Wizardology is a roll-and-move set collection game based on a popular book series. I have not read the books, so I cannot comment on whether the game truly deserves that selfsame description that appears on the box. I will not provide an opinion there. However, I can provide an opinion on the playability of the game, and that is what I will do.

The game is played on an unconventional round board, with multiple spaces, and walls that are similar to a maze. The game involves rolling a die, moving your wizard, and engaging in various trials in order to gain 4 different amulets of power (which are held in 4 different chambers attuned to the four natural elements of earth, wind, water, and fire around the outside of the board). After gathering all four amulets, your character must make their way back to the center of the board and summon the great Wizard Merlin. There are other players trying to do the same, and there is some conflict and confrontation that can happen at times.

THE GOOD:

Components:

The publisher of the game (Sababa Toys) took great care to provide a collection of high quality components. The cards are of good stock, the figures are painted with fine detail of strong (but softer) plastic, and the amulets are of good quality. Visually, the game is aesthetically pleasing to the eye. The colors are bright and crisp, and the components are easy to find. There is also a “double” die, with one small white die inside a larger, opaque die. The double die is only used in specific circumstances, so it is nice that it isn’t a (potentially) overused cliché. Overall, I am impressed with the visual and durable content of the game pieces. The problem is, I find this facet to be the only significantly redeeming quality of this game.

THE MEDIOCRE:

Disclaimer: I normally don’t include this category when I do my reviews, but I couldn’t find any category to assign the following. So I consider it mediocre. It isn’t good – it isn’t bad. It’s mediocre.

Theme:

I like the fact that for some of the amulets (the hat and the familiar, for example) are specific for your wizard character – there is a monkey, a tiger, and a snake, for example, as well as hats that are specific for each wizard. It is also quite nice that each wizard character is from a different culture – there is a “Western” wizard modeled on Merlin, an “African Shaman” akin to something out of sub-Saharan Africa, and a “Lapp Shaman” (with a wolf familiar, of course). There is also a “theme” in the sense of competing wizards trying to gather the necessary power (through their respective amulets) to gain the favor of Merlin – which, of course, guarantees a wizard tremendous power. Albeit a weak theme, it is there. Although not once do I feel like a wizard when playing this game. Railroad Tycoon can make me feel like I am George Pullman or J.P. Morgan – but I still feel like Chris when I play Wizardology.

THE BAD:

The rulebook:

The rulebook is not very easy to follow, and is done in rather poor quality black and white. Considering how visual the rest of the game is, I would have been more impressed with a rulebook in color. It certainly would have been easier to differentiate between the four different “chambers”, for example, or to know which of the four “Magic Item” cards I need to get into each chamber.

Action and conflict:

Any game with dueling wizards demands action between the players when they encounter each other on a space. In Wizardology, the extent of “conflict” between players is a glorified game of “Rock, Paper, Scissors” – sort of like Dungeonquest, but without the “Slashes, Mightly Blows, and Leap Asides” that make THAT game fun.

Roll and move:

This mechanic is probably the only way that you could get this game to work. And although there are some games with roll-and-move mechanisms (like Talisman, or Payday, or Life) that work, this game just makes it seem like a chore. Part of the nature of the round board is that there are walls along certain paths of the game. These walls block movement. So, you ask, how does the game compensate for it? By allowing you to “bounce” off the walls, and reverse your direction! So, in many instances, a two can have the exactly identical result as a six. And, I have seen instances whereby, because of this “bounce” effect, the player gets into an endless loop because they keep rolling the same two numbers over and over.

The round board feels like my wizard is stuck in a maze, and between the bouncing walls and constant rolling, it is hard to get to one specific spot you have to land on to get an amulet. To make is worse, there is a loophole – besides “Magic Item” cards and “Crystal Ball” cards, there are also “Feather Tokens”. These allow a wizard to ignore all of the conventions of moving – no dice, no movement, just go exactly where you want to go. However, you cannot earn these “Feather Tokens” – you need to land on a spot that lets you draw one –and even then, you might get a lousy pair of “Boots”, which aren’t as powerful as the “Magic Carpet”.

Set Collection:

This game exemplifies what most people who hate set collection games hate about set collection games. All your character does is roll the die, move your guy, draw a card. Rinse and repeat. Getting lots of cards from the “Magic Item” deck improves your chances of getting one of your four amulets, but once you get the amulet, you probably don’t need any of those particular “Magic Items” again (unless of course, someone steals your amulet – see the UGLY section below). What you were once collecting with great fervor now becomes completely worthless. Unlike a game like San Juan, where your excess cards become “currency” to build new buildings, excess cards in Wizardology serve absolutely no purpose.

Multiplayer solitaire:

I just finished my third game of this with my daughter (she is 8 years old, and loves this game). This time, I tried a new strategy. I ignored my daughter. Completely ignored her. I moved according to my plan of trying to draw as many “Magic Item” cards as I could, because those are the cards that get you to engage in a “Task” inside the amulet chambers. A character must have a magic item to activate the chamber, and if the activation fails, you need another specific magic Item to activate it again. As such, I feel when I play this game that I need multiple copies of a single card. Since it doesn’t rely on what my opponent is doing, I can play this game by myself and it will feel exactly the same as if I were playing it with others.

THE UGLY (and I mean REALLY ugly):

Card descriptions:

Okay, in this sense, the game seems incredibly stupid and hokey. For the “Magic Item” cards, they are completely visual. That is tolerable. However, for the “Crystal Ball” cards, the cards are in a rhyme – an incredibly annoying thing to have in a game. What’s worse, the cards themselves don’t actually say what they do. I am constantly having to go back to the rulebook to see what a card does. Unfortunately, my daughter has forced me to play this game so many times, I now know what the cards do without having to read them – which even kills the fun even more. Sure, in Talisman, you could probably memorize the cards – but there is some fun and discovery in reading those cards. Wizardology makes reading the cards a chore, and so it behooves you to memorize them, if only to speed the game to its conclusion faster.

Resource Manipulation:

The other conflict is when a character draws a “Crystal Ball” card and essentially steals another card (or worse, a “hard earned” amulet) from your wizard. You don’t have to DO anything to steal a resource from another player – you just need to draw the right card. Hideous mechanic, and sure to piss off a lot of players. Unlike “Screw You” conflict elements of games like Shogun, Tide of Iron, or even Ticket to Ride, you have to actually put some effort and strategy into screwing your opponent. Wizardology takes that effort and strategy and dumbs it down to purely the luck of the dice and draw of the card.

End game:

This is, hands down, the worst part of this game. How do you win? By rolling a seven. That’s it! Of course, to earn the “right” to roll a seven, you need to have one of each of your four amulets, and you need to get back to the center of the board. But remember, you can steal amulets from your opponents if you are lucky to draw the right card, and the “Magic Carpet” can fly you right back to the center whenever you want to go there. So, very easily, you can earn your right to roll a seven by doing very little work.

The game is also incredibly anti-climactic at its end. Yah, you rolled a seven. Game over. You win. Let’s play Monopoly – it is less painful.

FINAL COMMENTS:

This game feels a little hokey – like a Harry Potter episode (which is already bad) gone bad. Hokey and unfulfilling. I feel empty after playing this game, and would have rather spent my 60 minutes playing San Juan or Alhambra. Overall, I give it a 5 out of 10, and had the components been not as nice, it would have been worse.