Jumanji game
by Justin
(Fairfax, Virginia, USA)
Game:
Jumanji
Game manufacturer:
MB/Hasbro
Number of players:
2-4
Ages:
8+
Quick verdict
The Jumanji board game was a mediocre purchase that fails to capture the excitement in the feature film on which it is based.
The game and gameplay
Each player chooses a pawn and places it on a path leading to the center of the board. You play by rolling a ten sided die to determine how far you travel.
Once you get to a square, you follow the instructions on the square. If you land on a blank space, you randomly draw a card and put it in the decoder to see your fate.
The fate may be that lions come to you, or a monsoon blows up in your living room. The other player then needs to "save" you by rolling their dice to the symbol corresponding to the fate card.
Check out Christian's review of The Jumanji movie
If they fail to roll the correct symbol by eight seconds, that adventure card goes into one of 10 Doomsday slots. If the doomsday slots get filled up, the game ends and everyone loses.
If you land on Wait for five or eight, you are trapped there until someone rolls a five or eight.
If you land on a Rhino square, you may place an included toy rhino in front of any player's pawn to block that player. When it is the player's turn, he/she must roll an even number to remove the rhino and continue forward.
If you land on a Jungle space, everyone must try to roll a certain symbol and they all advance the amount of squares the first player rolled. There is, however, no penalty if you do not roll the symbol. If he doesn't, they stay in the square and repeat the square's instructions.
If you get your piece to the center of the board, you win the game.
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Pros and cons
The poems on the adventure cards are pretty interesting, you get a cool toy rhino and an eight-second timer, plus the price is reasonable (or rather, it was before it became "collectable").
The decoder is mainly a gimmick. The game gets repetitive and is mainly based on dice rolling.
The verdict
The Jumanji game might be an okay game for the younger audience, but it fails to capture the excitement of the movie and basically boils down to a simple dice rolling game. Some elements of the game, such as the rhino obstacle, is very poorly executed and the board game requires no strategy at all. I highly recommend you do not buy this game unless you are a hardcore fan of the Jumanji film.
