rom California to New York, from the heartland to the Mississippi delta, gigantic monstrosities are rising up to attack the United States. In Monsters Menace America, two to four players control these creatures as they rampage against a playing board of the continental United States.
The monsters are legion, and all inspired by the classic B-movie horrors of old. They include the giant bipedal dinosaur Tomanagi, the towering ape "Konk," the mutated crawfish Megaclaw, the amorphous blob Toxicor, the mantislike Gargantis and the terrible alien eyeball known as Zorb.
The goals of these monsters are multifold. They seek out population centers such as New York, Los Angeles and Albuquerque, hoping to ravage them and gain physical strength and help. They also aim for national landmarks, seeking to gain infamy—and power—by destroying such sites as the Vegas Strip, the VLA Radio Telescope and the World's Largest Ball of Twine. Finally, they can immerse themselves in the radioactive cesspools at Three Mile Island and other mutagenic sites in hopes of gaining strange new powers with which to terrorize the country.
The monsters are not unopposed in their rampages, however. Each player controls a branch of the military and uses that force—as well as the National Guard—to repel, wound or kill their opponents' monsters. Players can choose to research new military capabilities, creating satellite-based super weapons, antimatter canons, futuristic jets and even giant robotic warriors like "Captain Colossus."
The goal of the game is to become as powerful as possible by feeding, mutating and destroying America's landscape, and to then face off against the other players in a final showdown that pits monster against monster for the title of "King of the Giant Monsters."
As addictive as popcorn
Monster movies—and debates such as whether King Kong could take Godzilla—are hallmarks of most geek childhoods. Monsters Menace America lets players relive those happy debates, but with a heck of a lot more dice thrown in.
The game is a homage to these B movies, and doesn't take itself too seriously, as landmarks like "Carhenge" demonstrate. Almost all of its mutations and weapons upgrades—including giant laser fences, helicopter airlifts and atomic breath weapons—are taken from Saturday-afternoon matinees. Heck, if a monster is killed by the military, it's even sent to Hollywood to recover.
It's a fast-moving game, with combat being resolved through the toss of one or more six-sided dice. If the number rolled is equal to or higher than the target's defense, the target is hit. For monsters, this means suffering taking a point or two of damage, but for military units—including tanks, planes, submarines and cruise missiles—it means outright destruction. Monsters can perform additional attacks by spending "infamy," which they earn by destroying landmarks and military bases. Turns pass quickly and efficiently, and games can easily be finished in less than 90 minutes, particularly with two players. The game is well constructed, as is typical of Avalon Hill products, with cartoonlike, but well-sculpted, monster figurines and miniature plastic tanks, planes and other military units.
Monsters Menace America earns points for not being yet another "pass go, collect X" sort of board game, but its ease of play comes at the price of a lack of depth. While there is a certain amount of strategy early on as the monsters pursue their divergent goals, the endgame is too often reduced to a simple slugfest between monsters.
This lack of strategy can be linked to two shortcomings. First, the board is overly open, making it too easy for monsters to rampage whenever they like. Special abilities such as flying or swimming mean little when there are no mountain ranges or rivers to slow monsters down. Second, the military is little more than an annoyance for the monsters. While this is true to the genre, it makes it exceedingly difficult to keep a monster from reaching its target, and even when armed with super weapons, the military is hard pressed to damage its opponents.
That said, the game is fast and fun, like movie popcorn with an M&M chaser. While older gamers may find it too two-dimensional, those with kids—particularly in the 12 to 16 range—will find it makes an enjoyable family game, and a welcome alternative to yet another version of Star Wars Monopoly.
Monsters Menace America seems caught between wanting to be a simple beer-and-pretzels game like Star Munchkin and something more robust, like Avalon Hill's own Risk: Godstorm or the simple-but-deep board game Settlers of Catan. The end result is a game that, while a lot of fun, feels like it's missing something. A stronger military, a more diverse map and a game mechanic to spice up the final monster rumble could have could have kicked this title into "A" territory.
—Ken
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