OVERALL PRODUCT RATING: 4 Keys
No matter how wild the game, there are rules to follow; thankfully for us, rules are made to be broken.
We’ve chosen to present this review in a bit of a different structure than the Escape Authority standard. Spin Master’s Jumanji is actually three completely unique, completely freestanding escape room home games – one 15 minute tutorial of sorts and two full-length 60 minute challenges – inside a single package. Each of the three – The Drumming Closet, Search for Jesse and Break the Curse exist within the storyworld of the hit movie Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. Although each is indeed a standalone game, they do come together to tell different chapters of a single flowing narrative.
You’ll notice there is one “OVERALL PRODUCT RATING” – which we’ve combined together to give a 4 Key score. Each individual game will get its own rating below, but the overall 4 Key score is what we advise you to weigh when considering whether or not you choose to add this set to your home collection.
There is a general rule that Spin Master’s Escape Room: The Game titles are consistently among the most frustrating and least fun options on the market. Jumanji is the only in a large sample set to break that rule, where each of its games are at least good, with even a little great thrown in.
Each “level” of Jumanji requires gamers to decipher a four digit code, which could be comprised of any combination of letters, numbers, shapes or directions. Individual puzzles will each lead to one of the four positions of a level’s code, and can be solved in any order making for a fairly non-linear gameplay experience suitable for slightly larger groups.
As a recommended companion, Spin Master has created a free official app for mobile phones and tablets, which tracks the game time. From a hint perspective, Spin Master provides scrambled hint cards that – when slipped inside a red decoder sleeve will become readable. We found these hints to be sufficient when present – but it’s important to know each game has a limited number of them, and not all puzzles will necessarily have a hint. This can become much more frustrating to deal with than the online or in-app hint systems many other brands offer, resulting in additional unneeded frustration from the Spin Master product. (There are official walk-throughs available on the Escape Room: The Game website, however, these offer only the direct answers and thus, are not recommended for hint purposes.)
We’re starting with the OVERALL section, which typically closes out each of our reviews in order to provide the big picture information about this product, which, surprisingly manages to break the be the only one to break the Spin Master curse. Although there are three completely different games to play, they must be purchased as a single product, so we feel one review makes the most sense in general.
From there, we’ll bounce to one general SCENIC section for the entire product – as all three games have equal quality materials and graphics used.
In place of the traditional STORY and PUZZLES sections, we will be replacing them with three mini-reviews – one for each included game.
As we’ve touched on previously, being a home game, we define “Scenic,” from a graphic design perspective, as well as the quality, weight and feel of print materials inside the box.
Spin Master’s product is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of print qualities. Some larger graphics and maps are produced in grand scale on thick, high gloss durable papers. Many other elements in each round are thinner paper and tear easily. Some of those items will be damaged through the course of normal play, but thankfully links are available to print your own replacements.
A benefit to the Spin Master product over other generally more intuitive games is the inclusion of an actual functioning game timer, called the Chrono Decoder, though it should be noted that it does not include the three AA batteries required to function, nor the small phillips head screwdriver you’ll need to access that battery compartment. It doubles as several different cipher keys you’ll need throughout the games, which felt a bit clunky and awkward at times. During game play, to unlock “rooms” (again, sealed envelopes holding your next location and puzzles) you’ll insert four different plastic keys – aligned in the correct order – into the physical game clock itself. Get it right and be rewarded with a chime; but if you’re wrong, you’ll be chastised by a buzzer sound effect.
This adds an interesting sense of technology to the Spin Master box – but the unfortunate truth is that we have had more than one occasion across the Spin Master suite of products where our game clock malfunctioned, denying correct answer combinations repeatedly. To make matters worse, each wrong answer physically takes time off your clock – a move intended on paper to discourage brute forcing the codes, but in practice during a clearly broken game only serves to even further frustrate its players. Thankfully, if not by sheer coincidence, the Chrono Decoder packaged in our Jumanji set never malfunctioned.
As mentioned, Spin Master does offer an official companion app. In it, custom background music loops are available to play during your experience, although in the case of each Jumanji level, it was simply generic jungle sounds. The app also offers appropriately themed photo frames for the game. Getting the perfect team photo might be a bit frustrating, as you’ll find the end result does not match the app’s live preview. For some reason, our pictures reversed every single time we saved one – enough though it showed correctly within the app.
The three games included within the Jumanji box have are intended to have a more middling level of difficult from the average Spin Master product. Appropriately, the tutorial is the easiest, with the other two officially listed as being an equal difficult just one level above it. We will present them here in the order they are intended to be played:
The Drumming Closet
RATING: 5 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 7:20
It has been four days since your classmate and friend, Jesse, vanished into thin air… You have 15 minutes to examine Jesse’s room before the police arrive. In that short time you need to find out what happened with Jesse and unravel the mystery of The Drumming Closet.
