Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but it rains a lot in Seattle. Seattleites are always on the hunt for indoor fun, which is why the Great Wolf Lodge in nearby Grand Mound, Washington, is a popular destination. Sure, the hotel has an indoor water park, restaurants, always entertaining glow-in-the-dark miniature golf, and more, but for a geek mom kid who dreams of being a wizard, MagiQuest is the real attraction. Great Wolf Lodges across the country are now adding a new live-action role-playing game to their resorts, ShadowQuest, and with wands in hand we set out on the new adventure.
ShadowQuest, like MagiQuest, makes use of a wand chosen by a little Magi—or a big one, if you’re playing along—after much deliberation in the hotel’s store. (And don’t worry, no one will judge you if you pretend you’re in Ollivander’s Wand Shop.) MagiQuest and ShadowQuest use the same wand, so you won’t have to buy more pieces to take part in the new journey if you’re a Great Wolf Lodge vet and already a Master Magi. After the wand is activated for the duration of your stay, head to the nearest kiosk to receive your quest from the light pixie Lumina.
You and your magical magi team must search for the pieces needed to complete the quest. Clues are scattered across the bottom five floors of the Great Wolf Lodge, alongside the older MagiQuest’s game pieces. ShadowQuest is integrated seamlessly with MagiQuest at stations across the resort. Once you’ve found the quest item, wave your wand toward the object to add it to your collection and trigger a fun effect, and then start your search for the next step of your journey.
You’ll be amazed at how much ground you cover when playing ShadowQuest. I highly recommend sneakers. As you race from floor to floor hunting for quest pieces, usually up and down the stairs as there are clues hidden by the stairwells, you can work up quite the mystical sweat. I overheard the employee in the MagiQuest store boast that ShadowQuest is an eight mile trek up and down the hotel’s floors. So be prepared for an actual journey as you and your mini magi search for crystals and artifacts on a quest to save the light.
If you’ve played MagiQuest before, ShadowQuest is more of the same. Although I was hoping for something that wasn’t so similar to the original game, I appreciated the ability to able to jump right in without a learning curve. The quests in ShadowQuest do get progressively challenging, which I enjoyed, as they gave my preschooler’s brain a little workout along with her legs.
Pointing a wand at an object and having it respond is almost every kid’s dream come true, even if it does come with cheesy acting from NPCs and hoofing it up and down five flights of stairs. MagiQuest and now ShadowQuest are my favorite things to do on our weekends away at the Great Wolf Lodge, and I recommend it to anyone who’s ever wanted to be a wizard.
GeekMom received a promotional playthrough of the game for review purposes, and a discounted stay at the Great Wolf Lodge.
Thanks for posting this! We’ll be at the Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City next weekend and I didn’t even know this was a thing. Now I’m super excited! And, oh yeah, my 5 year old will love it, too. 🙂