Monkey Mission
Game Summary: Twenty-four monkey statues have been found in an old temple. You race your opponents to recover these precious artifacts. Stone wheels bar the entrances to chambers where the statues are hidden. Overcome various obstacles to retrieve them and be rewarded with gold. The player with the most gold wins the game!
Price Range: $25
Age Range: 7+
No. of Players: 2-4
Time to Learn: 5 minutes
Time to Setup: 10 minutes
Reading Skills Needed: YES
Playtime: 20-30 minutes
Game Rating: ****
Game Review: Monkey Mission is another thoughtful and well-engineering board game from the folks at Ravensburger, and this one's a winner. The game is designed for players ages 7 and up, but I think even younger children (barring the choking hazard on the small pieces) could play this once they get the hang of the game, since reading isn't really required (except in the initial reading of the instructions). Basically you travel the board and try to open the chambers to retrieve monkeys. When getting ready to turn the "lock" on a chamber, you say in advance how many times you will turn the wheel -- one, two, or three. If you open the wheel in the correct number of turns (or less), you get to take a monkey from the chamber and place it on your commission card. You get more gold if you can do it in fewer turns, and an extra piece of gold if the color matches the monkey on the card. For a little more interest, each player is given 4 "fortune bars" at the beginning of the game which can be used to help his odds of being successful at the game in several ways. What I like about this game is that while it is primarily a game of luck, there is an element of strategy, and in addition, the look of the game is just great. I love that it's three-dimensional, and is played in the box. All of the pieces store neatly in the box as well; like I said, so thoughtful, as one would expect from Ravensburger. A very nice game.
