| Players: | 2-6 |
| Recommended Age: | 5 + |
| Cost: | $29.95 |
| Company Site: | riograndegames.com |
| Contents: | 88 Monster Tiles Rule Book |
| Official Site: | Game/405-Monster-Factory |
This game is awesome on many levels. For starters it consists ONLY of square tiles with monster parts on them. Second you get to create monsters in order to get points to win! Making Monsters!!! I love odd or weird anything and this game is definitely not your normal game so I automatically was curious. If you are not familiar with Rio Grande Games then I feel sorry for you. They make excellent games and one of my current (adult) games is Dominion. After playing this few times with my 5 yr old son, The Gentleman, I have a new favorite (non-adult) tile building game.
When you first open the box you see sheets of square tiles with various eyes, white areas and purple bits of arms and such. After you pop out all the tiles you will realize that there is nothing else to the game. Yep! JUST tile pieces! Which is easy clean up, storage and learning curve! Ready to find out how to play?
Set Up:
Each player picks a starting tile. You will want one that can connect to other pieces on at least 3 if not all 4 sides. Place the chosen piece in front of you (each player does the same thing) then shuffle the tiles! Face down and preferably in a pile everyone can reach.
Game Play:
Pick someone to go first. We roll a die normally to be fair. Play will continue in a clockwise order which is apparently the normal order but for whatever reason I always want it to go the other way. I guess that last bit wasn’t important…so moving on!
When it’s your turn draw a face down tile from the pile and play it. Well play it if you can. You can add the tile to anyone’s monster not just your own. If the tile can be played ANYWHERE it MUST be played. If it cannot and the rest of the players agree that the tile cannot be played anywhere then you discard it in the box. It gets a time out for the rest of the game. Draw a new tile and play it if you can. In theory you should be able to play every tile or at least most every tile. Once you place your tile your turn is over.
Rules:
Of course there are restrictions for placing tiles. Here they are:
- You must place each tile so that the thin edges match the thin edges and thick matches thick.
- Any edge that touches another edge HAS to match.
- You can ONLY place a blank side next to another blank side and ONLY if another side matches another tile.
- If your monster has no thin or thick edges to connect to then that monster is complete.
Once you complete your first monster draw a random tile to start a new one. Call him Minion. Do this even if someone else plays the tile that completes your monster. If you complete a minion start another one. You can only have ONE in progress monster at a time though. There is a downside to finishing your first monster first though, once you complete your first monster you can no longer play tiles on other players first monsters. It’s minions only for you til the game ends.
To Win:
When all player’s first monsters are complete or no face-down tiles are left the game ends. The person with the most points wins!
- 1 point per tile in a completed first monster.
- 1 point per tile with an eye in a completed minion
- Uncompleted monsters and minions score 0 points.
Basically you want your first monster to be as big as possible! You probably want your minion to have as many eyes as possible too! A tie means two people win so yay you!
This game was very easy to learn without feeling like it was the “dumb” easy. Simple rules and simple play but BIG fun. It also changes EVERY time you play so you won’t get bored or annoyed. The hardest part for kids is the scoring and even that can be taught easily enough.
They can count by age 5 so just make sure they understand what a completed monster looks like. From there it’s just count the tiles on your first monster and the eyes on your minions. After that it’s simple addition and you can help with that. My son was able to pick up on how to play very quickly and then taught his daddy.
This game is great for all ages and I am pretty sure you could teach a 3 or 4 year old to play. It works sort of like a matching game at that point. Purple with purple and green thin parts with green thin parts. That might be all that they can pick up on at first but it is a great start. Also, it’s not Memory…or Candyland and especially not Fishing! I love games with little to no mechanical noise.
If you like easy to learn and fun to play games you will love this game. You may not be able to play it on a road trip BUT you can put all the tiles in a bag and take it to play anywhere you go. This makes waiting in doctor offices and restaurants so much better! Plus you can turn it into a make a monster with 4 eyes game just to pass the time. Endless fun and at a reasonable price too!
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