Matthew BaileyWe step over the line with this year’s intended goal, but rather than finishing on a nice, round high, we will continue on for a few more days before concluding our 2023 Summer Holidays Marathon.
Game 50 of the “Bailey Family Summer 2023 Board Game Bonanza” is “Munchkin Mighty Monsters,” played by Jack (.8.), Toby (5), and myself.
“Munchkin Mighty Monsters” is a simple Uno-style card game from Steve Jackson Games based on their popular Munchkin IP.
I received this game for free when I ordered some items from the Steve Jackson Games website a few years ago, and it’s sat untouched on my shelf ever since. Recently, however, Toby has been getting better at holding hands of cards and really wanted to try some more simple card games out. So, we dug this out this morning, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
The deck consists of six different colours numbered one to twelve, but the interesting conceit is that there is not every number for every colour. For instance, the grey spike cards are only numbered three to twelve, the blue dwarves are numbered one to four, and the brown clerics are only numbered one and two.
The player with the grey 3 Spyke card goes first, and the game then proceeds much like Uno, where you either play a matching colour or a matching number.
What makes this particularly interesting is that due to the non-uniformity of the colours and card sets, there are some cards that are considerably harder to get rid of than others. Equally, if you are using a brown one, you know that there is a decent chance the next player is not going to be able to follow in number or colour. This also means that due to the set being more distinctive, it is easier to count cards and have a better idea of what is still in play.
As there is no pickup pile, if you find yourself in a situation where you cannot draw, you take the cards and form a “bad stuff” pile next to you and then get to choose the next card. This is also a key mechanic, as potentially you could take a hit in order to pile bad stuff onto another player if you are confident with what they have or haven’t got in their hand. This also means that because there is no draw pile, if they couldn’t play a yellow card this turn, they definitely can’t play a yellow card next turn.
Once everyone has gotten rid of all their cards, you count up the bad stuff piles, and the person with the most piles gains a defeat card. You then play another round, and the first person to receive three defeat cards loses, while all other players win. I know this might sound a bit unusual, but this is a theme with the main Munchkin game that this is based on, so just go with it.
The production quality is fairly basic – it’s a deck of cards inside a small cardboard shelf-hanging box. It’s fine, it works, but it isn’t anything special. Steve Jackson Games are not known for their high production values, and this is no different. If you are a fan of the original Munchkin game, this also comes with five promo cards for it.
I am genuinely not a massive fan of Uno-style games, although I have enjoyed a few recently. But this game absolutely shocked me with how much I enjoyed playing it. We played two full games of this, and we only stopped because it was well past bedtime, even though I was quite keen to play another round.
The non-uniformity of the colours, coupled with the fact that there is no pickup pile, meaning no one can top-deck something to save them, introduces genuine levels of strategy that aren’t there when playing Uno. I also think I hadn’t realized how little I actually like the special cards in a game of Uno, and the lack of them in this was actually quite refreshing. If you like Uno-style games, this is really good.
This game is actually quite difficult to get hold of at the moment but can be picked up second-hand on eBay relatively cheap.
