It had been a bit since I had tried a new (or new-to-me) game from Alexander Shen and, when I saw that Monster Dinner Party was a quick 9-card build, I decided it was a good one to try out.
In typical whimsical Shen fashion, the game has you seating a group of goofy-looking monsters at a dinner table. Of course, being monsters, they are fussy about where they sit.
The game consists of a deck of nine cards with no other bits like dice and tokens. Each card has a scoring condition, a special power and a color. The front of the card has a waiting edge and a seated edge. The back side of the card has a negative one symbol, along with the game name.
Shuffle the cards up and deal seven cards in a row with the waiting edge up. The other two cards are put on standby. A move is using one of the waiting monsters special power, which then switches the monster to seated. You can also swap out a waiting card in the line with a card in standby. They arrive seated and the other card is flipped to the negative side. If a card can’t use its power, it’s flipped over. When all seven cards in the line are seated or flipped, figure out the score.
The powers are switch the card with the same color, switch the card with a different color, move two spaces and place the card anywhere in the line (but must actually move) The scoring conditions are ends of the line, even spot, odd spot, and next to monsters of the same color.
Alexander Shen has a true knack for making coffee break games. Games that don’t take up too much time or space or brain power but are enjoyable little time outs for your mind. They aren’t headliners but there is definitely a place for games like them.
While Monster Dinner Party isn’t one of Shen’s best works, it’s still solid. It’s only seven moves and it doesn’t take long to figure out which moves are optimal. However, I’ve found it to be a fun little puzzler. It might even get a turn as a lunch game.
I have to admit that a lot of value of Shen games comes from the low opportunity cost. Many of them, like this one, are free downloads. Making nine laminated cards took me maybe fifteen minutes to make. For that, Monster Dinner Party has good value.
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