The Drumming Closet serves as a perfect example of what a tutorial game should be. Not only does this 15 minute mini-game establish both the storyworld and sense of urgency to come, but it also gives gamers a sense of how puzzle flow will work in the world of Jumanji.
Although brief, each step is satisfying – and more importantly logical and fun. Each of its few challenges flow smoothly from one to the next, not only creating a sense of accomplishment, but also helping to paint a picture of how Jesse disappeared into this old video game – and how we, too, are about to follow a similar path.
The Drumming Closet sets the tone for the world of Jumanji, and establishes excitement for the adventures which lie ahead.
Search for Jesse
RATING: 4 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 1:24
Smack! with a loud boom, you fall from the sky and land in some sort of jungle. You realize that and your friends have just been sucked into a computer game! As if that isn’t bad enough, it looks like you’re in somebody else’s body – one of the game’s avatars! This must have been what happened to Jesse as well. If that is the case, Jesse must be here somewhere in this strange place.
Once being transported into Jumanji, the first step for unsuspecting players is to find Jesse, who could be anywhere in this massive jungle world. The adventure unfolds organically, beginning with a map required to establish our own current location, executed in a most clever way. Three of the four initial steeps truly feel as though they organically belong within the storyworld of Jumanji. Unfortunately, the fourth is a generic word search.
Making use of the surrounding jungle animals amplifies the sense of immersion – both through their physical shapes as well as their beady eyes peering out from the bushes. Steps taken to rescue Jesse really do create a “survival sense” that adventures might actually need to rely on “if it were real.”
Another somewhat cliché puzzle inclusion, a basic tangram is made slightly more frustrating by the realization that its pattern doesn’t actually line up with the pattern found on the rest of its board. However, the Search for Jesse ends on a high note, literally building a map of secret underground tunnels, and then figuring out the correct means of navigating them to find our lost friend.
Break the Curse
RATING: 3 Keys RESULT: Win REMAINING: 4:08
Jesse explains that you have to break the curse of Jumanji in order to be able to return to the real world. This, however, is only possible during the emerald moon event; an occurrence that takes place once a decade. In exactly one hour, the emerald moon will be in the right position to break the curse. You’ll have to hurry… or wait another 10 years!
In order to Break the Curse, gamers face one final challenge which is a bit more of a mixed bag of positives and negatives than those which game before it. Like all good video games, it’s best to check your life meter, although in this case, one size definitely does not fit all.
Animal tracks through the jungle lead to the coveted green jewel needed to break the curse in a most clever way. It’s equal parts obvious and challenging.
Unfortunately, breaking the curse in this exotic jungle world will require the assembly of a 48 piece jigsaw puzzle – and although the result itself sets the scene for the next locale of our adventure, we’d suggest there could be much better ways of journeying toward it.
It turns out that counterfeiting can be more frustrating video gamers than financial institutions – resulting in a challenge that begins clever and quickly turns tedious.
And then there’s that jigsaw puzzle. No, we aren’t harping on the past; escaping the jungle will require you to essentially take it apart and put it back together all over again. Because we just didn’t get enough sense of adventure from it in the first place.
Thankfully, our efforts to Break the Curse end on a high note, leaving us over the moon with a very cool effect that brings light to some of the darkness found in this final level.
Early on, Escape Room: The Game taught us that not all at home options are created equal, quickly sending Spin Master as a brand to the bottom of our preference list. Through multiple stand alone expansion packs, as well as multiple sequel boxes, Escape Room: The Game has been a consistent disappointment full of frustration thanks to its inexcusably illogical gameflow.
Thankfully – or, surprisingly – Jumanji remains the one true exception to that rule. Even in its worst level, the game still maintain a degree of fun that had us happy to continue through. Why this one set is great while the others are awful is something we could only begin to guess at; perhaps Sony had some say in the content through the licensing agreement for use of the Jumanji IP? Or perhaps Spin Master just had a happy accident? Whatever the cause, if you’re the type to want to try every brand at least once, Jumanji is simply and objectively the only Escape Room: The Game title to purchase.
*Montu, Escape Authority’s VP, Dog Business™ and lead home game correspondent endorses the opinions found within this review.
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Venue: Spin Master Games
Location: At Home Game
Number of Games: 4 (3 included in this box)
GAME SPECIFIC INFORMATION:
Duration: 60 minutes
Capacity: 1-4 people
Group Type: Private / You will not be paired with strangers (but if you are, call 911 immediately to report a home invasion.)
Cost (at Publish Time): $15.59 (Target.com)