Pyramid Review
Monkey Memory
Published by Playroom Entertainment
Designed by Reinhard Staupe
Art by Oliver Freudenreich
50 playing cards & instructions (English, French, & Spanish); boxed, full color, for two to eight players; $8
Playroom Entertainment seems to have more imprints and marketing adaptations than the average gamer has dice in a bag. A purveyor of quick, easy games that can be enjoyed by the whole family, they've cast a pretty wide net to catch as many clan-friendly sets as they can. Although many of the games target kids and their parents, one of their imprints, Bright Idea Games, looks to the far younger end of the spectrum. By way of example: Monkey Memory.
One of the company quirks the game shares with others from the Playroom team: The backstory is only to be found on the back of the box. Not that it's all that complicated -- the monkeys have gotten loose, and they're rummaging through your stuff. They've taken an item, and you have to figure out which one. To help you keep track, players (two to eight of them) are assigned a Solution Card that shows all the pieces used in the game.
Each Object Card depicts one everyday item (well, okay, coconuts are here as well, but surely they're found in someone's house). A cell phone, a watch, a ring of car keys, the sort of stuff you'd find in a person's backpack. Oh, and the backpack. The things on the cards all have a . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: October 6, 2006
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