Game review 77: The Enchanted Tower
Sorcerers love locking princesses up in towers. Here's another one at it.
It’s a tale as old as time.
Princess lives peacefully in magical kingdom. Annoyed sorcerer traps princess in tower for… reasons. Saviour turns up and saves the day by looking under rocks to find the key to the tower that the sorcerer has stupidly misplaced.
We’ve all been there.
So a familiar fairy-tale setting is the theme of this one-against-all game. And it’s Inka and Markus Brand again on designing duties.
What they’ve delivered is this rather, well, enchanting board, with our saviour navigating the swampy-looking surroundings.
They’re in search of the key, hidden by the sorcerer’s player out of sight of their opponent or opponents.
They have to search for it under one of 16 hiding spaces. Go over the right one and the playing pieces metallic base will pick up the key with a clunk. Meanwhile, the sorcerer playing catch-up, starting from what can only be described as a granny annexe board, and aiming to snaffle it up first, locking the princess in the tower forever.
Once found, that’s not the end of the quest. The adventurer must then try the key in one of six locks around the tower, If it’s the right one, the princess pops up rather satisfyingly and that player wins. If not, it’s back to the start again.
For E, it’s an instant hit. The hidden object and chase nature and instantly appealing, as is that tower piece.
For me, it’s fun for the first five minutes, but that key mechanism, and the repetitive nature of it starts to grate. And therefore it falls into that horrible little spot where the parent gets that feeling of guilt when the kid loves the game but the parent doesn’t really want to play it again too soon.
Game facts and stats
Age
5+
Year first published
2012
Publisher
Drei Magier Spiele
Designer
Rolf Vogt
Player count
2–4
E’s review
What do you like best about the game?
“I do like the way we can try to get the key underneath, so just make sure they don’t get lost. I just love that we can get the key and make the princess skip out, but you do have to find the right hole.”
Is it tricky?
“With the finding and the putting it into the tower,. And don’t peek when the wizard is hiding it, OK!”
5,650,000/10
My review
Set-up time
About five minutes.
Price
I got this for about £10. However, it’s seemingly out of print. There is also a pocket version, which seems to still be floating around.
Practicality
It plays straight out of the box and all the components fit neatly away. Lovely stuff
Fun for parents
This is a brilliant children’s game, as my daughter’s reaction attests. There’s a reason it won the Kinderspiel des Jahres award. However, it’s repetitive nature means it doesn’t make a great family game. Maybe one for when your kids have a friend or two over so you can get on with the hoovering.