Munchkin Panic board game review
One of our favorite cooperative board games is Castle Panic – a game where players feel the pressure to defend their castle from marauding monsters from the very first turn.
As soon as the game starts, the monsters are quickly upon you. Castle Panic is one of the first video reviews we posted (5 years ago) – and still holds up as a fantastic cooperative board game families can enjoy together.
So when we heard Fireside Games was publishing Munchkin Panic, we were super eager to check it out as well.
Could it be as good as the original Castle Panic?
Could it be even better than the original?
What will Munchkin humor do to the game?
Let’s find out…
Bring on Munchkin Panic!
The first thing to note is that the game play in Munchkin Panic is essentially the same as in Castle Panic. Players work together to save the central castle from the onslaught of monsters. As long as at least one castle tower is standing after all the monsters are slain, the players win.
If all the towers fall, everyone loses.
But that’s not all. In addition to keeping the towers standing, the player with the most Monster Trophies at the end of a successful team win will also be declared the Master Munchkin!
But that’s still not all. Because the standard way of playing, isn’t the only way you can play Munchkin Panic.
Instead of working together to save the castle, players can simply play to get the highest point value in Monster Trophies. Or you could chose to play solo and defend against the horde of monsters.
However, you like to slice it, Munchkin Panic delivers the fun.
How to play Munchkin Panic
Instead of going into fine detail, we’ll give you the quick overview of how to play Munchkin Panic.
Like Castle Panic, the center of the board is where the 6 castle towers and 6 protective walls are set up in a circle. Moving out from the castle are 4 circular rings where monsters will advance. The monsters will start near the edges of the board in the Forest ring and advance through Archer, Knight, and Swordsman rings before hitting the walls. The board is also divided into 3 colored sections – Red, Green, and Blue.
Players take turns playing cards, negotiating and helping each other, slaying monsters, getting monster trophies and treasures, and then advancing and placing more monsters.
At the start of the game, 4 random monsters will be placed in the Archer ring. The rules say it’s so the first player can have some targets. But we know it’s really so the pressure is felt from the very start. And it never lets up!
Cards:
On their turn a player first draws up to their full hand size of Castle Cards – which is either 5 or 6 cards depending on how many players are in the game. Then, if the player has more than the maximum number of Treasure Cards (explained later), they must give the excess Treasure Cards to the player with the least amount of Trophy points.
Next, the player can play Castle and/or Treasure cards, negotiate, and get trophies. Players can play as many cards as they would like on a turn. The most common Castle cards are Hit cards – cards that damage a monster. Each Hit card will dictate the color and ring where a monster can be targeted. For example to hit a monster in the Red Knight ring, the player must play a Red Knight card.
Of course, there are also special Hit cards that span either multiple colors or multiple rings.
In addition to Hit cards, the Castle card deck also contains Curse cards and Special cards that affect play. For example, the Duck of Doom Curse which lets a player take a Treasure card from another player.
Treasure Cards help boost the regular attacks through Weapons, attack monsters with Potions, or do other special things.
Negotiating for Help:
One of the unique elements of Munchkin Panic is negotiating for help. While playing cards to attack monsters, players can also negotiate for help. And the deals are wide open to whatever the players would like to negotiate. However, a deal can only be struck with 1 other player.
For example, a player could ask for help in slaying a monster in exchange for part of the Treasure to be gained.
Slaying Monsters:
Like in the original game, the monster tiles are triangle-shaped with numbers printed on the points. These indicate how many hits a monster can take before being defeated. With every hit, players will rotate the monster tile to show how many hits remain to slay it.
Unlike Castle Panic, some monsters need multiple hits at a time for the final blow to be effective. For example, Squidzilla and the Net Troll both need two hits at the same time as their final hits to be defeated. And the Plutonium Dragon needs 3 for the final blow!
This is one difference from the original Castle Panic game that increases the difficulty of the game. Those final blows can be tough.
Once monsters are slain, Trophies are awarded.
The player who slays the monster will gain the trophy – meaning they get that monster tile. The highest value on the monster tile is the Trophy amount. So if a player slays a 4-point monster and a 3-point monster, they’ll have 7 Trophy points.
In addition to Trophy points, players also get Treasure for defeating monsters.
Each monster tile also has a yellow dot (or two) on it. Once slain, the player also takes (facedown) that amount of Treasure Cards. Of course, if they negotiated for help, they may also need to share their Treasure with another player.
Moving and Drawing Monsters:
Sure players may breathe a sigh of relief after having defeated a monster, but it’s going to be very short-lived.
Because the next step is for all monsters on the board move forward one ring!
If they’ve already breached the walls and are into the Castle ring, then they’ll move clockwise – knocking down castle towers as they go.
The good news is that as monsters hit walls or towers, they also take damage. So if a monster on it’s last hit point hits a wall, he will also die when he takes out the wall.
