| Recommended Age: | 9+ |
| Cost: | $19.99 |
| Our Recommended Age: | 6+ or 7+ |
| Play Time: | 20 minutes |
| Players: | 2-5 players |
| Company Site: | www.biggcreative.com |
Monster Crunch is a nostalgic ( to some of us) shout to Saturday mornings that the world needs more of. Well in our opinion anyway. The whole idea is to eat the most cereal! Not just any cereal though, Monster cereal that if you are leveled appropriately will remember from your childhood. We don’t age, we level up…Count Chocula was always my favorite.
This game is perfect for family game nights or any game night really. Also, perfect for Saturday mornings with a bowl of cereal…I still prefer Count Chocula out of all the Monster Cereals. Recommended for ages 9+ but I feel like kids around 6 could play if you have an experienced gamer. It is mostly number matching and higher/lower knowledge but some reading is involved. If your child cannot read they just need to understand what they Monster Powers are. Oh yeah, each Monster has Monster Powers to use in the game!
It comes in a standard lift top lid box that is pretty sturdy and has an insert inside. Not the kind I love but it does have separators for various things, cards in one spot, cereal bowls in another and Monster Power Cards in another. So still organized. The Cereal Bowls, Milk Tokens and Monster Power Cards are all made with nice and smooth chipboard. The playing cards are standard card material and the artwork is everything you would expect from characters you loved as a kid…and still do. You know you do…
Overall the game is made very well and I feel like they put a lot of time and love into making this game. They did amazing work with the characters and translating old cereal monsters to a fun family game. But enough about that, let’s eat!…I mean play…heck let’s do both.
Objective:
Be the Monster who eats the most cereal at the end of 3 hands…not rounds because each hand is made up of multiple rounds.
Setup:
First choose your Monster! Then take the matching Cereal Cards, Cereal Bowl, and Monster Power cards…placards, they call them Placards. Put all of this in front of you so all parts can be seen by all and used and touched by you. We don’t follow the instructions that say put the bowl towards the center and the Monster Power placards under them and the Monster Deck next to these. We put the bowl in front of us like it’s our breakfast and then everything else nearby. Put all the Milk Tokens in the center of the playing area and take one.
Make sure your Monster Deck is shuffled and give yourself 12 for your hand but don’t show anyone. The rest of the deck should be face down nearby so you can draw 12 again during the next hand. Put whatever is left (Monster sets) back in the box so as not to confuse other players and get ready to play! Whoever ate a bowl of cereal most recently goes first! This could be any one of us as we feel cereal is a good option for snacks…and breakfast.
Play:
There are three hands to the game and each hand will have various rounds. They say hands because you get 12 cards per hand and no matter how many rounds you get that is your hand until they are gone. Each round will be played til there is one player left, don’t worry I’ll explain. It isn’t as confusing as I am going to make it sound…it almost never is. On our turn you can either play a card from your hand to your Bowl or pass.
On your turn if you play a card, the first player can play whatever they want from their hand. Just one though and then every player after that each player has to play a card that is equal to or higher than the card (or total) there. Only ONE card though unless you use a Milk Token. The Diva loves using Milk Tokens randomly and to ensure she is the last person standing early in a round…she’s ruthless.
Whenever you pass you get a Milk token, but you are also out of the round so try not to just pass to get one. My kids love the Milk Tokens…honestly so do I. They had a bit more fairness to a game left up to what you draw from your shuffled deck. I like that…means I have a shot at winning…sometimes.
So, Milk Tokens, if you cannot play a card you can use a Milk Token and two cards that are either the same or go in order numerically. Like a 1 and 2 or 4 and 5, etc. If someone plays a 6 and you don’t have a 6 or greater you can play a 3 with a Milk Token and a 4 and the new total is now 7 that the next player has to match or beat. There is a better example in the instructions so check that out. My kids like to use two 6’s or a 7 & 8 just to ensure people spend their milk tokens to stay in…ruthless.
If you have to pass, take a Milk Token and then take all the cards in your Cereal Bowl and set them face up next to you. This is now your Scoring Pile. My kids will usually say I’m full when they have to pass which is hilarious. I mean technically if you are eating cereal and you have to stop usually it is because you are full.
Anyway, now you are out for the rest of the round, but not the hand. The round goes until one player is left. That person does not collect a Milk Token but does take the cards out of their Bowl and set them face up in their scoring pile. They also start the next round…which we dread when it is the Diva…she goes high! The cards in your hand stay there! In fact you use them in the next round. Rounds go until one player plays their last card from their hand.
The Hand is immediately over and all players score their bowls and put all cards left in their hands into the box because they are out for the rest of the game. You do keep Milk Tokens though. The player who ran out of cards in the last Hand goes first in this new one.
At certain points of the game you can use your Monster Power. They are all different so read them and you can only use them once per GAME so choose wisely. Just don’t forget to use them..like we do occasionally.
Winning:
The game ends after 3 Hands and everyone counts all the cards in their score piles from all 3 Hands. If there is a tie then the person with the most Milk Tokens out of those who tied wins and if you still have a tie you both win, yay! Victory cereal of your Monster favorite!! Well..we had it anyway because we love Monster cereal…I’m a huge fan of Count Chocula.
Monster Crunch is a “cereal-sly” good time for the whole family even if your kids don’t know who Count Chocula or Fruit Brute are…they do now! Adults, teens and even younger kids will love the challenge of “eating” the most cereal. They’ll also enjoy the fun characters and any 80’s kid will love how much it reminds you of Saturday morning cartoons, in pjs, eating a bowl of cereal….until like 1pm. Best day ever.
Show us your Monstrously full bowl! @MyGeeklings @BigGCreativeLlc #MonsterCrunch
