Monkey Palace: A Lego Board Game - Build Your Way to Victory Brick by Brick! Fun Family Brick-Building Game for Kids & Adults, Ages 10+, 2-4 Players, 45 Minute Playtime, Made by Bezzerwizzer

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!

Awesome game! I played this with my 14-year-old and my 10-year-old kids. We played all the different boards and variations of the game. I like that it's fast-paced, so the game doesn't drag on forever, yet, there's enough to keep you entertained. I wish they provided an extra bin for the pieces and one bin for the cards. But overall, it's a very fun game for all ages!

I absolutely loved this game! It was fun, simple, and with the right amount of thinking/technique. My favorite was the cute pink frog. I have it now as decoration in my living room.

Fun game for the family

So much fun for the whole family. I’ve been trying to find a game we can all play besides Ticket to Ride (our reining favorite). But not everyone likes a change to fantasy games or games with more rules like resource building games, but this fit the bill perfectly. Easy rules that are approachable but lead to lots of challenge and complexity when playing.

I’ve been playing this with my kid and we really enjoy it. I found the instructions fairly easy to follow, but the first game or two goes pretty slow until you have the rules down. One suggestion for improvement - it would be really nice if the instructions included (or LEGO provided a web site for) suggested variations for things like younger audiences, shorter games, cooperative play, incorporating your own extra pieces, etc…

If a game requires 6 full pages of instructions it is way too complicated of a board game. Went to play this with my kids and we were all frustrated just getting through understanding the instructions. After 30 mins of us trying to figure out how it works and the point system we gave up and played life instead. I will be donating this game. Not worth the money in my opinion.

Fun and easy to learn. I didn't know LEGO games existed. I thought they were only for building things. High quality pieces throughout. My 12 year old niece learned it quickly and loved playing it.