The Last Portal

“The Last Portal,” made for kids ages 7 to 10, locks your team in a big round chamber of pale stone, where the last of a series of portals that once linked several worlds still stands. The others have gone dark one by one: this one is slowly closing, and there is only one hour left to light it up again and get home. To do it, the kids must find five colored orbs and set them on their pedestals, each one guarded by a puzzle: pick out the right symbol among several shapes, put the phases of the moon in order, crack the code on a chest of crystals, and piece together a great broken seal. The puzzles are solved as a team, by looking closely and reasoning, with no long reading and no supplies to buy. The book already includes the padlocks to cut out and assemble, the clue cards, a countdown to start, and the grown-up guide, which explains the game step by step and offers backup hints so the game never stalls. It works as well for a birthday party as for a family evening. Five puzzles drive the game, up to the last orb, where the team that solved everything relights the portal and earns a Portal Keeper diploma.