Discover two board games this week, Monstrolicious And Pikit. On the program: bluff, dice, and magnificent illustrations.
This week, we are not offering you just one game, but two at once, since they share several points in common. Small box size, affordable price, simplicity of the rules, short but intense games, very nice material, and with magnificent illustrations. On the face of it, they tick quite a few good boxes.
Without revolutionizing their respective genres, they still allow you to have a good time, without any hassle, without needing to be an expert in board games to play them. It’s simple, clever, and perfectly edited… everything you want from a game.
Monstroliciousa bluff for two
In Monstrolicious, each of the two players embodies a family of monsters: the hairy ones or the scaly ones. Your goal in life: to eat the most appetizing desserts!
They are represented on the board placed between the players. From the banal lollipop to the enormous cake dripping with sweet happiness, including donuts, fruit tart, chocolate fountain, etc. The more appetizing a dessert is, the more points it is worth at the end of the game.
Take turns placing the first monster from your deck face down in front of a dessert. As long as there is no monster in front, we can eat it. But if a monster is on either side of the cake, they fight: numbered from 1 to 12, the monster with the lowest value leaves empty-handed. But be careful, each player also has a bomb in their pile, which eliminates the opposing monster, whatever its value.
When all the tiles have been played, we count the points of the desserts in front of which our monsters are located, and the highest score wins.
Some desserts have a special effect when placed there, for example donuts, which only earn 3 points, but allow you to turn over an opposing tile to find out its value.
Monstrolicious is not a novelty strictly speaking, since it is a reissue of a game first released in 1998, by no less than the author of Magic! In addition to a beautiful graphic overhaul, it seems to us that a few rules have been adjusted (if memory serves).
The game combines risk-taking and bluffing, for two players only, and games lasting around ten minutes at most. Its rules are extremely simple, and you can really play it with anyone, even children.
Obviously, chance remains very present despite everything. If you’re unlucky, you can spend your game getting your monsters eliminated. But the frustration does not have time to set in, the games being too fast for that, and we quickly move on to a revenge.
The only downside for us is a slightly bizarre management of ties. But nothing prohibitive yet.
The material, on the other hand, is excellent, with magnificent illustrations (whether it be the appetizing cakes or the faces of the monsters straight out of Monsters & Co. ) and very thick tiles whose texture depends on the monster family (hair or scales).
- Monstroliciousis a game by Richard Garfield, illustrated by Paul Mafayon and published by Repos Production
- For 2 players, from 8 years old and games lasting around ten minutes
- Priced at €14.90 at Philibert
In short
We liked
- Very accessible
- Quick games
- Material, illustrations
We liked it less
- Quite a bit of coincidence all the same
- Tiebreaker a bit frustrating
Pikitmonsters, robots and dice
In Pikit , you try to summon the most powerful Kaijus and Mechas. We take turns rolling two dice, then, depending on their result, we collect one or two monster cards from those in the center of the table.
Either we take a card whose value corresponds to the sum or the difference of our dice, or we can take one or two cards corresponding to the face of the dice. Or, in the worst case, nothing if you’re really out of luck.
On the contrary, if you are lucky enough to roll a double on the dice, you get the corresponding robot. From the center of the table if no one has taken it yet, or by attempting to steal it from its current owner by taking a random card from their hand.
At the end of the game, each monster is worth as many points as indicated by its card (from 1 to 11), and each robot is worth 15 points on its own.
But the monsters benefit from special effects. Some must be discarded (their points are then given up) to benefit from them (re-roll a die, steal a card from an opponent, cancel the effect of another player’s card, etc.), others not ( monsters of value 1, the weakest, bring additional points if you have more than the others, for example).
We suspect, Pikit leaves a lot of room for chance. But not only that: low blows and opportunism are also present. Knowing how to use your cards at the right time, being aware of the points you lose by doing so, gives more interest to the game than you imagine at first glance.
But this is obviously not a high strategy game. Here, it’s the fun and the atmosphere around the table that gives it all its flavor. And, of course, the more you play it, the more you have fun, but the more chaos is present. However, avoid playing it with people who are a little too touchy, who might grumble about making bad dice rolls or having their cards stolen.
But beyond that, it is accessible to everyone, as the rules are simple, and the games are fast and rhythmic.
Here again, the material is really high quality, with superb illustrations, and even a dice track thanks to the felt glued to the bottom of the box which reduces the annoying sound of the dice rolling on the table.
- Pikitis a game by Corentin Brand, illustrated by Sylvain Repos and published by Repos Production
- For 2 to 4 players, from 8 years old and games lasting around twenty minutes
- Priced at €14.90 at Philibert
In short
We liked
- The dilemma: keep your cards for points or use them for their power
- Good atmosphere around the table
- Material, illustrations
- The felt at the bottom of the box, to serve as a dice track!
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