Posted in: Card Games, Games, Review | Tagged: card game, Monster Match, North Star Games, Review

Review: Monster Match by North Star Games

Published Wed, 13 Feb 2019 09:40:10 -0600

Another one of the games we received from North Star Games a while ago was a cute little card game called Monster Match designed for ages 6+. I really liked the idea that a bunch of the company's games are put inside these little zipper packets that appeal to both kids and adults. But how does the game measure up as a bunch of adults sit around and play it? Here's our review!

Monster Match is probably one of the easiest games in the North Star Games library because it requires just a basic sense of math and good eyes. The game has an entire deck of monsters, as you see below, all of them coming in different shapes and sizes. The key things you need to look at for the monsters are their eyes, legs, and arms, as these are the defining qualities you'll need to pay attention to. Also, they all have a pile of donuts in the corner, which is how you will score the game.

The player takes the two dice and rolls them to start their turn. You'll get one of the three areas to look for, as well as a number. You'll then scan the board and look for as many monsters as you can with the same feature. The first person to put their finger down on a monster and is right gets those points. If you're wrong, you're out of the round. And if none of the monsters have features, you must tap the Zilch card in the middle.

If you hit the Zilch token, you have to add ten more cards to the table. If you get a monster card wrong, you need to take the top scoring card you own and put it back on the table to be up for grabs again. The game goes pretty frantically, especially if everyone is super competitive and fishing for cards as fast as they can. More than once I collided knuckles with players getting to a card.

The end of the game comes when you run out of cards and fail to add 10 more to the table as needed. After that, all you have to do is take your cards and add up all the donuts you have. Highest score wins the game. I really loved playing Monster Match as it was a quick way to play with people and get some fun out of a limited amount of time. This is another one of those games I recommend for people with kids as you can teach them math with it, as well as if you're in line at a convention and need to kill some time. It also makes for a great drinking game if you opt to have people take shots for failed monster picks. I highly recommend checking it out.