Disney Munchkin Review

Munchkin but Disneyfied, need we say anymore. The fan favourite game, Steve Jacksons Munchkin gets a wave of the Fairy Godmothers wand and a splash of adventure as Disney Munchkin takes us to far away places defeating the evil villains from across the generations.

This game is exactly what you would expect from this collaboration, with almost every card depicting images from Disney films while sticking true to the munchkin game. Kicking open the door to defeat all your favourite monsters and villains to then looting your treasures for every fairy tale ending.

Our Initial Thoughts

Opening the box for Disney Munchkin you are transported straight into the Disney world as you look through the door and treasure cards, you have every villain, character talisman and hero you could every dream of.

You’ll then get excited to play either as Maleficent as the villain, become a dreamer like Pinocchio or the perfect sidekick Pasquale. As mentioned in our Munchkin Batman review, the rules will look lengthy, but it’s like riding a bike with a few tweaks here and there. You’ll have special abilities with your character cards and a touch of Disney magic to help guide you along the way.

Game Set Up

Let the fates choose your path and at random select your player card. This determines your special powers for the game, don’t forget to place the helpful token on level 1.

In our house Charlotte always goes first because there’s no point trying to name more villains than her in 30 seconds, which is how the Munchkin Disney rule book suggests choosing a starting player.

Then be sure to separate the treasure deck from the door deck before dealing 4 of each card to every player. Be sure to read your cards and look out for the item icons in the top left-hand corner where you’ll find Daisy’s shoe, Donald’s shirt, Pluto’s hat and the good old fan favourite Mickey hands. All items will help you on your quest but remember your only human at the end of the day. You don’t have 4 arms like Stitch or have superhuman strength like Hercules, you can only wear one top, carry enough to fill both hands and only wear one pair of shoes even if you lose one running away from combat.

When playing Munchkin Disney, we would always suggest it’s a good idea to get your favourite Disney sing along playlist playing in the background to get everyone ready to fight to be the King of the Swingers the Jungle VIP. We would ultimately recommend playing this game with 3 to 4 players as this hit the sweet spot for us, giving you more people to negotiate with and battle it out for the win.

Game Play

Game play starts the same as all the other versions of Munchkin, you will take it in turns to kick open the door, if you reveal a monster or villain, you will then get to try and fight them, but if not, the card you get goes straight to your hand. If you don’t find a monster or villain, you will then choose to either Loot the Room or Look for Trouble. When you Loot the Room, you take a second card from the door deck and add it straight to your hand. If you decide to Look for Trouble, this is where you will play a monster or villain card from your hand in which you will then get to fight and hopefully defeat it.

If you find or play a monster or villain higher than your combined level and item bonuses this is where you will need to ask for help from your fellow players and where the negotiation begins. Your fellow players will either be very willing to be the hero coming to your rescue or may need some sweeting up by sharing in the rewards of battle.

After this is where you will then need to get you hand of cards down to 5, you will either put your cards down on the table building up your character with items such as Tritons Crown or Maui’s Hook to give you added bonuses. You may even find yourself a new Ally in Mulan or Baymax, your allies also give you bonuses, but they will also provide special abilities, just watch out though as some are one use only. Once you have played all the cards you can if you still have more than five you will have to Charity the rest, this means you give all extra cards to the lowest level player or split them if there is a tie.

Other cards you should be aware of that will come from the door deck could be evil curses that will immediately affect you, some will make you lose levels others will lose items. If you get curses from looting the room, you can save these to use later against your opponents.

Cards that you can find in both decks are one shot cards, these have little targets in the top left corner. Most of them give positive effects to use on your turn. These can include forcing other players to help you during combat, automatically escaping from a fight, added bonuses during combat and drawing extra treasures. All of these cards are only usable once so be smart when using them.

Keep an eye out for the 2 cheat cards found in the door deck. These will let you use and ally or item even when you would not normally be able to, for example your hands are already full of items, this cheat card will allow you to hold an extra item.

The best cards that you will find throughout the game will be from the treasure deck and are the Fix it Felix medals that send you up a level instantly! The only downside is if you have one in your hand already at level 9 you cannot use it to win the game.

One thing to look out for is the Disney magic you’ll find throughout the cards these will again let you get small advantages as you go. The way to get this advantage is to have an arsenal of lyrics, quotes, or song to hum whenever you see the Disney magic come up, always remember let it go!

Final Thoughts

For us it was a no brainer that as soon as Alistair saw it he knew it’d be the perfect birthday present for his Disney Freak girlfriend and so we say to you if you have any Disney Freak family or friends don’t walk RUN! This game is a brilliant way to lose an afternoon having fun and laughing together.

Its simple enough to pick up and play once you’ve got the game play down, only requiring the odd glance at the rules for the special rules and abilities of this version. Its fun for the whole family and great way to get the kids involved as they can spot all their favourite characters as you play.

Our only downside to this game after playing it on several games nights and transporting it around is that we do feel that the box could be smaller to make it more pocket sized. The box for Disney Munchkin is the same size as the original, which has room for expansions, something this set does not currently have nor look likely to have. But we truly do love playing this version of munchkin and highly recommend it.