Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game

Comments about University Games 1001232 Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game:

My daughter got this game when she was 4 yrs old and is now getting ready to turn 7 yrs old. She loves this game and its easy for her to teach her friends how to play. She loves acting out the task. I like it because when she was 4 yrs old it helped with teaching her how to do more basic daily needs on her own by acting them out.

Comments about University Games 1001232 Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game:

It is very easy to play, my daughter is 4 and my son is 6. We play alot of board games and this is one my daughter picked for her collection. She is very happy with her choice, we play for the kids enjoyment.

Comments about University Games 1001232 Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game:

My son didn't have any games of his own (all "belonged" to his older sister) so I was looking for games for him. He loves monkeys and when I saw this game I had to get it for him. I agree with all the other reviewers...there are way too many steps and its repetitive. Elements of the game are fun though! My kids love the charades aspect and they also love the popping bed.
So, we modified the rules. I put a set of four tokens (one of each action) on each side of the game board. On his/her turn, the child picks one of the tokens from his/her side of the board. The child acts out the action on the token. Child then places a monkey on the bed and pushes the button once. If the bed doesn't pop, child keeps that token, if not, he puts the token back on the board face down and will get another chance on his next turn. The first child to collect all four tokens wins. With two children and one adult playing, game play takes 5 to 10 minutes. We don't use the spinner and we don't move monkeys around the gameboard.
The children really love it now we've changed the directions.

Comments about University Games 1001232 Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game:

This game is very boring. First you roll the dice, then you move your monkey and whatever space you land on, you have to draw a circle card and act out the scene (such as brush your teeth) and once that's done you place one of your monkey's on the bed and press the button to see whether or not your monkey is going to fall off. Also, there are only 4-5 scenes to act out and so after you do this repeatedly, it gets really boring. My daughter and I are a fan of the books 5 Little Monkey's Jumping On the Bed, so that's why we bought this game. We have tried playing it 5 times in the year we've had it and we only play for 5 minutes and my daughter is ready to play something else.

Comments about University Games 1001232 Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game:

Worst Game Ever. This game has no interesting objective. It is repetitive in a boring way. I'm not sure the creators ever actually PLAYED the game. Terrible.

Comments about University Games 1001232 Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game:

I'm sort of a board game nerd. I have a closet with stacks and stacks of board games for all occasions - party games, games for "nongamers," obscure games, classics...etc. So, naturally, my wife and I started up a collection of children's board games as soon as our daughter could speak! She now has about ten games in her own closet collection. Some are simple, some kinda dumb, but none are quite so terrible as Five Little Monkeys. It's just astonishing how bad this game is, and its many baffling design decisions are made even worse with a child at the lower end of the recommended age scale. I would advise all parents to stay away from this trash, but ESPECIALLY those of you who, like me, have a very young gamer-in-training.

Where to begin? How about the board design and its effect on the game objectives. The game requires the completion of two conditions for a win: you must have collected four separate tokens and placed four plastic monkeys on top of the large bed in the center of the board. You accomplish this by spinning a dial on a cardboard wheel and advancing 1-6 spaces along a rectangular track, landing on either an image featuring one of the four tokens or a "monkey space" which allows you to place 1-3 monkeys on the bed. There are a couple of issues here - the board is designed in such a way that, with one or two exceptions, you will always land on the same space every time you spin a '5.' In other words, if you just collected the "teeth brushing" token, spinning a '5' on your next turn will bring you to the next "teeth brushing" token on the board. If you spin another 5 on the following turn, the same thing will happen...and so on and so forth. This doesn't sound like too big of a problem, until someone spins '5' four times in a row, effectively missing three consecutive turns, as advancement in and of itself doesn't really achieve much.

This is further compounded by the fact that monkeys can be knocked off the bed, in a manner similar to some other classic games. At the end of each player's turn, that player must press a button on the bed, and every few turns the mattress will bounce up, knocking a few monkeys back off the bed. This can be very frustrating under the right conditions, and can greatly extend the length of the game if it manages to keep victory out of reach that much longer for all players. It gets worse the more players you add to the game (up to a maximum of 4). It isn't much fun for anyone when a player spins 5 a couple of times in a row and then proceeds to knock all of his or her own monkeys off the bed (happens more often than you might think).

Perhaps the worst part of the game for younger players is keeping them on track throughout their turn. Most games for very young children are set up so that a turn has two steps...three at most. Generally speaking, you roll something or spin something, and then either move your piece and react to that movement or simply react to the result of the spin/roll. In Five Little Monkeys, the child must spin the wheel, move the monkey, place monkeys on the bed OR collect a token, press the button on the bed, and then collect any of their own monkeys that have fallen if the bed sprang up this turn.

We've had this game for several months now and I have grown to loathe it. I try to keep it hidden behind the other games, and I shudder when it is selected. The designs made a huge error by basically combining two games - one in which the player collects tokens, and another in which the player is trying to get monkeys on the bed. Multiple objectives help make many adult games more interesting and fun to play, but for a young child's game? No. Bad idea. HORRIBLE idea. Throw in a poorly designed board and you have one heck of a stinker. AVOID, fellow parents. Save yourself from this mess!

Comments about University Games 1001232 Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game:

it comes with a small game boardfor one. by the box you think its a big fun game especially for the price.
age is for 3-7 well my daughter is 4 and the game was difficult for her..For her to remember to put the monkeys back in her pile if they fell ofthe bed instead of back on the bed...the rules were silly and not well thought out...Shes loves the books but the games well it was just a money maker

Comments about University Games 1001232 Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game:

Love this game! Easy for 3 and 6 year old to play together. Tons of fun!!

Comments about University Games 1001232 Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game:

It's a cute game but defintely not for 3 or 4 year olds. It should be 5 or 6 and up. It's confusing b/c to win you need all 4 tokens plus 4 monkeys on the bed. The box states the object is to get all four monkeys on the bed and then the instructions say to end the game you need to get all 4 tokens. The object, to win and to end the game should all be the same not different. Plus it takes way too long for someone to win. Also, when the monkey's fall off the bed it knocks the playing pieces off the board and we don't know who's playing piece was where.

Comments about University Games 1001232 Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed Game:

It's a gift but I know my little granddaughter will love it It's what she wanted