Description

???? (The Lost Woods) is a co-operative game from Japan. One to four players work together to try to keep Little Red Riding Hood safe from the Wolf, and get her to her grandmother's house. If the players can do this in under eight minutes, they win. If they run out of time, or connect LRRH to the Wolf by the paths, they lose.

Gameplay is similar to the Ravensburger game Labyrinth. A series of square cards are laid out, six between LRRH and Grandma's cottage. Two more rows of six are laid above and also below, making a grid of 30 squares. Some of the cards show a wolf, all of the cards have paths, turning and branching.

On their turn, a player takes one of the four remaining path cards, and inserts it into the grid from the edge of one of the four sides. This pushes all the path cards along, until the final one becomes open, and this goes into the player's hand for next turn. Players cannot insert a card on the line where LRRH or the cottage are sitting.

After moving the grid, players check to see if LRRH has a clear path to a Wolf, and then a clear path to the cottage. If she is connected to a wolf, they lose. If she is connected to the cottage but not a wolf, they win. If they cannot get LRRH to the cottage before 8 minutes are up, they lose.

Players can make the game harder by restricting the time available, or limiting the actual game turns, to 16 turns suggests the designer.

The game was released at the Tokyo Game Market in May 2018 and early buyers were rewarded with a special set of stickers.