Game: Cheeky Monkey

Thread: Re: Cheeky Monkey - Best Filler Evar!

MinorD — 2008-09-18T05:01:46+00:00

I picked this up at Origins this year as a "coming home" gift for my kids. It is one of our favorite games to play as a family. The rules are simple enough that a 4 year old can follow them and the end-game scoring adds a level of strategy that goes well with the whole push-your-luck thing.

Thread: Cheeky Monkey - Best Filler Evar!

subhan — 2008-09-18T01:25:02+00:00

Cheeky Monkey is a fantastically fun light game for 2-6 players from designer Reiner
Knizia, published by Face 2 Face games with an MSRP of $30.00.

Overview:
Cheeky Monkey's rules are few, simple, & easy to learn. Players take
turns pulling animal tokens out of a bag. If you pull a token that
matches one on the top of someone else's stack, you can steal it. If
you pull a monkey, you can either steal all the visible monkeys, or
trade your monkey for the top token on someone else's stack. You can
continue pulling tokens as long as you want, but watch out! If you
pull a token that matches one in front of you, everything you've
gained that turn goes back in the bag including tiles stolen from
other players! When you think you've had enough, you add all the
tokens you've gained that turn to the top of your stack, in any order,
or if you only have 1 kind of animal you can add them all to the
bottom of your stack. Play continues until all the tokens have been
drawn. Scoring is the number of tokens you have, plus bonuses of 3 to
10 points for the most of each type of animal (no bonuses for ties
though!)

Components:
Cheeky Monkey comes with 52 poker-style animal chips, 7 heavy
cardboard animal tiles, and a red cloth bag to draw tiles from. The
chips are fairly solid although not quite as heavy as a high-quality
clay poker chip. Each chip has an animal sticker on each side. The
drawstring bag appears well made and durable. The tiles are the
weakest component of the game. They are made of a heavy blotter-like
material commonly used to make beer coasters. Although they feel a
little shabby, they are not really used for much during the game & so
this is not a major flaw.

Fun Factor:
High! Cheeky Monkey is a quick & easy game. It is a fantastic
filler, taking 5-10 minutes per round of up to 6 players. It is also
easy for people to jump in the middle of a round, or to leave the game in the middle (just throw your tiles back in the bag!) This makes it a great filler for large gaming groups while waiting for other games to finish. Game play is
entertaining and exciting, with a great ebb & flow of fortune
throughout the game as people push their luck, steal other's tiles, &
generally have a great time.

Recommendation:
Buy it! Although the MSRP is a little high relative to the
components (I think $15.00 would be a more reasonable price), the $ to
fun ratio is high enough to make this a winner, even at the $20-25 you
will likely pay. It works well as a quick pickup game, a fun filler, or a nice palate cleanser after an evening of hard gaming.

Thread: Re: Are the components nice?

the majestic moose — 2008-09-15T09:50:58+00:00

It's true that the cards are not glossy. But they don't look homemade either. Basically, they are about the same size, weight, and texture as disposable drink coasters.

Thread: Re: Are the components nice?

themilkcrate — 2008-09-07T03:08:05+00:00

Karmic_devil wrote:
I would like to add my 2 cents on this.

I think the components are junk.
The chips are pogs with cheesy stickers on them.
The cardboard cards are unimpressive, cheap, not glossy.
I thought they were homemade the first time I played this game.

That said, the game is a lot of fun and I would never turn this filler down.

I do not feel like you get $21 worth of stuff in the box.
OTOH you will probably play so much of this little filler that you will get more than $21 worth of fun.

Josh

Really?

I think this game has great components. The chips have some heft to them like poker chips and the bag is the nicest that I've ever seen come with a game.

I regularly use this as an example of high quality components in a game.

I do agree that the game is a lot of fun and will get a lot of play!

Thread: Re: Are the components nice?

Karmic_devil — 2008-08-31T07:09:59+00:00

I would like to add my 2 cents on this.

