Monsters Menace America Review by zombiemonkey
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There’s no escaping it: giant monsters are cool. They’re just so outlandish, so gloriously OTT that you can’t help but smile at their city-destroying shenanigans. In a post-9/11 world however, seeing cities destroyed has lost some of its appeal – although to be fair, the potential for allegory has gone up immeasurably: the original Japanese cut of Godzilla (made in 1954, and known as Gojira in its homeland) is a clear allegory of the dangers of misusing atomic energy, with heartbreaking scenes of devastation and destruction that don’t shy away from showing the effect on us poor little humans that a rampaging giant beast would actually have.
Monsters Menace America, however, takes a more primary coloured and gleeful view of the destruction, much like the campy Godzilla movies of the 1970s. More akin to giant scaly/furry/gloopy wrestlers than metaphorical walking atom bombs, these monsters aren’t causing visible pain and terror: they’re just wandering about having a bit of fun. Which isn’t to say that cities aren’t getting stomped: they are, but it doesn’t seem to cause a lot of hurt to anyone – even the military units return for more attempts at bringing the monsters down after being repeatedly destroyed.
The object of the game is to be the last monster standing : each player chooses a giant monster – which are mostly based on famous movie monsters, with enough differences in appearance and name to avoid copyright-infringement lawsuits – and a branch of the military, and take turns moving monsters and military units around the USA. Monsters move around stomping on cities, which provide them with helpful mutations, infamy or extra health, while military units traverse America in an attempt to reduce the health of the other monsters, ready for the endgame: a giant monster showdown in which only one monster can survive and stand triumphant.
The game is easy to learn, with a well-illustrated rulebook and a nicely helpful turn summary printed on the board. The components are lovely, with excellent illustrations on the cards and in the rules, along with absolutely superb monster pieces. The military units are brightly coloured and easily identifiable, and despite being much more abstract than the monsters themselves they are functional and perfectly adequate for the role they play in the game. After all – the monsters are the main focus of the game, and they do not disappoint.
As is quite common with non-German game design, however, the theme is brilliantly implemented but the gameplay less satisfying than the average Euro-game. Much of the game is based on dice rolls, which leads to rather unsatisfying combat and sometimes frustrating ‘rolling for health’ after cities are stomped. The endgame also feels rather unsatisfactory, with one-on-one monster battles resolved by (yep, you guessed it!) lots of dice rolls to determine the winner of the game. There isn’t a lot of strategy to the main game either – monsters simply walk around collecting health and mutations, with the military always proving pretty ineffectual unless the monsters have a really unlucky spate of dice rolls or lots of units can be coordinated to attack one monster (which is pretty difficult). The game length is relatively short but it does seem to drag, as the gameplay is fairly repetitive and mostly free from players finding themselves in situations where they have to think at length about what has to be done next. There’s nothing wrong with lighter games, or games that are less intense than a game such as the average Knizia design, but Monsters Menace America does seem to contain less ‘game’ than it should, given its length and price.
Whilst Monsters Menace America does hit all of the necessary aesthetic and thematic buttons, it falls short of providing captivating gameplay which players will want to return to again and again. Even for a self-confessed giant monster fan such as myself, there is little here to convince players to stomp happily across the USA on more than a few occasions.
