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Wisconsin Parent

Wizard Quest vs. MagiQuest: Which one is right for you?

May 27, 2014 04:08PM ● By Tiffany Malloy

photo from passporttosavings.com

This is our first summer in Wisconsin, and you have better believe that we’ve spent this long, cold, snowy winter making our list of local attractions to explore after the world thawed. While we were able to visit the Wisconsin Dells for a day-long ski trip earlier in the winter, we were more than looking forward to the warm weather adventures that could be had once the warm breeze began blowing in from the south. My husband and I got our chance last weekend—spending a weekend in The Dells...lounging around wave pools, climbing water slides, AND playing some fun adventure games.

Wizard Quest

Our first stop in interactive adventure gaming was Wizard Quest, located in Downtown Dells. As this was our first-time-ever playing a game like this, we were unsure of what to expect. Would this be too easy? Too hard? Would it be fun? As we walked into the first room and the door shut behind us, I thought, “What did we get ourselves into?”

After a few minutes of game description and registration, we got to playing. We had 90 minutes to unlock 4 wizards hidden in the building. 90 minutes? Of course we could do that! Then the tricky part was revealed- in order to unlock the wizards, we had to gather 250 glimmers for each one, and we earned glimmers by answering some questions found in a booklet. Finding the answers to the questions required an observant eye and a curious mind.

wizard-quest-wisconsin-dells-1

Before long, the hubs and I found ourselves in rotating eggs, peering around the room from a bird’s eye to find answers, feeling the walls to find false doors that would lead us to secret information, climbing in tunnels, and carefully observing interesting scenes. This was not an easy hunt, but it sure was fun! We found ourselves laughing at times and stumped at others as we allowed our imaginations to engage in the magical, earthy world displayed around us.

The 90 minutes flew by and we ended up freeing one wizard (better than none!). While there were some kids there with their parents, I would say this is geared more towards middle school/high school and above. Also, we were told that each day they feature a different set of questions AND they create different scenes every now and then, so it’s a place that one can go several times and still have a lot to explore. We had such a fun time and this goes on my list of places to return to—I must free those other wizards!

MagiQuestBuildingMagiQuest

After we checked out of our hotel the next day, we stopped by MagiQuest/ShadowQuest for another interactive adventure. We expected it to be a similar experience to Wizard Quest but it definitely was very different!

MagiQuest involves a variety of quests and adventures—you choose what you feel like doing! Magi use their wand to explore the 4 floors of the building to find the treasures they are looking for to complete the quest. After a certain combination of quests are completed, the Magi is then ready to complete an adventure. Adventures are harder- requiring one to battle any variety of creatures. We had to battle an ugly green guy- he was really hard to defeat and we definitely attracted an audience as we energetically made our attempts.

This one doesn’t involve a whole lot of mystery, but it’s still a lot of fun! MagiQuest is very kid-friendly and will be more satisfying for younger kids who want to successfully complete a task by running all over a building, being observant of the items around them, climbing up nets and going down big slides. We could have easily stayed there all day, but left after a couple hours, ready to get home to our houseful of kids eagerly awaiting our arrival.

It is important to note that for MagiQuest, you’ll need to purchase a wand in addition to the entrance fee to play the game. So, while the first time may be a bit pricey, all additional playing times are no more expensive than a movie ticket and a bucket of popcorn.

So, if you’re headed to the Dells and need a place to go to cool off for a bit or something to occupy your time during a rainy morning, I would highly recommend either one of these great games!