I think the components are junk.
The chips are pogs with cheesy stickers on them.
The cardboard cards are unimpressive, cheap, not glossy.
I thought they were homemade the first time I played this game.

That said, the game is a lot of fun and I would never turn this filler down.

I do not feel like you get $21 worth of stuff in the box.
OTOH you will probably play so much of this little filler that you will get more than $21 worth of fun.

Josh

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cuzzle — 2008-05-09T04:43:32+00:00

Homemade tokens, labels attached to pokerchips

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cuzzle — 2008-05-09T04:41:41+00:00

Rainbow of custom Score tiles

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cuzzle — 2008-05-09T04:40:47+00:00

Custom animal tokens and tiles

Thread: Re: Game Rules?

the majestic moose — 2008-04-27T10:10:31+00:00

It wasn't bad. I'd certainly play it again, although I don't think I'd buy it. I didn't mind the luck factor because the game is so short and unpretentious. I lost horribly, but that was my own fault, for playing impulsively rather than rationally. It'd be a good filler, and also easy for game newbies or kids to pick up.

Thread: Re: Game Rules?

eyeandear — 2008-04-23T08:32:52+00:00

Thanks Daniel for the elaboration. It gives a good sense of the game play. Did you enjoy it? Can you rank it?

Thread: Re: Game Rules?

the majestic moose — 2008-04-18T10:37:05+00:00

I'll state them in full, with the disclaimer that I haven't actually read them, but have heard them explained and have then played the game.

There's a bag of chips with different numbers of different kinds of animals in it. There are three elephants, four walruses, five kangaroos (or something like that)...up to nine hyenas and ten monkeys. There are also thick bonus/reminder cards, one for each kind of animal, with the appropriate numbers marked on them.
The game ends when the bag is empty. At that point, you get one point per chip you have, plus three points if you have the most elephants, four if you have the most walruses, etc. In case of a tie, nobody gets the bonus.

You have a stack of saved chips, and a separate play area for this turn. On your turn, you can draw a chip from the bag and put it in your play area. Then you can keep drawing chips, or any time you like you can pass the bag instead of drawing.

When you draw a chip, if it matches a chip in your play area (not your stack), you put all the chips in your play area back in the bag and pass the bag immediately. Basically, you don't want to draw the same animal twice in a turn.

If it doesn't match--say it was a zebra, and you don't have a zebra in your play area--you not only put the zebra you drew in your play area, but you also take any zebras that are on top of anyone else's stacks--if they're two deep, take both, etc.--and put them in your play area too.

If you draw a monkey and you don't have a monkey in your play area, you can put it in your play area and take any monkeys off the top of other people's stacks if there are any, as usual...OR you can instead take the top animal from one other person's stack and put the monkey you just drew onto their stack in its place. I'm guessing that you can even safely grab animals that match ones in your play area, but not sure about that. You put the stolen animal in your play area.

If you choose to pass the bag before you lose all the chips you just got, then you take all the chips in your play area, stack them in any order you like, and put the whole thing on top of your stack, before the next person draws. Alternately, if there is only one kind of animal in your play area, you can choose to put the chips on the BOTTOM of your stack. And as far as I know, that's the whole game. Don't know how many players are the maximum.

Thread: Re: Game Rules?

Doc Sonic — 2008-03-12T05:42:09+00:00

I played it for the first time tonight.

I would recommend it. It's a great game for groups that want something light and will get you laughing. Also good for first time gamers.

In a nutshell:

You have different animal tokens in a bag. The goal is to score the most points by having the most animal tokens and type of animal at the end of the game. Some animals have more tokens then others. Monkeys are the most prevalent and can be used to steal a animal away from another player. There is a press you luck factor as you can continue to draw tokens out of the bag but must return your lot if you draw a duplicate animal.

Not the full rules but hope you get an idea. Plays quick and is a lot of fun watching your friends draw duplicates and discard their hand. Also, pulling a "cheeky monkey" is great as you steal your friends animals!

