LEGO Monkey Palace: A Board Game from Asmodee

My family loves Lego - even my wife has a near full collection of their flowers - and board games. When this game was announced, I knew it would be a perfect fit for us if the gameplay was solid. I'm happy to say that for us it is. The Good: This game is fully backed by Lego, so you know the quality of the bricks. The rest of the components are good as well. The cards are fine, especially because there is limited shuffling, the iconography on them is easy to understand, and the cardboard player boards are heavy & sufficient. I thought the instructions were going to be overkill at first glance, but once I got through them I can say they are nicely done. They only looked overwhelming because they go to great length - with pictures - to make everything clear. My son is 10 and had no problems jumping right in. Setup will be quick after your first playthrough (more on that below), it looks great on the table assuming you're a fan of Lego, and the gameplay moves quick enough not to overstay its welcome. Scoring is super simple; you count bananas on cards at the end of the game. There are also a couple of "mini-expansions" in the box (which are each literally a single Lego piece & new rule), which show how easily you could create your own expansions with a little creativity. The Bad: Every player's turn is the same... every turn. While the tower will be constructed differently each time, offering different paths, the basic game will be the same every time. While we have yet to tire of it, I fear some may get bored with it after repeat plays. The game is also very dependent on the colors on the cards and playing board - light green, dark green, and tan. I fear that for some with color blindness the greens may be difficult to differentiate. While the coloring makes sense thematically, it is a slight nitpick. The instructions, while clear and easy enough to follow, are printed are pretty thin paper & not even stapled together. Perhaps that's a cost-saving measure, but they look pretty bad compared to the rest of the presentation. The Indifferent: There is no component organization in the box, other than 3 trays for the various "stairway" components. The first time you setup the game, you have to sort/separate all of the various Lego pieces. While tedious, as long as you separate all of the components into Ziploc baggies when you put it away, subsequent setups will be very quick. If you store your games upright, baggies will be a necessity anyway if you don't want a jumbled mess the next time you open the box. Thematically, you're rebuilding a lost palace for monkeys... or something... I'm here for the gameplay, not the theme! To be clear, this isn't Chutes & Ladders or Candy Land. There are rules, quite a few of them actually, for how you can and cannot build the tower. It's going to take some reading - or watching a How-To Play video on YouTube - before you can jump in and play. For anyone familiar with modern board games this won't be a problem. If you're looking for something to set in front of kids and let them have at it, I think you'll be disappointed. Overall I feel this game is fantastic as a family game, and fantastic as a lighter-weight intro to modern board games. I do feel like it will eventually get to feel very "samey" if played a lot, but if rotated with other games I don't think that will be an issue. I also think this is the perfect game for creating new house rules with your own Lego you may have laying around!

Amazing family game. This is a ton of fun, especially for people who like to build legos. Not too complicated but it does have a learning curve at first. Once you get it, fairly simple. Challenges your mind to get creative and figure out the best way to maximize banana points. It is fun to look at, so attractive, and well designed. For the cost, this is a no brainer, great value. It isn't expensive and yet has so many fun components, unlike many more complicated family games. Incorporates visual-spacial, critical thinking, kinesthetic, and strategy, all while ticking the playful fun of legos. It has been one of our go to games on Family Fun nights and has not gotten old. Our son is a smart 8, but I think this would work ok for even a 6 or 7 year old if they are already good with following the rules and understanding them. Adults enjoy it too, so you aren't stuck playing a boring kid game. Easy to clean up and not too long of a set up. Limitation is that only up to 4 people can play it, so it might not work with extended family or larger families unless you play teams. I would highly recommend this for a family. I wish Lego would make more of these board games, as they really are fun!!

Rules are easy to follow, set up is fast and the game play is not excessively long. I did feel at times that I spent a lot of time APing by counting up my optimal path, but I’ve only tried at 2 players so far. For those in the hobby, you probably want to use your own containers in this one because there’s compartments for pieces, but no lid/way of keeping them in there if you store vertical or travel with this. But there’s plenty of space in the box for whatever you want to do! I think this could play to 6yo if they’re familiar with games and very good at counting/basic arithmetic. Build quality is Lego. Card quality is fine. Want to get more plays before I make up my mind on a “true” rating, but as a product, 5 stars!

When you open the box the instructions seem like it would be a little much for a 10 year old. The game seems complicated, but there are just several steps for each turn. Once you understand the steps once the game not difficult, and it really is fun. My biggest complaint is, unless there are only 2 players, there are not enough Lego pieces for the game to go on for more than a few rounds. We have a bunch of pieces upstairs in my sons room that we could supplement the game with, but the game really should come with more.

It took a couple play throughs to get the rules & play flow down. Now we love it, from 9 to 45 everyone enjoys playing. Be a little patient with the way the instructions read.

My kids were super excited to get a Lego game, turned out to be a great family fun. Challenging and entertaining enough for adults. It is time consuming to set up and clean up. A lot of small parts. Also takes a little bit to understand the rules. (at first all the rules seem overwhelming) we had to start playing in order to understand how it all works. Instructions are easy to read and understand. Once you learn how to play it’s a lot of fun, perfect for kids seven and up. Every time you play, ends up with different results so it’s challenging and interesting to play. Great gift for a LEGO fan.

Monkey Palace is great fun! I bought it for my adult step-son who loves Legos. He does complicated builds and I wasn't sure what he would think of this game. Turns out we both liked it a lot! Building the palace involves making arches, each higher than the last. It is simple but requires strategy to best use your pieces to create the optimal move. I liked playing it so much with him that I purchased an additional copy for me. I think my 84 year old brother will enjoy it as well. Don't dismiss this as just a child's game. It's actually quite fun for adults. Everyone loves building things!

This game is so thoughtful and fun for kids and adults. I do think there’s a learning curve and suggest a parent read and understand before playing with kids so they can learn quicker. Additional pieces are included in case you lose some. We ended up buy several when they went on sale to give as bday gifts.

Such a fun game, easy to learn, easy to play. Lots of fun for the family or even friends game night!

Muy divertido.

Such a fun game for kids and adults too!