Review: Boss Monster 2!

 Boss Monster was a hit and STILL is among gamers. For me in particular, I never got a chance to pick it up yet but I ALWAYS wanted to try it due to the awesome 8-Bit design. I received a copy of Boss Monster 2 from the awesome Brotherwise Games to review and WOW, I don't know how I went this long without!


 First, As always. Here's a quick excerpt:

"It's time to take your dungeon to The Next Level! Return to the videogame-inspired world of Arcadia in Boss Monster 2. This all-new 160-card set plays as a standalone game or as an expansion to the best-selling original card game.

Become one of twelve new Bosses, Build powerful new Trap and Monster rooms, Cast Epic Spells, Face new challenges, including Hybrid Heroes and Dark Heroes. Just like the original, Boss Monster 2 is designed for players of all skill levels. This set includes everything 2-4 players need for countless hours of dungeon-building fun. Combine it with the original Boss Monster and the possibilities are endless!"



 























Ok, so now that we've got that out there let's take a look!


First off, As you could see in the above photo's, the box on both front and back looks AWESOME. It really gives me the feeling of an old console gaming goodness. (Something I know a LOT about ;)  )

So inside, you're greeted to all this awesome stuff:

In here, you've got all the different decks as well as a nicely done rulebook and a quickstart guide.

Players will be taking turns flipping hero cards to see who's new in "town". Then they'll draw a room card from the room deck and pick one from their hand to play in their dungeon. This can be a bit tricky as the game goes on because you can only have 5 total rooms in your dungeon so you have to choose wisely.

If you happen to pick something that you later don't want, that's ok! Because you can always build over it with another room. There are "regular" rooms and "advanced" rooms. The main difference is that a regular room can be built on top of any other room but an advanced room HAS to be built over a room of the matching treasure type.

Once you have this part done players then look at the hero's and find out what treasure they are interested in. This is represented by the treasure symbol(s) on the top right of the card. Tally up each players amount of those symbols and the hero goes to the dungeon with the most! If you tie in the amount or both have zero of that treasure type then he stays in town waiting for one to have what he's interested in.

So now, we've got a hero interested in YOUR treasure. What happens now is he/she has to go on the adventure to GET that treasure. So starting with your dungeon entrance, he/she goes through the various rooms(from left to right) and takes damage that the room does as well as apply any abilities the room may have.

The damage a room does is represented by the number on the lower left of the card. The higher the number, the less of a chance the hero has of making it out alive!


So when the hero goes through the dungeon and dies, you flip the card over and put it off to the side in your "soul" pile. These are basically your victory points. You need 10 to win.

If the hero makes it ALL the way through your dungeon and is still alive, you place them off to the side and leave the card face up. This is your "wound" pile and you only need 5 wounds to lose the game!


The game itself, for a new player like me felt like I almost knew what I was doing from the start. This can be attributed to the fact that I read the rules aloud for my wife and I but I'd also like to point towards the simplicity of the learning curve.

You see, This is one of those games that you jump right into not knowing much, BUT, you know what to match. Think of the first play through like a demonstration game. A personal demo at your home on your own table. It's about how comfortable first game is.

As you go through the first game, you constantly have this "did I do that right?" in the back of your head. A quick rules check shows that you sure did! Now, this feeling will keep coming around at first but that's just as you get used to the game play and such.

Before you know it you're not asking that anymore and all the sudden you're focusing on destroying those heroes and in some cases, the other players. Now THIS is where the game really shines.

Throughout the many different rounds or games you play from this point on, the game loses it's "innocents" and you turn into a devious, keen and powerful BOSS MONSTER. As you play, everything becomes second hand and it then gets down to, let's see how I can make my dungeon more deadly.


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AH, I COULD GO ON AND ON AND ON about this game! I LOVE IT!!! I've got to know more, get more and have more because this is something that I just don't think I'll ever not want to play.

I even plan to play this solo. Now, I'm not entirely sure yet of how others would do so but being a vintage game collector and enthusiast I can definitely come up with something that works for me.


So in closing:

The Art: LOVE IT! Very nostalgic feeling.
The Gameplay, LOVE IT! Simple and I love the way the "town" can get filled and then you've got a mob coming at your dungeon, lmao!
Game Time: About 30 minutes give or take. But to me, I want to play AGAIN as soon as one game is done so I have to put it in the "just about right" category.

My opinion on the game?

If you like cards, nintendo's, sega's, gameboys, atari7800's, Arcades of the older days, dungeons, monsters, bosses, or LIVING... Then you need to get this game in your collection. It. Is. GREAT!

As always, Thank you for reading and take care! :)

I'm off to see how to get onto their good side for more boss monster epicness! :P
-Tim