Have you seen this game in stores? If so, you'd probably remember it. the front of the box opens up to reveal the awesome custom pieces... 6 wizards, each with their own detachable staff, hat, and pet, multiple custom dice, decks of cards, a wand, and other amazing feats of plastic.

And then you plop down your $40 for the game and feel you've made out like a bandit, and will find the gameplay is both innovative and unique.

To start off with, do you like making decisions in games? ME NEITHER! you could make the wrong one! then where would you be? losing, no doubt to people who think with their big brain-heads. This game virtually eliminates all need for decision making. On top of that, it does a superb job at feigning player interaction- duels, cards that let you steal, etc. but DON'T WORRY! this is just a trick, all aspects of this will either be random, blatantly obvious, or negated in short order by some other over-powering effect. So fear not, you will not be shamed this day by man or dog, as all stand an equal chance at this game, and none will interact in any way necessitating communication.

Roll the "double-dice" and move a number of spaces equal to the outer dice. yes, it is a dice within a dice, have no fear, this is roughly meaningless, it's just there to provide you with what you really wanted... cool components! draw cards and endure or inflict their game-shattering effects! draw more cards so that you can get A CHANCE at picking up one of the 4 things you need to win this game. don't worry though, that's not as daunting a task as it might first sound.

First off, as mentioned before, if for some reason you have difficulty navigating the "maze" to get into one of the rooms to acquire the items, you'll no doubt get some randomly-acquired cards that will let you steal the hard-earned items from other players.

on top of that NO SKILL OR THOUGHT IS REQUIRED in any way, shape, or form, to acquire the items once you're in the rooms. They've cleverly turned what could be onerous challenges into easy and fun versions of dice-rolls and coin flips! YAY!

To get your hat you'll have to... well, flip a coin. not cleverly hidden, but that's not really what we're going for here, eh? no, not joking, flip a coin, 50/50 chance to get your hat.

To get your staff, you must pull a staff out of the holder, and if it matches your color, you get it! The game designer, who seems so humble he or she didn't want to put their name on the box or rules, has done away with what could be a tedious dice roll, and innovated a virtually brand-new mechanic! yes! and to make it even greater, there's a neutral staff in there. the rules don't really mention if the neutral staff is neutral because anyone can get it, or because no-one can, but that's ok, literacy is overrated in rules composers.

for your pet, there's an extra-sooper-speshul dice with a picture of each pet on the sides. roll the double dice (yep, no need to pay attention to the one inside, that's just a trick for the smarty-pantses). this tells you how many rolls you get of the pet dice this turn, to try and get your pet result to come up. I think the potential of such compound randomness is underrated... not only do you have to expend a card to get your chance, but you may get 1 chance, you may get 6, and then you've got a... oh, never mind. too much maths there, it's not really important, your toddler can sort that stuff out. rest assured though, you will have absolutely no impact on the outcome of those rolls. they will happen with or without you. yes, the game could play plays itself.

hey, the amulet! (it looks cooler in the box, that's a sticker which for some reason got put on an uneven surface, and will definitely fall off after 3 games). for this one, we've got a social mechanic! and it is this: do you cheat? or not? you've got to stick a donut shaped magnet on the wand, then put another one on, and if they repulse each other, amulet goodness awaits you. Now, obviously, if those magnets get within 10 feet of each other, you'll know which side to put where, so you actually have to be pro-active to avoid accidentally cheating. yes, in this game, cheaters prosper.

speaking of cheating, did you notice those full-color glossy cards? yes, the ones that are square cut instead of those fad rounded corners? notice that the information side is full bleed, and the different cards in some of the stacks are color-coded... no need to guess whether that square is worth landing on! (not that you had a choice anyways) if you so much as glanced at the deck of cards, you'll be able to tell which type is on top

And to add a touch of class, we've got a WIZARDLY DUEL! The likes of which may have even been played by Merlin himself! While the game designer has reinforced the magic theme with the names, you'll undoubtedly discover that the duel cards are straight up, nothing fancy, rock-paper-scissors with different names. FRET NOT! you will not have to choose which card to play, you and your opponent will select at random. FRET NOT AGAIN! the consequence of loss is basically meaningless, due to the power of the cards mentioned before.

and, to free Merlin, you'll have to play craps. yes, the dice game. not against anyone, or anything nauseating like that, no. and those chivalrous designers, they even dumbed that down made playing that more accessible for the average user.

now, to top that off, there are MORE effects generated by dice which you will not have to operate BRAIN-CELL ONE to resolve. I'll not go into them here, it's nice to have surprises.

now, there is one complaint I have. As I mentioned before, the rules don't really tell you much about the neutral staff, so you're going to have to decide that on your own. I recommend penciling it in before calling your cat over to play with you, you wouldn't want him to suspect you of cheating BEFORE the game starts, right? On top of that, the base mechanic of the game, roll the dice and move that many spaces? yeah, that's not really covered in the rulebook. it's just not there. sure is a good thing your cat can't read good.

ENJOY!

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I paid less than $10 for this, on clearance at Barnes and Noble, so that i could cannibalize the game components. Please do not buy this game with intent to play it. I'm not exaggerating how bad the game is, I really did just go over most of the "rules".

i give this game a 1/10. yes, components. but a game? no.