If you ever wondered what it would feel like to outwit talking monkeys with attitude, you’ve come to the right place. Welcome to my review of Planet of the Apes! My friends and I grabbed our bananas and jumped right into this co-op adventure, hoping to stick it to Dr. Zaius and friends. But did the experience leave us beating our chests in triumph, or flinging the game into the nearest time warp? Grab a snack and let’s see if this one is worth monkeying around with!
How It Plays
Setting up
When you open the Planet of the Apes box, resist the urge to scream “Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty… meeple!” Lay out the board, shuffle the scenario cards (they’re like monkey business, but on cardboard), and set up the little custom ape and human tokens. Give each player their soldier card—they share a brain, sort of like me when I try to play before coffee.
Gameplay
Everyone plays as fragments of Colonel Taylor’s mind (so yes, you get to argue with yourself). On your turn, you’ll work together by using cards to overcome challenges from the story. These can be fighting apes, solving puzzles, or just keeping the group calm and not throwing banana peels everywhere. You use dice, cards, and sometimes luck to tackle these problems. If you’ve ever tried to herd cats, you’ll understand this game’s teamwork.
Winning the game
If you solve all the scenario cards before the danger track gets to the end, you win! If not, the apes win, and you get to complain about how unfair the world is, just like Taylor. Teamwork will either save humanity or, you know, not.
Want to know more? Read our extensive strategy guide for Planet of the Apes.
Theme and Immersion: Monkeying Around on a Whole New Level
If you like your board games with a splash of cinematic nostalgia and a full-on banana-fueled adventure, Planet of the Apes lands right in your sweet spot. My friends and I grew up quoting, “Get your stinkin’ paws off me, you damn dirty ape!” but nothing could prepare us for the sheer fun of living it at the table. The board, cards, and dice are decked out with images and moments from the classic 1968 film—honestly, it gets your inner movie geek doing cartwheels.
The game doesn’t just slap on the theme like a cheap wig, either. Each character represents a different aspect of Taylor (the movie’s leading man) and you work together to survive ape attacks, escape from cages, and navigate moral choices. Last session, I even tried a dramatic speech to boost morale. My friends gave me a slow clap—then failed the next dice roll miserably. The tension and time pressure make it feel like you’re living the movie. You don’t just play as Taylor; you bicker, plot, and groan at your own misfortune just like him.
The co-op element adds a layer of camaraderie (and lighthearted sabotage, if you’ve got that one friend). By the end, we were more invested in the story than in the points. The only thing missing was Charlton Heston himself narrating our failures. Next up: we’ll see if the game stays as fair as it is fun in the gameplay mechanics and fairness section. Or will Planet of the Apes turn into Planet of the Random Dice Rolls?
Gameplay Mechanics and Fairness in Planet of the Apes
Alright, let me tell you straight up: the gameplay in Planet of the Apes will really test your group’s ability to work together without blaming Dave for ruining everything. (Sorry, Dave.) You play as different aspects of Taylor’s mind—like Leadership or Aggression—which is a weirdly deep setup, but I dig it. Each aspect gets special powers, and you get action cards to spend each round. It’s co-op, so you have to talk it out and share your misery when the apes inevitably slap you down.
The board throws a wild mix of threats at you—hostile apes, disasters, and even internal conflicts. Every round feels urgent. You need to manage crisis tokens, navigate locations from the classic film, and keep the planet from going full bananas. But here’s where I noticed some bumps: If your group doesn’t communicate, the game will chew you up. Also, if one player starts to dominate choices, others might feel left out or just become the official snack-fetcher.
Fairness sits in an odd spot here. The mechanics sometimes punish you hard for what feels like small mistakes, and the group wins or loses together. That’s cool, but it stings when you’re doing your best and bad stuff keeps piling up. Sometimes the odds stack up against you, and it gets rough—just like the movie, I guess! Still, when we played, every mind aspect felt useful. No one sat there bored, even when we lost in heroic, face-palming style.
But what really raises eyebrows: is it your choices guiding victory, or is luck holding the leash? Let’s go bananas and tackle luck versus strategy balance next!
Luck vs. Strategy: Is Planet of the Apes a Banana Toss?
I love a good board game where I can blame a loss on the dice, but also feel smart for planning ahead. With Planet of the Apes, you get a bit of both. The game tries to balance luck and strategy, but like my uncle at a buffet, luck sometimes hogs the spotlight.
Each round gives you choices, for sure. You’ll pick which crisis to tackle and how to spend your resources. But almost every move hangs on a dice roll. You could plan the perfect rescue, invest in the best character upgrades, even make a killer monkey noise (not required, but fun) and still get clobbered by bad rolls. One time, I watched my friend Marty swear eternal revenge on the dice tower after we lost three apes to what looked like a sure thing.
Still, the game has you working together to out-think the challenges. You might use clever card combos or try to time your actions with the group. Yet, if Lady Luck isn’t on your team, Planet of the Apes can feel a bit like you’re just a fancy prop in a dice-based circus. I will say this: it keeps things unpredictable. Even our board game group’s self-declared “mastermind” couldn’t control the chaos.
So, if you like your games with a strong dollop of unpredictability, Planet of the Apes should hit the spot. But if you want full control, prepare to hurl a banana—or a die. Next, I’ll unleash my inner art critic and talk about component quality and those wild ape illustrations!
Planet of the Apes Component Quality and Artwork: A Feast for Your Monkey Eyes
Now let’s talk about the stuff you can actually hold—the bits and pieces that bring Planet of the Apes to life. If you’re like me, you judge a game box by its cover. Well, the box art is glorious. It’s got that classic movie poster feel, so much so I was half-expecting Charlton Heston to leap out and yell at me for touching his bananas.
Opening the box, I felt like a kid on Christmas morning. The cards are thick, and while I’m no scientist, I did run a highly scientific snack test: they survived salsa stains and some furious shuffling without a peel—or a tear. The tokens are chunky and feel satisfyingly weighty. My friend Dave called them “little pancakes.” He tried to eat one. Don’t be like Dave.
The board itself looks like a scene straight from the movies. The locations, from the Forbidden Zone to the Ape City, are full of rich detail. Each piece of artwork helped my group really get into character—at least as much as a bunch of humans can pretend to be apes without getting asked to leave the house.
Miniatures? Oh yes. They are quirky but charming. They’re not painted, but that didn’t stop my buddy Sarah from giving hers googly eyes. Production value isn’t deluxe, but it sure beats cardboard standees. The game oozes theme, and the art plays a huge part in getting everyone invested.
So, do I recommend Planet of the Apes based on component quality and artwork? Heck yes! It’s a banana milkshake for your eyes and your gaming table. Even if the gameplay is a bit wobbly (see my earlier points), it sure looks and feels top notch.
Conclusion
And there we have it, folks—my review of Planet of the Apes. After a few sweaty-palmed games with my group, I can say this one brings movie magic to the table. The art rocks, the theme drips from every card, and you really feel like you’re racing against those pesky apes! But, as much as I wanted strategy to carry me, luck sometimes has the last laugh and can mess up even the best laid plans. If you like co-op games with tension and a strong theme, this is a fine choice. But if you want to win by skill alone, you might want to keep searching. Final score: 3 out of 5 bananas. Now I need a banana split and a nap. That ends this review!
