Great Pieces, Small Price, No Playability Whatsoever!
The Banana Balance game is great for the pieces, bananas, bendy tree, monkey, etc. But the Game itself is, well, pointless. The tree always falls over by itself- and it becomes excruitingly pointless and dull as the game continues. You need a lot of patience for this game! Only buy for the pieces- say if you're building a banana factory, or if it's half off and want to give it as a birthday present to a relative.
4 out of 6 people thought this review was helpful.
Banana Balance Review
For some reason, I was a bit fearful that this game would be $14.99 like Monster 4 that I also picked up rather than the $9.99 that it is. It's got about half the pieces of what you'd find in a set that's $14.99.
Building the game set for the tree offers some mild amusement. There's a brown rod for the monkey to hold onto and slide through holes on the tree's trunk to look like he's climbing the tree. The dice is fairly standard from what I've seen of other games and pictures with placing the flat tile pieces on the die. There's a small red crow bar piece to help pry the tiles off and place them differently on the die too.
Game wise, the base plate for the tree just seems way too small and makes for a tree that's way too easy to tip over during play. I know that's why it's called Banana Balance and part of the object, but with little kids and more "clumsy" adults, it's too easy to knock over if you don't have a light and delicate touch.
I love the little monkey, I've got tons of others from numerous other Pirate sets. As a parts box, this isn't too bad, you can still go for the game, plus have a tree build, foliage and 10 bananas to work with for MOCs. I'm pleased with this game over all, have my cake and eat it too as it were for which ever I choose to do with it in the end.
11 out of 12 people thought this review was helpful.
You can't go wrong with a game based on monkeys!
This game is simple to play and great monket based fun.
The only fault I have with it is the base plate is abit small and makes the tree prone to tipping over. Although that is part of the game, we stuck abit of bluetak underneath to make the gametime abit longer. (Perhaps I'm just heavy handed and it is supposed to be a childs game after all.
The tree looks great, and is currently pride of place on my desk! This video shows the game in more detail.
16 out of 17 people thought this review was helpful.
Hope you like bananas...
When looking at this as a parts pack, it's very good, as you get a lot of the leaf and banana pieces, as well as the old lego monkey piece. As a game however, it just isn't that fun. Like Pirate Plank, it's extremely simple, and once again that works in the detriment of the set. Whereas Pirate Plank had at least a decent looking build, the tree build you get here looks awful and barely stands even without player interference. A definite miss for the lego board games line.
2 out of 3 people thought this review was helpful.
