Being a child of the 90’s when my friend invited me along to The Crystal Maze I was thrilled to give it a go. For those of the younger generation The Crystal Maze ran from 1990-1995 and it saw contestants visit different zones, from the Medieval Zone to the Future Zone to try their luck (and skill) at Mental, Skill, Physical and Mystery Challenges.

The Crystal Maze in London is located in the Centre of the theatre district, right on Shaftesbury Avenue. Upon arrival my friend and I were paired up with a family of 4 (you can have up to 8 players in your team), introduced to our Maze Master and introductory video watched we set off.

The objective, like the TV show is to complete the challenge and earn crystals. The more crystals we have the more time you have in the Crystal Dome (more on this later), with each Crystal being worth 5 seconds. Each challenge is subject to a time limit and if the player picked for this challenge is still in the room when the timer is up they get locked in.

There were 16 challenges to complete during your visit to the Crystal Maze and the captain is in charge of choosing who does which one, luckily for us our captain was very democratic in their choosing! We started off poorly with our first attempt leaving a team member locked in, luckily we agreed to trade her release for a crystal- we were off to a strong start with -1 crystal! The challenges were really varied from shuffle board through to word games and from climbing through ropes trying not to trip and traps through to Morse code – there was something for everyone. I let the side down with my jousting (and driving skills) but redeemed myself on a word challenge. For most of the ones requiring some sort of brain power as opposed to brawn the teams outside could also help which helped heighten the excitement for all.

The set dressing also helped immerse you into the different zones and there were nice touches such as ladders to climb down or slides to help build the adventure feeling. We reached the Crystal Zone with 7 Crystals which brought us 35 seconds in there. The object is to simply grab as many gold pieces of paper as possible – which it turns out is actually a lot harder than it looks! Our efforts totalled 114 – a respectable score but it was far from winning any records.

You are told to leave 60 -90 minutes for the experience, our time in the maze was around the 60 minute mark but it also took some time getting the initial waiver signed and our team rounded up. I’d suggest wearing something that you can move in, especially if you plan on taking on a physical challenge! The experience isn’t cheap at around £75 per person for a standard ticket although it does become cheaper if you book a family ticket for 3 with at least 1 adult and 1 under 16 at £67.50 a head or if you come after 6pm.

Whilst it was still a lot of fun in a group of 2 I would recommend trying to get together a larger group as I think knowing all of the players would enhance the fun (an probably the mickey taking if you fail your task), further. Overall the Crystal Maze is a fun few hours of entertainment and with such variety in the games it keeps your interest right up until the Crystal Dome. Now let me know if your team manages to beat our score!!

You can find out more and book tickets by visiting their website here.

If you liked this review you might also like my review of Secret Cinema- Grease, Fairgame at Canary Wharf and The Room Where It Happens in Soho.