The 4 Squares Review - Monsters on Board

The Dice Tower takes a look at Monsters on Board!

Intro 0:00
Overview 1:24
Final Thoughts 15:04

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[RulebooksForYou]

I am thankful the rulebook went all right for you all - I put a ton of thought and effort into it.

[gamezmadeez]

Reviews like this improves the hobby! Thanks for bringing light to productions getting in the way of games.

[Nemspy]

Wow. The only thing that bugged me was the scoring track. I only found the size of the minis mildly troublesome, and it was quickly easy to work out how to move them around effectively.

We had trouble getting this one off the table. Between this and Azul Queen's Garden, I'm having a few disagreements with The Dice Tower recently.

[MattD]

Yep, ignore the scores and just listen to what they're saying. Mike nailed this one!

Thanks Zee for rating the game on the table and not the one you wished it was

[LawrenceMiles]

Mike's summary of a game thematically based on "Monsters Inc" is "sullied". High-level under-the-radar punning there.

[tarasstasiuk]

I love this review, AS a review.
It's practically a thesis on the difficulties of reviewing.
(with Zee as the control group)
Also, you four are great to watch & listen to. Thanks!

[scottrenfer]

I pre-ordered this when Mike mentioned it many months ago. I had my doubts about it, but after having played it once solo, I must say I was pleasantly surprised. I actually had a great play. The mechanics and gameplay were quite enjoyable and I didn't run into the components issues as much as you all did. Although I could see those things being an issue, they didn't detract from my experience that much. Putting some epoxy into the dice car seats could help lift the dice. I only have the cardboard cars, and wish I had the plastic ones. The cardboard cars are crap. I wish I could buy the plastic ones, that would be nice. Also, they should've made 4 of each prophecy card. I think this is a great game, despite those component issues. I would give it a 7.5 because of the gameplay and theme. And yes, all games with multiple symbols should always make player aids for ALL players!

[meganlove]

This game does have some negatives to it, although I don’t agree with all the negatives dice tower talks about. To me, the negatives aren’t that big of a deal. I can make it work just fine. I absolutely love this game! It’s so fun to play, I love the theme, and the artwork is beautiful! I’ve played it solo many times on all different difficulties, and I love that we even have the option to change the difficulty. I’ve also played it a few times with other people.
1. Yes, the components are pretty cramped on the game board, it’s a tight squeeze.
2. And the score tracker doesn’t go up to 100 which is a bummer and the markers are too big for the score board.
3. The fact that everything doesn’t fit in the box also sucks
4. And yes, they really do need player aids cuz when playing for the first time you’re having to look at the back of the instructions many times.
5. And the fear mobiles were difficult to put together because there was no instructions on that in the rule book. I later found out that the instructions are on their website. But it would’ve been more helpful to have that in the rule book.
But overall, these negatives don’t effect my love for the game and doesn’t change my rating of the game. I can live with these negatives, they feel so minor to me. When it comes to the score board and the trackers, I’ve found a way to make it work. I was able to fit everything in the box except the cars. I will likely buy a small box to keep those in and then Ill print a picture of the game cover to glue onto the other box. After my first game I had the icons memorized so I didn’t need to refer to the rule book anymore, so it was only a pain for that first game. And I will make my own player aids for when I play with other people.

[Trae_Lenox]

Hated the fact that we didn’t get the cardboard stuff along with the minis. Most of the time you get both, and this time both is needed

[JonReid]

Zee has such class. Always truly gives games a shot even when the game doesn't jive with his preferences.

[MadSlantedPowers]

I played this a couple days ago. I understand sone of the issues. The grunts were pretty crowded, at least at first. A player aid would have been useful. The minis on the Spider Jack tracks were easy to knock over. Someone else was teaching, and I think we got some of the rules wrong regarding how some of the cards score. However, I did enjoy the game, and would enjoy playing again.

[Ras]

We tried to play this at DTE, it was too much work to figure it out, we spent 10 minutes figuring what piece was what, (and some of the numbers didn't match such as ghosts) since the images in the manual I assume were for the retail edition. We did play one round and were like, "we're good" Was also confused on the prophecy card, and since the game is so new. there was no answer on BGG.

[Narstrand]

Wow, I'm usually the one being overly annoyed with things not being streamlined, or components being bad, or what have you. But this game?! I don't know, for some reason I haven't reacted to these things, and I really really enjoy it. I have it rated as an 8.5, I think, and it'll probably go up even higher before I'm tired of it.

[GettinJiggly]

Think this was a deluxification for deluxification sake. Would have been better to use screen printed tokens or meeples for the monsters, and done a final check of the graphics for the board.

[ajw]

I genuinely thought Chris Yi was going to be explaining the game when Mike introduced the person as “someone remarkably well spoken” 🤣🤣🤣

[littlefarmlover]

A small group of people discussing a new game like this is my favorite way to watch a review. I really feel like I have a pretty good understanding of the game and can make a decision about what games I want to buy. Which is why I watch reviews. Great job fellow gamers!

[Calistake]

I was really hoping Tom would cover this one, but I'm still happy a 4 Squares came out, it's good to get as many opinions as possible.
Anyway, I've got the deluxe edition too, and I have to say I didn't find it as fiddly as you guys did. My pieces didn't seem to be moving around that much and I don't remember the grunts (minis) ever falling over - although I'll agree with you that the board does look overcrowded once you got minions, grunts and ghosts in. The fearmobiles add to the theme and serve as a functional way to pass dice around, and at least with the cardboard cars I didn't find the dice being that hard to pull out. I had to glue the cardboard edges because they started fraying almost immediately though.
That being said, I'm 100% with you on the need for player aids, and I also agree the language works against the game on occasion, making the teach harder than it needed to be. The scoring track is really annoying too, and the markers not fitting in the spaces is a nightmare for my OCD.
Gameplay-wise, I liked it. It's deep enough and short enough that it does not outstay its welcome, and it has a bit more meat to it than games like Sagrada or even Roll Player, while basically falling under the same category. Why I would play this one over the other two really depends on novelty factor mixed with theme appeal.
Overall, I think this game suffers from what I call Happy Pigs syndrome: looks like a cute and silly family game, while it's really a crunchy intermediate+ game I would not recommend to players with low attention span or 0 gaming experience.

[danicas.]

Does anyone think they will improve it in a second edition eventually, or will it fade into the background? I had really high hopes for this game.

[dennisdonetti]

I think there were money issues with the Kickstarter as well. They were meant to have an insert that worked but botched it due to not wanting to increase the box size. It felt late and rushed simultaneously. Really a shame.

[Fighterfan]

I was tempted with this one back when it was on KS. There were already several games I backed and just couldn't see myself getting it at the time. This may be something I may get at a future date if they fix some of the issues you guys mentioned. The dice drafting aspect sounded neat at the time and I'm also a sucker for art by The Mico. Usually when I see his art, I'm already tempted.