry Potter Labyrinth Review

Reviewed by David Ashworth

Harry Potter is a global phenomenon, if you’re a fan or not you cannot question it. Since his first appearance in J.K. Rowling’s novel ‘Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone’ in 1997 to the subsequent novels and film adaptations ending with ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2’ which hit cinemas in 2011, Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger have captured the hearts and imaginations of children and adults alike and endured through whirlwind adventures and grown up before our eyes on the page and the silver screen.

Even though it has been twelve years since J.K. Rowling released her last book, and eight years since Daniel Radcliffe brought the titular character to life on the big screen, Harry Potter is beloved as ever and I recently got the pleasure of reliving the adventures of the Hogwarts students (through the films at least) with my nine year old son, as I introduced him to the wonder and magic within those hallowed halls, sparking his own obsession with the series.

Not often in this life do things seem to sync up perfectly but fortunately for us, now that we have watched all the films from start to finish, we have been given the opportunity to dive head first back into the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry thanks to Ravensburger’s Harry Potter Labyrinth – The Moving Maze Game.

So first of all, what’s in the box?

• 1 x game board
• 24 x treasure cards
• 34 x maze cards
• 4 x different coloured playing piece
• 1 x instruction booklet

The board is made up of sixteen fixed tiles and spaces for 33 loose tiles which can be moved around to change the layout of the game and force players to change their strategy constantly to adjust to the changing layout of the game. The sixteen fixed tiles each have a picture from the Harry Potter movies and the four corner squares are colour coded to each of the houses of Hogwarts i.e. Gryffindor, Hufflepuff etc. The pawns used by the individual player also match up to the respective houses team colour.

The 34 loose square tiles are shuffled face down and randomly placed face up on the board into the grid, eventually leaving one single tile which is given to the first player. Twelve of the permanent tiles contain photos from the cinematic world of Harry Potter of the most famous Wizards of Hogwarts; Harry, Hermione, Voldermort, Hagrid, and several other popular characters from the stories.

The aim of the game is to navigate your way through the Hogwarts themed labyrinth, avoiding traps and out manoeuvring other players as the walls and entire structure of the board change with the exciting moving wall strategy. Whilst doing so Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione along with a whole host of other characters from the series are waiting to be found according to the photo cards in each players deck. The first person to find all of the characters from their individual deck is declared the winner. There are no restrictions to movement (apart from the walls) and no dice, a player can move as far along each wall or stop at an individual intersection as he or she pleases.

So off goes the TV as we settled in for an exciting game night.

Overall, we found this game very easy to pick up and play, even though we had no previous experience with the Labyrinth franchise of board games and although the rules about the moving walls seemed a little confusing and harrowing at first we quickly got the hang of it and proceeded to explore Hogwarts. Each of the cards on the board is inscribed with spells and incantations from the Harry Potter series which, although adding nothing to the gameplay itself, does help create an atmosphere akin to the films and books.

After doing a little research, I also found out that some other variations of this game had more intricately designed pawns for the players to use such as wizards, but in this version of the game they simply used coloured pegs. I know this wouldn’t add much to the gameplay but I feel that it was a missed opportunity. Also as previously mentioned, spells and incantations from the series are used decoratively on the board which creates a nice atmosphere but surely these could have been incorporated into the gameplay without over-complicating the overall flow of the game. A nice teleportation spell or invisibility cloak could have really spiced things up.

Apart from those minor issues my wife and I had a really fun time playing this game with our nine year old son and he really enjoyed feeling like he was part of the Harry Potter world, he even threw in a few spells of his own to give himself a bit of an edge when playing. From what I do know of the Labyrinth board games Ravensburger’s Harry Potter Labyrinth is a modern version of the classic game, only really making changes to the look of the game to suit the Harry Potter theme. That isn’t to say that it isn’t a lot of fun, the original Amazing Labyrinth game is a classic for a reason. It’s easy to pick up and play and the moving wall structure keeps players on their toes. The Harry Potter theme really just makes a classic board game more accessible for a younger generation and fans of the series.

As soon as we had finished our first attempt at the game we immediately reset the board and played again. It thrilled me to do so as any parents with pre-teen children will know that this is the YouTube generation, and getting kids away from screens and consoles for more than a few minutes is a chore in itself. We purposely have game nights at home at least a few times a week to limit screen time and sometimes it is less successful and engaging than others but with Ravensburger’s Harry Potter Labyrinth my son wanted to play again and again.

Although this is a rehash of an old game idea, given modern aesthetics to appeal to fans of J.K. Rowling and the Harry Potter series, we did really enjoy this game. Even though we are beginners and none of us had played a Labyrinth title before, we found it really accessible and the more we played it the more we started to incorporate strategies and techniques whilst we were playing, making it a lot more enjoyable and competitive.

Harry Potter Labyrinth is a great idea for die-hard fans of the series as well as a casual fans or collectors of memorabilia. It’s also a nice trip down memory lane for people who may have played the original Labyrinth games in their childhood and want to introduce their own children to the game but do so with more modern and familiar themes and characters to make it more appealing to that younger demographic. It’s a great way to encourage and introduce kids towards more strategic board games like Chess or Monopoly as strategy and logic are a big part of Labyrinth as well.

My only real nit-picks with Harry Potter Labyrinth are the aesthetic details I mentioned earlier about the characters and spells being under-developed but also the cards and board could easily be broken or damaged if mishandled, so definitely not one for younger kids. It’s also a bit fiddly moving all the set pieces around and might get frustrating for some. Also the rules are a little complex and I wouldn’t recommend it for children under the age of five (is recommended for age 7 years and upwards) but it is accessible for non-experienced Labyrinth players.

Other than that, we loved this game, we loved the tie in to Harry Potter and the Hogwarts school and it was a great way to spend an evening away from the TV and computer screens. Some may criticise it as a ‘lazy licensee’ but personally I feel that Labyrinth and Harry Potter are a natural fit and the moving walls, doors and staircases of Hogwarts in the books and movies are captured really well by the moving walls of Labyrinth.

If you love Harry Potter or the classic Labyrinth game I would strongly recommend you go out and pick up this game.

Rating: 5/5

RRP: £24.99

Available to buy from Amazon here.