Boss Monster has a bit of a special place in my heart. It was one of the earlier reviews I did when I was just starting Board Game Quest, and it also has a ton of nostalgic charm. With its retro-inspired art and gaming callbacks, it’s hard not to smile while playing it. That’s not to say it didn’t have its flaws (see my review here), but overall, I enjoyed it back in the day.
Boss Monster was also the game that launched Brotherwise Games, which has since gone on to produce a to of different board games. However, this year they’ve gone back to their roots with Super Boss Monster. And of course, the packaging now looks like an old school SNES game instead of an NES game, which is amazing.
Gameplay Overview:
Super Boss Monster takes the core gameplay from Boss Monster and levels it up. While you are still trying to build a dungeon to stop those pesky heroes, now you have a bit more to do while you build it out.
Each round is comprised of a number of phases, and the game plays until either all heroes have been defeated or someone has claimed 10 more souls.
Rounds start in the Town Phase, where the town board is restocked with heroes, dungeon rooms, and spells. Each player, in turn, will draft either the spell card or a room card. Then they place their Minion on one of the spaces in town (worker placement style).
Players then move on to the Build Phase, where they can add a room to their dungeon. Each player’s dungeon can have up to 5 rooms in it, but you are allowed to build over an old room if you don’t want it anymore (or want to build an upgrade).
The Minion phase will have players resolving the actions from the spaces their minion went to. This will allow them to lure heroes to their dungeon, draw extra room/spell cards, or gain bonuses for the upcoming adventure phase.
During the Bait Phase, heroes in town will move to the dungeon with the highest number of treasure icons that match what the heroes want. Once all the heroes have moved out of town, players will run them through their dungeon. Each dungeon room will do a few points of damage to the hero, and if the hero is killed, it’s added to the player’s soul pile. If it makes it all the way through and is still alive, he player takes a wound, which will hurt their final score.
At the end of the game, the player with the most souls (minus wounds) is the king boss monster.
Game Experience:
If you’ll harken back to my original Boss Monster review, I liked the game, but it was not without its issues. The chief among those, for me, was just how swingy the game was. You were only drawing one card a turn, so your dungeon buildout was very much dependent on the luck of the draw. Really want to get a thief treasure? Better hope you draw one, or you are out of luck. Didn’t get a room that provides spell cards? Guess you are stuck with the one you drew at the start of the game.
It appears designers Hayden Dillard and Johnny O’Neal were receptive to feedback from their early design, as Super Boss Monster has done a lot to address the original game’s randomness. Now, instead of just drawing 1 card per turn, you get to draft a room from a handful of cards, or pass on the room and draw a new spell card. And even if those cards aren’t to your liking, the minion placement spots can let you draw additional cards. While this change did add another layer of complexity to a light filler game, it’s made the game a lot better.
I feel as if I have a lot more player agency in Super Boss Monster than I ever did in Boss Monster. The Minion placement spots, in addition to letting you draw extra cards, also have temporary treasure icons for each hero type. So if you really want to attract that wizard in town but just can’t seem to get that one more book symbol, now you can lure them to your dungeon with your minion.
For those who are curious how the core gameplay compares to the original Boss Monster, it’s largely the same. The game is full of nostalgic joy with its art and theme, but it is also still a nasty little game. There are plenty of “take that” spell cards where you are messing with the other players. If your group is non-confrontational or prefers multiplayer solitaire, then this probably isn’t the game for you. But if you are ok with a little bit of back stabbing, Super Boss Monster has some fun gameplay.
The star for me in this game has to be building your dungeon. The cards have the ability to combo off each other, allowing you to add bonus tokens to rooms in your dungeon. When you get a nice set of rooms that mesh well with each other, it’s incredibly satisfying watching it grind up heroes to a pulp.
Finally, this edition also now has a solo mode. Over the past few years, I’ve fully embraced solo gameplay on my tabletop, so I was keen to try out this mode. And I’d say it’s…fine. It’s a beat your high score style of solo play, which I don’t mind. The main downside for me is that you pull out a lot of cards from the spell and hero deck. So the game loses a bit of variety as you run through it. Overall, it works, and I’ve played it a few times, but I don’t think I’ll be reaching for this one when it’s just me. Solo play just isn’t where Super Boss Monster shines, but I’m glad it’s there as an option for players.
Final Thoughts:
Super Boss Monster is a clear upgrade over the original Boss Monster. The designers fixed a lot of my issues with the original game and made something that just works much better. Now it can still be a bit swingy, and it’s chock full of “take that” cards still, but as long as you are ok with that, there is a lot of fun to be had here. And the retro video game art is still top notch and a huge draw for the game.
Final Score: 4 Stars – A game of nostalgic dungeon creation levels up for a new era of gamers.
Hits:
• A lot more player agency
• Same great art and theme
• Ways to mitigate the swingyness
• Solo mode…
• …is just OK
• Needs the group to like Take That mechanics
