Too Many Monkeys

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Official Rules

The official rules are available from the manufacturer here.

Enhanced Rules

This game is more fun with played with a few minor rules changes. You can see our suggested changes in our Custom Rules section.

How many players?

• Playable with 2-6
• Best with 3-5

What ages can play?

• Playable for ages 3 to adult
• Best for ages 3 to 8
  

Can different skill levels or ages play together?

Yes. This is a luck driven game so older players will not have an advantage.

How long does it take to play?

20+ minutes using the standard rules or 10 minutes using our Custom Rules.

Will we get bored after a few games or does it have good replayability?

This is not a game we play multiple times in a row, but we still play it fairly often with younger kids.

Setup/Cleanup

How much work is it?
Low. Setup is simply shuffling, dealing, and laying out your cards. But you do have to do this for each round of the game.

Would kids be able to do it on their own?
Kids as young as 3 or 4 could setup and cleanup this game on their own, as long as they can shuffle cards and count to 6.

Will parents have fun too...

...when playing with the kids?
Using the standard rules, this is not our favorite game to play as a family. It's almost entirely luck driven with no real strategy to make it more interesting for adults. It can also take quite some time to play through the multiple rounds needed to declare a winner. However, using our Custom Rules shortens the gametime and makes this an acceptable option when playing with young kids. It is especially good when playing with kids just learning to count.

...without the kids?
No, this is not a game adults would enjoy without kids.

What skills will this game help develop?

Counting
This game provides great practice for kids just learning how to count. While many games require players to count the number of spaces on a die or similar, this game is different because it really reinforces what numbers mean.

But will my kids actually have fun playing it?

While this game has great educational value for those learning to count, it does not feel like an "educational" game. 3 to 6 year old kids really seem to enjoy it. The cute and playful artwork really appeals to that age range and they seem to like that they can play it on their own.

Make the game more fun

Remove or ignore "attack" style cards with young players.
The "Do Not Disturb" and "Hello My Name is Skip" cards are used to attack or place negative effects on other players. These can make the game more interesting for older players, but young players often get very frustrated when these cards are used against them. Because this game is so dependent on luck, it can be difficult at timess to progress in the game and these cards make it even harder. There is plenty of competition in the game without the use of these cards so we often remove or ignore them when playing with young kids.

Remove confusion in rules

Clarify starting player for each round.
The official rules state how the first player is selected for the first round (the player who can make the best monkey noise), but not who the first player should be for each round thereafter. This does actually matter because this is a game where playing first in the round can provide a slight advantage. Players will then start to argue about who should play first each round. We've found it easiest to choose a method to decide the starting player before the game even starts to prevent any such conflict. This can be as simple as rotating the "start" position around the table each round.

Shorten game length

Reduce the number of starting cards for all players each round
The rules require a player win a round they started with one card to win the whole game. It can take quite some time for a player to win this way and many players may get bored of the game before that happens, especially younger kids that are the prime age range for this game (not to mention their parents that are playing along). For this reason, we prefer to reduce the number of starting cards for all players by one each round, with the winner of the previous round then removing one additional card (for a total of two removed by the winner). This greatly speeds up gameplay without changing the basic mechanics of the game. It also helps prevent players from getting stuck at six cards left while others are progressing, which can often happen with a run of bad luck.
* Note that we do not allow a player to win the entire game with this method. A player that starts a round with one card must win the round to win the game.

Don't require zero cards to win
Another way to shorten the game would be to have a player win when they have more than 0 cards left. In this case, the standard rules of only removing a card when winning a round should be used. A reasonable win condition here could be a player wins the game when they win a round they started with 3 or 4 cards. Make certain to decide before the game the number of cards needed to win.

Do you use custom rules we haven't thought of? If you have found some other ways to customize the rules, please share them with us through our Contact page. We're always interested in new ways to improve gameplay.

If you like this game, we suggest these others

• Clumsy Thief Junior
• Sleeping Queens
• The Fairy Game
• Silly Street

Or check out our full list of Reviews where you can sort by any of these categories

• Our Ratings
• Number of Players
• Playing Time
• Competitive vs Cooperative
• Educational Skills