Nintendo’s Mario franchise, with its colourful characters, slightly Alice-in-Wonderland-esque setting, makes for a great theme for almost any board game. After giving The Game of Life a makeover, the Mushroom Kingdom now expands further to bring us Super Mario Labyrinth.
The original Labyrinth was published in 1986 by Ravensburger, a year after the original Super Mario Bros. was released in Japan. The game involves two to four players facing a maze (the titular labyrinth) made up of fixed and moving tiles. Players will try to move the maze tiles around, trying to gain an advantageous position so they can lead their token to the treasure and get out successfully.
With Super Mario Labyrinth, instead of collecting treasure, the goal is to collect characters in the franchise. After all, as we all know, the real treasures are the friends we make along the way.
To achieve that, players will navigate through the malleable, ever-shifting land of the Mushroom Kingdom, not unlike the bizarre geography and architecture present in the games. For fans of the Mario franchise, and really, what’s there not to love about Mario, this is a game that will add some bright colours to any board game collection.
The only peeve we have here is the meeples used are pretty generic and could have been the iconic characters like Mario instead. A missed opportunity there sadly.
This is an easy game to pick up and learn to play within minutes, and is fun for the whole family! Super Mario Labyrinth is up for pre-order on Amazon for US$34.99, and will be released on 8 September 2021.
Brandon shapeshifts between being a nerd and a geek like Mystique, but with fewer options. He reads an unhealthy amount of comics and manga, while playing a healthy amount of board games and video games.
Gerald
Trinity Sun
