PLAYED FOR YOU

Monte Banana

Climbing for bananas

Next to mice and cheese monkeys and bananas must be one of the favorite combinations for game topics. In this interpretation of the theme monkeys climb a mountain for bananas. The mountain, Monte Banana, is set up and each player chooses one of the pretty, banana-waving monkeys and puts them in front of the first step of the mountain. Each player has an identical set of cards showing values One to Five. In your turn you choose a card and and move the monkey accordingly upwards or downwards. Other monkeys are passed. The target spot must be free and you cannot change direction in a turn, unless you have reached the top of the mountain and have steps left, because you must always move the full number of steps indicated on your card. There is another restriction: you cannot choose the same card as the player before you, unless it is the last card that you play. When all five cards are played, the round ends: If you are highest up on the mountain, you earn a chip in a game for two players and two chips in a game for three and four players. The player in second place in a game for three and four players earns one chip, too. If you collected three or more chips or – in a game for three and four players – five or more chips, you win.

Monte Banana is not as simple as it seems at first glance; places are limited and the cards you played are visible; so there is a bit of tactic, hampered a bit by the restriction of the same cards played in a row and that you have to turn around if you reach the mountain too early. A very nice mixture of mechanisms for a very nice family game.

Players: 2-4

Age: 8+

Time: 30+

Designer: Jim Winslow

Artist: not named

Price: ca. 18 Euro

Publisher: Piatnik 2013

Web: www.piatnik.com

Genre: Placement game with cards

Users: For families

Version: multi

Rules: de en fr it hu pl

In-game text: no

Comments:

Nice mix of mechanisms

Attractive components

New edition of Top Banana

Compares to:

Placement games with cards for movement

Other editions:

Currently none

Chance (pink): 0

Tactic (turquoise): 3

Strategy (blue): 0

Creativity (dark blue): 0

Knowledge (yellow): 0

Memory (orange): 1

Communication (red): 0

Interaction (brown): 3

Dexterity (green): 0

Action (dark green): 0