Labyrinth (marble game)

Labyrinth is a game of physical skill in which a player tilts a box containing a maze printed on its top surface, guiding a small steel marble through the maze's passages while avoiding a series of holes that will swallow the ball if it falls in. The playing surface is controlled by two knobs, each turning one axis of tilt, so that a player must coordinate both hands to steer the marble around blind corners and past the holes without dropping it. The game was created by the Swedish toy company BRIO, which first released it in 1946 and brought it to the United States roughly four years later. Because the design was never protected by copyright in the United States, numerous other manufacturers have produced their own versions of the same maze and marble concept under different names in the decades since. Unlike many tabletop games, Labyrinth involves no dice, cards or hidden information and no element of chance at all, so success depends entirely on the player's hand eye coordination and patience.