The bad news is that since there are a number of monsters that require 2 hits for the final, defeating blow, they won’t die when hitting walls or towers. And they’re tough to take out once they breach the inner circle.
But that’s not all…
Once the monsters already on the board have moved, more show up in the forest.
A player ends their turn by placing 3 new monsters in the Forest ring. They pull a monster tile from the bag and roll the die to see which area that monster will start in.
And this is another part of the game that increases the difficulty over the original Castle Panic. In the original, players just needed to pull 3 tiles from the bag and resolve them. However, with Munchkin Panic, if a player draws a Curse tile, they resolve it and then pull another tile from the bag to place. So players won’t get any reprieve!
After monsters are placed, that player’s turn is over and play continues clockwise with the next player.
End of Game:
Once the last monster is defeated, or the last tower falls, the game ends.
If at least 1 tower remains standing – the players have won!
Players add up their Trophy points and the player with the highest point count is declared the Master Munchkin!
Of course, if all towers have fallen, the players wallow in defeat.
Our Verdict on Munchkin Panic
Unfortunately most of our games so far have ended in defeat.
Does that mean we don’t like the game though?
Not at all!
Munchkin Panic is still a bunch of fun.
We love the Munchkin-themed artwork and humor throughout the game. We’ve had a great time negotiating over Treasure and doing a little backstabbing along the way.
We also feel the same sense of panic/pressure as we do when we play Castle Panic. In fact, we feel more pressure with Munchkin Panic because we’ve found the game even tougher to win.
The two main culprits for it being a tougher game to win are ones we mentioned above: The 4 and 5 point monsters that take multiple/simultaneous hits to cement the final blow and the fact that 3 monsters WILL enter the forest every turn (rather than just drawing 3 tiles).
But that doesn’t mean Munchkin Panic will stay on the shelf while we continue to play Castle Panic. In fact, we’ll keep playing both.
Because one of the fun ways to play Munchkin Panic is with the included “Mini-Expansion”.
In this mode, players are simply trying to win the most Trophy points. It doesn’t matter if the castle towers remain standing. Instead, the last castle wall to fall simply signals the end of the game (or all monsters are dead, but that’s usually not how it ends). Then players add up their points to see who wins.
Also for this mode of play, players start with different Character cards to each have their own special ability (like Wizard, Thief, Cleric, etc.). In addition, there are Monster Enhancer cards that players can play on monsters while others are trying to slay them. Typically this will add health to the monster – making them tougher to take out. What a way to mess with your opponents.
One caveat when playing however…
The one unfortunate thing we’ve found with the game is that the included purple die isn’t well balanced.
The die is rolled to determine which section the monsters will be placed in the forest ring. During our first play, it seemed that all the monsters were coming at us from the same spot. After rolling a 5 five times in a row we started to wonder about the die.
We played through it and lost horribly.
With as many games as we’ve played, we know that in some games, the dice just don’t go our way. But overall, they seem pretty fair. However, in this case, we decided to actually test to see if the die really was conspiring against us.
The photo shows our results after 120 rolls. Sure enough, the die seems to be off.
Since then we’ve used a different die when playing and suggest you do the same – unless you want a steady onslaught from the same areas.
Munchkin Newbies
Now it’s time for our disclaimer…
With as much game playing as we do, we’ve never played Munchkin before.
We know it’s one of the most popular card games out there with a gazillion versions. But prior to playing Munchkin Panic we had never played a single game of Munchkin.
So as a first introduction to the Munchkin world (art and humor), we’ve had a great time with Munchkin Panic.
How can you not laugh when the monsters sallying forth from the forest include a Maul Rat, a Face Sucker, a Floating Nose, a Large Angry Chicken, a Potted Plant? And then there’s the Chicken on Your Head Curse: “All other players choose 1 Treasure card at random and put it on their heads without looking. Pick 1 and add it to your hand.”
The Munchkin humor definitely keeps the game light and fun even when the pressure to save the castle is on.
Actually, it’s exactly because of the humor that the pressure doesn’t seem so terrible.
Munchkin Lovers
For all those Munchkin-lovers out there, you’ll be happy to know that last week we actually did play Munchkin for our first time. Our neighbors got Munchkin for Christmas and have had a great time playing it. So they brought it over last weekend and we all joined in the fun.
While funny in and of themselves, after having played the original Munchkin, the references in Munchkin Panic now have a new level of humor to us.
Having played from the various backgrounds now, we can make the claim for those both familiar and unfamiliar with Munchkin – Munchkin Panic is a game you’ll enjoy.
Thanks Fireside Games for another great semi-cooperative family board game!
Note: We had steered clear of Munchkin because we’ve heard of inappropriate content in the games. While we can’t claim it for all the various version of the game, our initial experience just encountered one such card – which can easily be removed from the game.
Munchkin Panic, Thank you for publishing.