The Keilantra Codex

ANALYSIS – Munchkin (CCG)

Positives:

+     Very humorous card designs make collecting and playing fun.

+     Simple artwork makes cards easy to recognize from across the table.

+     There are little figures for use in the game with special rules if you decide to play with them… in fact ALL their extra merchandise has rules which affect the game in some way.

+     New cards change the rules of the game when played, making things new and exciting even for veteran players.

+     Game is easy enough for older children to play, and still engaging enough for adults to enjoy.

Negatives:

-       Rules can be a bit difficult to understand when first playing as there are so many details.

-       No way to keep track of life points included with the game, it’s required to find your own way of keeping track.

-       Finding room for all the cards on the table can get a bit difficult.

-       Drawing monsters randomly from the deck can lead to vastly unfair combat rounds. When you’re low levels it’s possible to draw extremely high level monsters, and vice versus.

-       Soooooo many cards to get, and they’re rather expensive if you start seriously collecting them.

-       Very easy to get carried away and do dastardly things within the game to win as you get caught up in playing.

Thoughts:

~    Gameplay got easier after a few runs, the rules flowing more naturally. Taking the rules in chunks helped.

~    Watching the kids play on their own later I saw that they modified the rules to make it a little easier for them to play, without taking the core principles away from the game.

~    Some of the monsters are seriously over-armed, which makes them both nearly impossible to defeat, and makes it scarily fun to worry about drawing them.

Would Like:

• More accessories… Munchkin card boxes, munchkin dice, munchkin life counters, etc…
• More cards… the game is truly addicting.

Tags: analysis, Game Design, munchkin

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