The exposed skin on your arms and face feels like it has been slapped repeatedly, it burns from the heat of the lava. As you make the small jump between rocks, you come to a large gap. Jack goes first and makes it easily, his height and lanky limps made it look easy. As you leap across the gap, you slip at on the rock and your boot touches the lava; the smell of rubber fills your nose while fear of falling in fills the rest of your body. Suddenly a hand gaps your shoulder and pulls you up to safety. Jack has been a good friend ever since you were kids. You walk the short distance to your fort and relax. “I love that the kids get on so well, little Jacky loves coming here. Remember when we made pillow forts and played the floor is lava?’ the mothers muse as their kids play happily in their pillow fort
The gameplay is simple, each player starts with five cards and turns progress as each player draws and plays a card. There are three types of cards:
- Green cards are played face up in front of each player in the player’s “yard,” and are worth one point each. The green cards are typically positive.
- Red cards are played in another player’s yard and are worth a negative point for the unlucky recipient. Each card in your yard also has an action attached.
- Blue cards are discarded and allows that player to complete the action on the card
The aim of Ninja Money is to get 5 or more. Each Green card showing in your yard counts as one point, each Red card as minus one. Cards covered by other cards do not count towards your score. The first player to five points wins.
Ninja monkey is a fun and quite nostalgic game. It brings all the memories from your childhood like Pillow Forts and Leap Frog and turns them into a quick and fun family game. And when I say quick, I mean quick. 4 mins per person meant that we played about 5 games in about hours.
I had an upcoming babysitting duty of ‘The Angels’ so I knew Ninja Monkeys would be a great game to try out on them. I wasn’t wrong the girls loved this game and yes it may have helped that we were actually playing in a pillow fort. I honestly didn’t realise how awesome my couch was and if I had of known earlier I would have made a pillow fort years ago. My nieces loved it, they were playing an awesomely fun game, in a pillow fort with in my opinion the best uncle ever.
But let’s get a bit more serious, the Angels did really enjoy this game and though the youngest took a lil longer to read the actions but the wording used are quite simple and easy for kids of all ages to understand. The game is quite simple and is clearly aimed at a younger audience to be played with family. Though the theme is quite childish, it has a nostalgic childish that you can’t help but enjoy.
The art for Ninja Monkey is quite colourful, childish & the cartoon style that really works for this game. The Angels loved the art styling, it is fun, funny and brightly coloured. Though the art may never win any awards, it does exactly what it needs to do and helps highlight the fun nostalgic feel of the game. I know a few people might think the art is cheap or not good enough but after playing it quite a bit, it really does fit the game so well and the target market loves the art.
This game is quite simple and we found that at times it can be very one sided at time. I just like any card game it is a bit a luck of the draw. But during our play through we found that when you got a good hand you were pretty much unstoppable. The only other issue I have is that 5 games in, and I feel like I have reached my limit, my nieces still wanted to play, but I found I was getting a little over it. I have seen them since and played it with them again, and still really enjoyed it. But found that game 5was where I personally wanted or needed a change of games.
Overall if you are looking for a fun, quick and a little nostalgic game to play as a family, or with the coolest uncle in the world, I think this is a great one to have in your collection. It is quite easy to learn, the kids can read their own cards with little to do help and it help promote family time that the whole family will actually enjoy. If you have kids or babysit a bit, I would recommend you build a pillow fort and grab a copy of Ninja Monkey.
Ninja Monkey is due to hit Kickstarter on the 26th of September and you can check out all the information on there website http://www.ninjamonkeys.com/
