You know what kids like? They like playing the Munchkin Adventure Time card game. I have verified this with girls and boys, ages So you might as well buy the expansion set β and order pizza. It adds to the humor if you are an Adventure Time fan, which you should be.
But everyone else can get the jokes easily. OK, backing up. Munchkin is a card game system. We like Adventure Time. So we bought it. Nice play dynamics. Usually about 30 minutes in my experience. Beginning is fun. Ending is fun in a different way. Everyone has a character and you start out weak, so the fun at the beginning is getting strong. You collect items and allies and level up. The only annoying record keeping you need to do it record your level, from 1 to The rest is drawing from decks of cards.
The other players can help if you are facing a tough foe β probably only if you promise to give them treasure. So at the start play tends to be collaborative and constructive, with positive-sum team-ups and trades. But at a certain point it flips.
Someone is a threat to win, by getting to 10th level. The game is nicely designed so that, as you get stronger and nearer to victory, the uncertainty of victory actually tends to increase. No one will help you any more, and the other characters tend to have collected weird cards and capacities that can interfere with you in surprising and hilarious fashion, just as you are about to win. The combat system itself is refreshingly simple. Count up points add all your level points and ally points and item points, play any special cards and the most points wins.
But, by the end, the number of potential ways points can be boosted or reduced goes up. Sometimes someone zooms ahead and no one can stop them and the game is over in 20 minutes. More often one or two or even three players fail or flame out in succession, trying to cross the line. So often the final battle is some trivial thing.
