Review: Jenga: Donkey Kong Collector’s Edition

The original Jenga was something I had received as a Christmas gift in the past.  It was a fun game to play with my sister a few times and occasionally my friends.  It is a simplistic game that involves stacking wooden blocks by threes alternating to create a tower.  When the tower is made the game is ready to begin by having a player remove a block with one hand and placing it on top.  If the tower falls at any point, whomever was taking their turn at the time loses. An extremely simple game with quick setup.

And with this simplistic game, USAopoly got permission to do a Donkey Kong themed version that seems to fit rather well with the concept.  Players will once again face the Jenga tower, but this time the blocks are black and have holes drilled through each side.  Included are four colored peg pieces that have Mario stuck to that will reside in the holes.  Painted on the sides of the blocks are the famous girders Mario scales to reach Pauline and save her from Donkey Kong.  Also included is a spinner that controls how players will move and how many blocks to remove.

Whomever built up the tower will determine who will go first.  You’ll begin by spinning the spinner and reading what it has in store for you.  The spinner adds an interesting randomness to the game by having you remove up to two blocks and can also reverse the direction of play.  Based on what you spun, you’ll climb up the blocks and play Jenga like normal.  One thing the people I played it with noticed was that the holes weren’t all drilled the same.  This made it difficult to put the pegs into certain blocks.  We figured since the blocks aren’t always uniform, it was the case with the holes.  So instead of try to force them in we all tried to just have our Mario pegs stick just enough in the hole that it stayed until our next turn.

Strategy is also involved in this game when it comes to removing girders.  If a girder is missing on a level, a player can skip past it and advance higher.  Removing a girder players are on results in them having to go to the next girder down.  This comes in handy if your opponents are near the top and you hope to slow them down.  To win, a player much reach the top where a plastic piece that displays Donkey Kong and Pauline is during play.

Although it’s a fun game, I don’t know that I had as much of an enjoyable time with only three people as I did with my friend’s family.  It seems to be more fun when everyone is gathered around the table trying to make people laugh as they attempt to steady their hand to remove a piece.  Jenga: Donkey Kong Collector’s Edition is a solid family game, but I suspect friends hanging out with one another, especially if they were inebriated, could have an amusing time with this as well.

 [UPDATE] – I forgot to mention that this is available for purchase from select retailers.  USAopoly.com has a list of places where the game can be purchased.