Thread: Game Rules?

drunkenKOALA — 2008-03-03T01:47:11+00:00

So what are the game's rules? Anyone care to review it? I am quite interested in this game. I have something for monkeys.

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Favre4MVP — 2008-02-21T02:22:32+00:00

Cheeky Knizia

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Favre4MVP — 2008-01-10T02:12:36+00:00

Oh, so Cheeky

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kat644 — 2007-12-01T19:55:19+00:00

Game End: One player's chips sorted & counted, bonus tiles awarded. Score: 41

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kat644 — 2007-12-01T19:52:04+00:00

3-player game in progress

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kat644 — 2007-12-01T19:51:21+00:00

It's educational too! The backs of the bonus tiles contain info on the various animals.

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kat644 — 2007-12-01T19:50:23+00:00

All Eight Types of Animal Chips

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Meat — 2007-11-21T03:33:18+00:00

Goo Goo G'joob G'goo Goo G'joob

Thread: Re: Are the components nice?

matthulgan — 2007-11-15T21:32:05+00:00

upstartcrow wrote:
Hope this helps in making your decision.

It sure does! Thank you.

Thread: Re: Are the components nice?

upstartcrow — 2007-11-15T20:34:01+00:00

I hadn't seen a photo either but went ahead and bought the game. The animal chips are white plastic and about the size of regular poker chips. They were thicker than I expected them to be. They are indented on both sides to hold the animal stickers. They have a nice feel. The good news is that you don't have to apply the stickers yourself. The bad news is there were a couple of my chips where the sticker wasn't centered in the indent all that well. The sack for holding the chips is a Santa sack red with a very hefty black tie at the top. This is about the best quality sack I've seen in a game. The ten animal award cards are on very hefty cardboard (nice). Hope this helps in making your decision.

Thread: Are the components nice?

matthulgan — 2007-11-15T19:46:15+00:00

I haven't been able to find any photos of the game. I'm interested in buying it but for the price I'd expect the pieces to be pretty good.

Has anyone seen actual photos of the bits?

Thread: Re: 2-player

Henry Rhombus — 2007-11-15T00:54:23+00:00

mevans444 wrote:
Obviously, this game doesn't work very well with only 2 players.

I disagree. I played Cheeky Monkey several times with two players prior to its publication and feel that it works fine. You have only one competitor for majorities, and that might affect your decisions, but you still have to decide how far to push your luck, when to swap a monkey, and when to tuck a tile on the bottom of your stack.

I'm actually playtesting a game that coincidentally has the same parts as Cheeky Monkey -- three of one type, four of another, and so on -- and had similar concerns about the two-player version of that game. Once I actually played two-player a couple of times, I realized that the game works great as described. Maybe you'll feel the same about CM after a couple more plays...

mevans444 wrote:
Also, the 'placing all chips of the same animal under your stack' rule:
As it reads in the rules, it seems to allow players to place a single chip under their stack. Shouldn't this be for only 2 or more chips?

No, the rule means exactly what it says. At the end of the game, if you have, say, three giraffes and one walrus in the bag, when you draw a giraffe, you're unlikely to want to draw again -- but if you place the giraffe on top, your opponent is likely to steal. The rule lets you tuck that giraffe into safety on the bottom of your stack.

Again, I had questions about the rule prior to playing, but once you see it in action, it all makes sense.

Eric
Editor, http://www.BoardgameNews.com
Rules editor for Cheeky Monkey

Thread: 2-player

mevans444 — 2007-11-14T23:18:39+00:00

Obviously, this game doesn't work very well with only 2 players.
You can fix this somewhat by having each player maintain 2 stacks.

You'd have to agree to a house rule such as "Player must place at least one chip in a second stack" or perhaps better "Players must keep both stacks as equal in height as possible."

Also, the 'placing all chips of the same animal under your stack' rule:
As it reads in the rules, it seems to allow players to place a single chip under their stack. Shouldn't this be for only 2 or more chips?

Mike Evans