I got some LEGO board games at San Diego Comic-Con, and was requested to play and review them. In teh next couple of weeks, you'll be seeing my comments on Lunar Command and Ramses Pyramid. This time, you'll get my thoughts on Monster 4, a smaller set in the LEGO Games theme.
The game is in a sturdy box, and is large enough to hold the assembled game and its parts. There's a total of 141 parts and the instructions for the game and game board. There are some unique parts in this game – the minifig heads for teh devils are new, as well as the werewolf heads. There's also the dice (which I will get to in a sec) and a completely new part: a 1 x 1 white round plate with center hole. A better looks at the parts can be seen here:
The dice is a really neat idea – constructible randomization, I guess! Seriously, the dice has a nice feel in gameplay and, since it has a rubber frame, is nice and random in how it rolls.
The build is pretty straightforward – you build a graveyard and the monster pieces. Not much to say in that, except that the spider is pretty cute.
The gameplay is pretty clever – this is a Connect 4 game, so players have to line up four of their monsters in a row. It sounds pretty simple, until the spider and skeletons come into play – the spider clears out a quadrant, and the skeletons can be any monster, so they are wildcards. The dice roll determines what a player does, so things are not exactly cut and dry.
What I like is that the rules are very easy, but the game can get really tricky. This game is set up for two to four players, and the more that play, the more fun it is. I played the game with some AFOL friends then with a family and everyone had a great time with Monster 4, so I was pretty impressed. The game plays in about 15 minutes, so it's a nice quick diversion that can be done with the family. And with the game variants that are suggested and can be created, there are many different possibilities that can be added to the game.
The price in Europe appears around $16 USD, and for that price, it's pretty reasonable all around. For AFOLs wanting the parts, it may be a little pricy, but keep in mind, these are games.
And I plan to play them!
