Boardgame review: Attack of the Jelly Monster

A giant gelatinous alien is attacking our town! And I guess we have to defend it by collecting samples of the creature? 😊

Attack of the Jelly Monster is 3-5 player game where each of the players tries to collect as much jelly as he can by throwing dice. Main mechanics of the game are dice rolling and worker placement, but all of this is happening simultaneously with all players in real time!!!

The game is played in four rounds. In each round all players simultaneously  repeat rolling all of their (remaining) dice and then either placing or not placing a die to a district. When placing a die you may immediately resolve its effect (discarding any die in district to center or move a slider one space). After any one player places his last die he may flip the hourglass and/or lock a district. When the hourglass runs out the round ends and the scoring happens. Multiples of the same color on same district are ignored, then you compare dice totals for each district and players take their rewards. The map is turned 90°and the next round starts. When all 4 rounds have ended the game is over and the player with most jelly is the winner.

Honestly, since the dice were edgy I had a real intention to see if they roll good or not, but I HAD NO TIME, also I do not really think it matters all that much since it is all happening so fast you don’t really have the time to care.

The game is well balanced for all the player count since it has a modular board. It also comes with some diversity having more districts than is needed in the game (they are double-sided and not same on both sides). I liked that you rotate the map every round so players would not have unfair advantage for the fact some district is closer to them.

Part of the rules tells you to place all Jelly-pod’s in a tower-like stack in the center of the map. Considering the gameplay I would not suggest you to do that rather place them in a heap or even outside of the center. Placing them the way it is said in the rules provokes a mishap where they are being knocked down during the game (and what happens is that the neat one in the group starts to collect them and put them back forgetting that he is playing while other players ignore the mishap and continue playing).

The theme of the game is pasted-on, in the game you do not have the feeling to collect any samples, or that you’re saving any city or anything like that. What the theme is for is that the game looks appealing and cute. However, the lack of involvement in the theme does not make the game worse.

In the game there are very good pictograms both for actions and scoring that make the game easier to play.

What I loved about this game the most is that it uses some of the most euro-game mechanics in a game that is not euro at all.

This game is fast and easy, this game is strategic and fast-thinking.

If you are a gamer that hates games in real time I am not really sure that you will hate this one. And if you are one that loves them you will absolutely love this game.

It is a goofy game, but a goofy game I am happy I bought.