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Jumanji: The Game is a family game for between 2 and 4 players based on the original Jumanji movie starring Robin Williams. So, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson is not going to turn up and save you with his smouldering intensity this time! Jumanji: The Game is a quick and enjoyable roll-and-move style game with a few fun twists along the way, including rhymes, rhino’s and rescue dice!
… A Way To Leave Their World Behind
We start our jungle run with opening the box. Inside you’ll find the board, put that in the middle of the table, but make sure you have room to roll dice around it. Next are the four coloured player tokens; red, blue, green and orange/yellow. We say orange/yellow because our token is yellow, but the board track is orange so, go figure? With that first puzzle solved, shuffle & place the danger cards face down on the Draw section, place the Rhino standee on the Rhino picture and give everyone an eight-sided rescue dice. With this done, choose a first player, give them the two six-sided dice, along with the sand-timer, and you are ready to go!
Jumanji is played over a series of rounds each starting with the first player rolling both six-sided dice and moving forward the number of spaces shown. The twists come depending on what space the player lands on. A blank space means the player draws a “Jungle Danger” card, each card has a rhyme which the player must read aloud (in a spooky voice, obviously) and will have both a symbol in the top left corner as well as a number in the top right.
Here’s where the rescue dice come into play, every other player (so not the current player) has to roll their dice individually and attempt to match the symbol on the card in order to save the current player. But, they only have the six seconds provided by the sand-timer, so roll like your lives depend on it! If everyone is successful in matching the symbol within the time, everyone apart from the current player, moves forward the number on the card. This is fun because Jumanji rewards trying to help each other, even through this is a race and there can only be one winner. It really takes the edge off the competition, which supports younger players who might not be quite so ruthless… yet.
However, if the players fail to match the symbol, the active player goes back the same number of spaces, no one moves forward, and the card gets added to the “Doomsday Grid”, which we will explain in a moment.
The next space players can land on is the “Wait for 5 or 8” square. This means the player is being dragged into the jungle and everyone musty try to save them! Or point and laugh, either way works. Starting with the player to the left of the current player, everyone takes it in turns to roll both six-sided dice, with the hopes of getting (you guessed it) a 5 or 8. To be clear, this is the total face value of both dice, for example a six and a two.
If one of the dice shows a five, this does not count unless the other dice also shows a three. Every time a player fails to get either 5 or 8, the current player has to move back one space. This keeps going until either the current player ends up all the way back at the start or a successful roll is made. If done on the first attempt, the current player stays where they are and is grateful!
The second to last space is the “Jungle” space. These appear where two paths cross, and are shown on the board as surrounded by a red ring. If ANY player lands in this circle, ALL players need to work together or possible lose the game, regardless of where they are on the board. Essentially, the active player draws a danger card as before, but they also roll their rescue dice to rescue the team this time. Everyone needs to get the matching symbol and then all players, this time including the active player, moves forward the number on the card.
However, if any player fails to meet the card requirement, not only does this card go to the Doomsday Grid, but the active player draws another card immediately and the team has to try again. This keeps going until all the players manage to succeed on a card. No one moves on a failed attempt this time, but you can end up losing the whole game if you get too many bad rolls in a row!
The Final Square
The final square players can land on in Jumanji: The Game is the “Rhino” space. The result is fairly straight forward, the active player takes the Rhino token and places it in front of whichever player they would like to, dealer’s choice. On their turn, the player effected rolls as normal, if they roll an even number, the Rhino is removed and they carry on their turn as normal. But, if the roll is odd then the player is trapped behind the Rhino and must use their turn repeating whatever space they are on.
Furthermore, if the effected player has to move backwards for whatever reason, the Rhino will follow them, continuing to block their path until the player rolls and even number. Be careful who you block, that player may be less inclined to help you next time you need it…
“Well Dandy, this sounds like a fun romp through the woods, but what was that you said about Doom?” Jumanji: The Game just wouldn’t be complete without some kind of threat, right? Whenever any player fails to meet any card symbol, that card is placed on the “Doomsday Grid” and if the grid fills up, then we “bring dreadful news. This game is done, all players lose!” Although there can be only one winner in Jumanji, everyone can lose at the same time. The grid helps keep the tension in the game and make every roll of the dice feel important.
Of course, there will be some other rules we have not mentioned, but you’ll need to play the game to get all the little bits. But essentially, Jumanji: The Game is a race to the centre, and the first one there gets to yell JUMANJI at the top of their lungs, just to really rub everyone/’s face in it! You’ve probably guessed by now, but the key to Jumanji is helping your fellow players JUST enough so you don’t all lose, but not so much that they beat you to the middle of the grid!
Adventurers Beware…
We both enjoyed playing Jumanji: The Game, but of course all games have their hang-ups. Honestly though, Jumanji is a fine game for younger players and small families. But is Jumanji a game we would recommend for seasoned board gamers? No, because it is very simple and the mechanics are entirely luck based. So if you are looking at Jumanji and are not either an eight year old, or the parent of an eight year old, this game probably isn’t for you.
Our only real criticism for Jumanji: The Game is that it is only for a maximum of four players, which feels a little lacking for a family game. Andy grew up in a family of four, but Dom (whose parents were foster carers) grew up in a household of between six and ten, so Jumanji would have been useless in that home. Although four is a bit restrictive, if you do have four people in the family, even if the kiddos bring a friend home from school, Jumanji is a great way to pass some after-school time before homework and dinner!
Depending on your view, the game length of Jumanji could be either an excellent or terrible feature. A two player game of Jumanji can be wrapped up within 15 minutes, easily, if you have played before. Also, because it is such a simple game to learn, even if you are teaching a new player, this usually only adds a couple of minutes. So, if you are looking for a quick game with the kids, Jumanji is perfect. If you are looking for an immersive, in-depth, Jumanji feature experience, keep looking..
In terms of the game components, they are sturdy enough to take a beating but the dice and player tokens can absolutely be swallowed and some of the cards depict creepy-crawlies, so heads-up for the youngest of players.
Somebody Rolled A 5 Or 8?
In summary, Jumanji: The Game is exactly what it set out to be: a fine, perfectly enjoyable dice-based board game for small families. We cannot take away from that and, if you are a small family or someone very new to board games, we both heartily recommend this game. That said, we are not a small family or new to board games, so we can’t say this will ever feature in our top ten lists.
If you are a bit more of a seasoned gamer, we would recommend either Escape The Dark Castle, or Escape The Dark Sector, as these games both have a similar game mechanic but with some added extras and a much more mature theme.
Both Dom & Andy’s final thoughts on Jumanji: The Game are that it is fun, but very simplistic and therefore not very engaging for us, but we know friends of ours have enjoyed the game with their children and, even if you only play it on occasion, we found it to be excellent value for money and recommend the game to anyone new to board games!