Review of the board game Lego Monkey Palace: Monkey Palace

After reviewing the hugely successful Reign of Horror, which bet on the horror format, we’ve got something a little lighter for you this time. Today we’re taking a look under the hood of the Lego Monkey Palace board game, which, as the name suggests, is based on the idea of ​​transforming Lego into a board game. In this regard, more than one group of creators has already failed, so let’s see how the authors of this news, which will officially be released in a few days, managed to do it.

• Number of players: 2 – 4
• Game time: 45 minutes
• Price: 979 CZK (Alsa)
• Provided by: Asmodeus Czech Republic
• Age: 10+

Lego Monkey Palace: Monkey Palace lets you build in the jungle

India, Africa and South America show that long-forgotten civilizations were capable of implementing grandiose projects. In Lego Monkey Palace: Monkey Palace you have the opportunity to look into the jungle, where the once impressive structure has turned into ruins. Now the ruins must be rebuilt into a magnificent structure, and you are the only one who can do it. That is, you and your competitors, because you seem to be building together within the framework of one big project, but in the end you are each on your own with the cubes that are assigned to you. Everyone starts with a different number of dice.

The first player has several chips, and the last one can already quite well use the chips at his disposal on the structure left by other players. Here everyone is actively building a staircase, which always requires that the next tile be slightly higher than the one placed in front of it. It may seem like a simple task, but as more than one game will show you, it is more difficult than it seems. In total, you will encounter three types of cubes in the game. In addition to the arches, there are also single cubes and slightly larger columns. Each part gives you slightly different options when assembling. Then you complete all the formations by placing the decoration at the last point. You will receive ducats for completed arches and some types of decorations.

You basically invest money here right away and use it to get new dice or even increase your regular craps income. You buy cards for them with a long-term or one-time effect. Thanks to this income, you will be able to build more in each round than in the previous one, when an elementary volume of cubes fell into your hands.

You select cards according to the last decoration you placed. So if you place the last yellow chip on the field, you will have no choice but to take that card, while the jungle bush will give you access to green cards. There are also maps that combine all three environments. However, they are not as interesting from a supply point of view as monochrome ones.

Successful builders in the game Lego Monkey Palace: Monkey Palace will receive bonus cards that will bring them extra points. In the basic version, you work mainly with a monkey, which you move during the game. However, you can expand the gameplay with other minimalistic elements, which may mean extra points, but can easily deprive you of them. The overall concept does give the player several options to approach construction. Here, everything happens on a green board that can take different forms, so if one format doesn’t suit you, you simply change the base and you have a slightly different starting point, as well as the overall space on which you implement your Monkey Palace. The winner is always the one who scores the most points.

Availability and blocks in Lego Monkey Palace: The Monkey Palace play prim

Having built several palaces, I have to say that this one really worked. Lego Monkey Palace: Monkey Palace is one amazingly well executed combination. The mix of boards and legos is excellent, the capabilities of the player are decent, as is the overall treatment, which can immediately attract attention. Thanks to the dice format, the replay value of the set is relatively high.

Considering the mentioned advantages, Lego Monkey Palace: Apíčí palác is a board game that will appeal even to those who are not very fond of games. This is a very interesting piece, full of bricks just waiting for someone to build them into a jungle palace. If you’re looking for something creative right now, this could be an interesting choice.

We thank the Czech distributor Asmodee Czech Republic for providing us with a copy of Lego Monkey Palace: Opičí palác. The game will be released on October 3, 2024.