Competitive Maze Building: A Review of Maze Racers

Build a maze, race your opponent, and get creative in this unique and challenging game.

Gameplay

Each player is given a maze board and maze wall pieces. These are magnetic and stick to one another. There are also start and end pieces.

The board is divided into four quadrants and players agree on which quadrant to place their start piece and which quadrant to place their end piece. Each player may place these pieces anywhere in the agreed on quadrants and move them around the quadrants as they build their mazes.

On the count of three, players race to build a maze by placing the wall pieces on their boards. Once a player is satisfied with her maze, she may flip over the sand timer, and the other player has until the timer runs out to complete his own maze.

After the mazes are completed, players exchange their boards, place a small wooden ball at the start points, and then race to be the first player to maneuver it to the end point and win the round. The harder the maze you’ve built, the longer it will take your opponent to reach the end. The first player to win two out of three rounds wins the game.

You can also play the game with two teams of two, in which case team members work to build a maze together and during the solving portion of the game, each player on the team holds an opposite end of the maze board as they try to maneuver the ball together.

Review

Maze Racers is absolutely unique. I’ve never played anything like it. Magnets are usually enjoyable when integrated into games and their use here to construct mazes continues the trend.

It may strike some as slightly more puzzle than game, though, and some players aren’t going to enjoy this. There’s no luck, and if you’re just not great at either building or solving mazes, you’re probably going to lose a lot if your opponent is.

But this is one of those games where winning is well and truly secondary. The fun comes from building the mazes and trying to solve your opponent's mazes. Chances are that even if the other player beats you to the finish line, you’re still going to want to finish finding your way to the exit. There’s also lot of variation on the sizes of the maze wall pieces, so you can build just about any maze that you can dream up, and it’s fun to attempt elaborate ones and slowly improve your maze building skills.

If you want something that’s truly different, or looking for a fun, quick game for two-players, and you have a love for puzzles, Maze Racers is a great fit.

Pros: Nothing else like it, good for two players

Cons: More of a puzzle than a game

Disclosure: we received a complimentary review copy of this game.