Munchkin Board Game Buying Guide
Comic-style art appears across video games and board games. In the 1980s, my childhood was filled with several of these stylized games that integrated comic characters into their gameplay. While Steve Jackson’s cartoonish dungeon crawler Munchkin wasn’t around back then, it is certainly a game I find myself returning to for nostalgia and silliness here and there.
Munchkin is a cartoon foray into a dungeon featuring a cast of characters from fantasy and reality. The card game is filled with comical art and often witty banter that will have you laughing and probably rolling your eyes at some of the dad jokes.
Munchkin Gameplay
Gameplay for Munchkin is fairly quick and simple. You start as an ordinary human with a few cards in your initial arsenal of goodies. The cards in your hand, along with others you’ll pick up as you play, help you navigate 10 floors of a dungeon by giving you attributes of a specific class and arming you to fight the monsters you’ll encounter. You’ll employ various zany antics and characteristics against formidable foes as you compete against other players, kicking in doors to fight monsters and gaining loot to increase your power throughout the dungeon run. Which player will reign victoriously in the end? The journey is yours to discover in Munchkin.
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Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to battle your way through the dungeon and get to level 10 before your counterparts. Kick in the door and start fighting across plenty of different versions of comical shenanigans.
Munchkin (Core Game)
MSRP: $29.95 USD3-6 Players (best with 3)60-120 minutesAges 10+
The base card game of Munchkin is a fantasy dungeon crawler that incorporates the types of characters that you might expect to help you along your quest. It also has a few that you might not expect, with fantasy monsters that go beyond dragons to plants and even lawyers.
Munchkin Expansions
While Munchkin has a considerable number of expansions, there are five that pair with any base game.
Munchkin 2 – Unnatural Axe
Contents: 112 more cards, including orc race, new armor, allies, new weapons
MSRP: $19.95 USD3-6 Players (best with 3)60-120 minutesAges 10+
This expansion can be played with the original base game as well as Munchkin Conan or Munchkin Pathfinder. Unnatural Axe adds the orc race to the game, as well as new armor, new allies, and some zany new weapons.
Munchkin 3 – Clerical Errors
Contents: 112 cards, including bards, gnomes, new monsters, new armor, five comic artist-created expansion exclusive special items
MSRP: $24.95 USD3-6 Players (best with 3)60-120 minutesAges 10+
Clerical Errors adds gnomes as a playable race. It also adds my personal favorite of an archetype class – bards. There is new armor. There are new monsters. There are also five uniquely designed items, each designed by comic artists.
Munchkin 4 – The Need For Steed
Contents: 112 cards, including 30 new kingdom cards featuring new elements
MSRP: $16.26 USD3-6 Players (best with 3)60-120 minutes
What fantasy game would be complete without trusty steeds to bring us to victory or defeat? The Need for Steed expansion adds dragons, tigers, giant mutant gerbils, chickens, and… Big Joe? Yeah, Big Joe might be a steed, or he might be a hireling. Use these steeds to help you to get to level 10 before your friends do.
Munchkin 5 – DeRanged
Contents: 112 cards, including ranger class, new monsters, new armor, and new weapons
MSRP: $19.90 USD3-6 Players (best with 3)60-120 minutesAges 10+
Ah, rangers. They’re either beloved or the butt of a joke in fantasy games. In Munchkin, they’re a little bit of both. Rangers can tame monsters and ride them to escape new monsters like the treacherous Telemarketer, Poultrygeist, or Undead Clowns.
Munchkin 6 – Double Dungeons
Contents: 112 cards, including 40 dungeons
MSRP: $19.99 USD3-6 Players (best with 3)60-120 minutesAges 10+
This expansion brings 40 new dungeons to life and 32 portals to get to and from each one. Each dungeon has different rules and variations to change up the experience. This expansion will open up the possibilities of where you can go and the monsters you will run into immensely. Proceed with caution.
Other Versions of Munchkin
There are 14 other versions of Munchkin to play. Like Fluxx, they are separated by theme. Pick a favorite and go from there. Below are four of my personal picks to consider.
Munchkin Cthulhu
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
MSRP: $29.95 USD3-6 Players (best with 3)60-120 minutesAges 10+
Lovecraft lore fans will appreciate the Cthulhu spin on the game. There are also three available expansions for it to add to the cartoony horror spin on the Lovecraft Mythos universe. Those expansions are Cthulhu Sanity Check, The Unspeakable Vault, and Crazed Caverns.
Super Munchkin
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
MSRP: $29.95 USD3-8 Players (best with 3)60-120 minutesAges 10+
Yes, Munchkin has comic art in the game, but this version includes superheroes. Comic book lovers will likely want to see how Munchkins can become superheroes and villains. There’s also one expansion available for this version called The Narrow S Cape.
Munchkin Steampunk
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
MSRP: $24.17 USD3-6 Players (best with 3)60-120 minutesAges 10+
The Steampunk version of Munchkin was done by a comic artist who did the Steampunk comic called Girl Genius. Each of the classes in this steampunk spin is unique to this version.
Munchkin Zombies
Contents: 168 cards (including new dungeons) rules, and one six-sided die
MSRP: $27.49 USD3-6 Players (best with 3)60-120 minutesAges 10+
In most zombie spins of games, it’s you versus the zombies. The fun thing about this version is that you are the zombies in Munchkin Zombies, and your enemies are the human race. Several different expansions can be added to this one. Four of those expansions (Armed and Dangerous, Hideous Hideouts, Spare Parts, and Grave Mistakes) add additional cards. One adds Zombie Dice.
How to Play Munchkin Online
Dire Wolf Digital (makers of Clank!) created the digital version of Munchkin, which is available on Steam for $14.99.
While this version doesn’t come from the same team as the original, it’s a highly enjoyable game at the base level that plays well digitally. You can play against friends who also have a copy of the game or against the AI. Games outside of the tutorial can be played with 3-6 players. A single player can choose to go against two or more AI or combinations of AI and human players on the same machine or online.
One of the key differences between the digital version and the physical version is that you can choose to play without gender-connected items. In the original versions, gendered items (only two different ones in these games, which do not acknowledge the gender spectrum) are a big part of the game.
Currently, the Steam version is the only way to play Munchkin digitally. There was talk about it being a mod on Tabletop Simulator, but comments on the Steam community regarding things allude to potential licensing issues. A 2014 forum post on the Steve Jackson Game website also noted, “Our policy has been consistent and clear: people who want to create digital versions of our games must obtain a license to do so. I’m sorry that you feel this is disrespectful to our fans and customers. We feel exactly as disrespected by people who use our content without our permission.”
That said, I found the digital version to be worth playing. It also has an expansion called Unnatural Axe for an additional $4.99, which requires the base game.
Bottom Line
Munchkin offers some cartoonish art often paired with witty and zany adversaries. In several ways, I’ve found myself enjoying the game. I know several friends who enjoy it for the most part as well. However, as I’ve aged and the years have passed, I’ve found that the game misses the mark in some ways, particularly at the expense of others where it shouldn’t. This seems also to be the case for others on Board Game Geek, as the current rating is only 5.9.
Gendered items and character designs can take away the enjoyment of some players. I liked how the digital version allowed me to step away from that a bit if I wanted. I wish other physical game versions did. The zany objects and fantastically witty text could be much better with more inclusivity.
Jennifer Stavros is a contributing freelancer for IGN, covering everything from comics, games, technology, and nerd culture. Follow her on Twitter or watch her on Twitch under the handle @scandalous.
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