Review – Monkey Palace

Monkey Palace is a 2-4 player board game where players will use LEGO bricks to build up a structure fit for King Louie. During the game, players will place arches that stairstep higher and higher, earning them Monkey Credits for each arch. Players then spend those credits on cards that grant 1-time and recurring bricks deliveries, which they can then use on later rounds to build even more impressive arch stairways. So, is it a swingin’ good time, or just fodder for the LEGO bin? Read on for the review!

Review

Once you establish the specific building rules (see image below), gameplay flows nicely as players build up and add on to the Monkey Palace. After placing their arch staircase, players decorate the last stud in their final arch with either a light green or green bamboo piece, or a round golden 1×1 cylinder, depending on where they started their staircase. Next you count up your Monkey Credits, which are used to buy cards (Monkey Credits don’t roll over if any are unspent). Credits are issued for each arch in your staircase, and if your Decoration brick is currently the highest of that color, you get 1 extra. 

Monkey Cards have a cost in the upper left corner, and Banana (Victory) Points in the upper right. You can take 1 or more cards on your turn, but can only take the top card from each pile on each turn. Then you take any 1-time delivery bonuses, followed by all of your recurring bonuses. In this way, as you get more cards you can build up your brick income so that you can keep building more impressive additions to the Palace. Finally you end your turn taking any Bonus cards, or Trophy cards earned that round. Bonus cards come from playing a column of at least 5 bricks without any arches in it, and Trophy cards include the Monkey for placing the golden decoration brick, or the optional Butterfly and Frog mini-expansions. These Trophies don’t change the game too much, but can help to prevent someone just following your epic staircase so the game becomes a build of one-upmanship. Endgame is triggered when 1 of the 3 brick types runs out, and then the round finishes so everyone gets the same number of turns. Any ties are settled by the current owner of the Monkey Trophy Card. 

The box for Monkey Palace says 10 and up, but I think that due to the symbology on the cards and player boards, this could easily be played by kids as young as 6, especially if an adult was playing with them or at least explaining the rules the first time. Once you start playing, the specific building rules make a lot more sense as you see it’s designed to make the Palace you’re rebuilding uniform in construction and therefore easier to add on to. And while it might have wide appeal as a family game, I’m not sure how many adults will want to play this with other adults. While it’s fun building up the Palace and seeing it grow, when the game’s over you have to take it all apart again and sort out the pieces, which is the least enjoyable part of any LEGO build (after applying stickers, of course). 

In the end, Monkey Palace is an exciting building game where players can take LEGO bricks and make a fun, towering palace. While it’s a bit of a simplification, the game is basically LEGO minus the instructions plus rules. That being said, I do think it’ll get a lot of traction as a children’s or family game, and if you’re a huge LEGO fan who’s been holding onto their copy of Minotaurus for years and hoping for more, you should check this out. 

A review copy was provided by the publisher.