Summary
Presentation: Gorgeous components and excellently colourful design lend this an air of camp silliness much like cinematic…ahem…classics like Destroy All Monsters! 9.5/10
Clarity of Rules: Excellently illustrated, well laid out rules missing one or two important clarifications that can slow things down during the first couple of games. 8.6/10
Game Length: Relatively short – even four player games can be finished in under an hour including set-up time – but sometimes games do seem to drag given the repetitive nature of the gameplay. 6.9/10
Value: For the amount of enjoyment that will be gleaned from Monsters Menace America, it is horribly overpriced. Excellent components, which add to the high price, don’t make up for the fact that replay value is startlingly low. 6.8/10
Overall: An aesthetically pleasing giant monster mash that is sadly about as interesting as the US version of Godzilla. Thematically brilliant but dreadfully dull, these monsters won’t be menacing America very much at all on my table. 6.9/10 (not an average)
There’s no escaping it: giant monsters are cool. They’re just so outlandish, so gloriously OTT that you can’t help but smile at their city-destroying shenanigans. In a post-9/11 world however, seeing cities destroyed has lost some of its appeal – although to be fair, the potential for allegory has gone up immeasurably: the original Japanese cut of Godzilla (made in 1954, and known as Gojira in its homeland) is a clear allegory of the dangers of misusing atomic energy, with heartbreaking scenes of devastation and destruction that don’t shy away from showing the effect on us poor little humans that a rampaging giant beast would actually have.Monsters Menace America, however, takes a more primary coloured and gleeful view of the destruction, much like the campy Godzilla movies of the 1970s. More akin to giant scaly/furry/gloopy wrestlers than metaphorical walking atom bombs, these monsters aren’t causing visible pain and terror: they’re just wandering about having a bit of fun. Which isn’t to say that cities aren’t getting stomped: they are, but it doesn’t seem to cause a lot of hurt to anyone – even the military units return for more attempts at bringing the monsters down after being repeatedly destroyed.
The object of the game is to be the last monster standing : each player chooses a giant monster – which are mostly based on famous movie monsters, with enough differences in appearance and name to avoid copyright-infringement lawsuits – and a branch of the military, and take turns moving monsters and military units around the USA. Monsters move around stomping on cities, which provide them with helpful mutations, infamy or extra health, while military units traverse America in an attempt to reduce the health of the other monsters, ready for the endgame: a giant monster showdown in which only one monster can survive and stand triumphant.
The game is easy to learn, with a well-illustrated rulebook and a nicely helpful turn summary printed on the board. The components are lovely, with excellent illustrations on the cards and in the rules, along with absolutely superb monster pieces. The military units are brightly coloured and easily identifiable, and despite being much more abstract than the monsters themselves they are functional and perfectly adequate for the role they play in the game. After all – the monsters are the main focus of the game, and they do not disappoint.
As is quite common with non-German game design, however, the theme is brilliantly implemented but the gameplay less satisfying than the average Euro-game. Much of the game is based on dice rolls, which leads to rather unsatisfying combat and sometimes frustrating ‘rolling for health’ after cities are stomped. The endgame also feels rather unsatisfactory, with one-on-one monster battles resolved by (yep, you guessed it!) lots of dice rolls to determine the winner of the game. There isn’t a lot of strategy to the main game either – monsters simply walk around collecting health and mutations, with the military always proving pretty ineffectual unless the monsters have a really unlucky spate of dice rolls or lots of units can be coordinated to attack one monster (which is pretty difficult). The game length is relatively short but it does seem to drag, as the gameplay is fairly repetitive and mostly free from players finding themselves in situations where they have to think at length about what has to be done next. There’s nothing wrong with lighter games, or games that are less intense than a game such as the average Knizia design, but Monsters Menace America does seem to contain less ‘game’ than it should, given its length and price.
Whilst Monsters Menace America does hit all of the necessary aesthetic and thematic buttons, it falls short of providing captivating gameplay which players will want to return to again and again. Even for a self-confessed giant monster fan such as myself, there is little here to convince players to stomp happily across the USA on more than a few occasions.
Summary
Presentation: Gorgeous components and excellently colourful design lend this an air of camp silliness much like cinematic…ahem…classics like Destroy All Monsters! 9.5/10
Clarity of Rules: Excellently illustrated, well laid out rules missing one or two important clarifications that can slow things down during the first couple of games. 8.6/10
Game Length: Relatively short – even four player games can be finished in under an hour including set-up time – but sometimes games do seem to drag given the repetitive nature of the gameplay. 6.9/10
Value: For the amount of enjoyment that will be gleaned from Monsters Menace America, it is horribly overpriced. Excellent components, which add to the high price, don’t make up for the fact that replay value is startlingly low. 6.8/10
Overall: An aesthetically pleasing giant monster mash that is sadly about as interesting as the US version of Godzilla. Thematically brilliant but dreadfully dull, these monsters won’t be menacing America very much at all on my table. 6.9/10 (not an average)
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