Steve Jackson GamesMunchkin 2 - Unnatural Axe

I have been looking for games for our family of 6 people to all play together. I wanted something fun for all our ages, with the goal being to spend more time together instead of vegging out with no interaction in front of the TV. I read about Munchkin years ago and kept putting off buying it, now I wish I had just bought it a long time ago. This is a very fun, very easy game to play and is enjoyable for everyone in our family, from ages 9-65 (youngest up to Grandma!). We all love it and have played it everyday since the day it arrived. Now we are all looking forward to adding some of the themed expansion decks.If you are looking for a good family game [way more fun than monopoly, Risk and all the other usual crap], with a quirky/geeky side of humor thrown in, this is a game worth checking out.**Update** After playing this game for several weeks since buying it, I had to revise this review to help get the word out. This game is a LOT more fun than any other board or card game I've ever played. I have now bought almost every expansion and the fun literally never ends. Munchkin (& it's expansions) is a wonderful family fun game for sitting around the table for either a quick 40min round or an epic 2hour match. It is also a blast as a party game. Get this base game of Munchkin and a few choice expansions & invite some friends over for a very very fun party night. The more cards you have the more people can play, we've had up to 8 so far with no problems. It's a fast paced game, so a game round with 6 people usually takes ~1 hour, if you don't let people take too much time on their turns._____________________________________________________________________I HIGHLY recommend buying the base game and the following expansions in this suggested order, for the absolute most enjoyment - and you ARE going to want some (or all) of these expansion packs. The fun, hilarity & wackiness are too much to miss. Hopefully someone will find this information helpful. It's a very long list, but I wanted to be comprehensive for anyone trying to figure this stuff out. I sure could have used this info when I was looking at all the extra packs to figure out what to buy when. You can feel free to combine any Munchkin pack with either the base game or any full expansion and play it all together just fine. This is just a recommendation based on my experience playing all of these:[*A note on Full Expansions vs small Card Packs - Full themed expansions are just like the Munchkin 1 base game & have enough cards that they can be played alone without adding any other packs...or you can of course mix them together with any other packs for some fun combinations (for ex: you could mix Munchkin & Zombies, or make a Super/Zombie pack, or Pirate/Bites, etc). Full themed expansions have a lot of cards (168ish), come in a larger box & cost ~$20. There are a few vitally *AWESOME* booster packs that have 112 cards & cost $5-15 (all listed out below). Most normal small booster card packs for any theme usually have 15 cards & cost $5-15. Almost everything I have came with Free Shipping from Amazon. I've listed the newest/latest version of everything, so when you buy look for any "Revised" Edition like I link to below.]_____________________________________________________________________* Munchkin Deluxe (the Dlx version is just the base card game & comes with pawns & a level counter board to help you keep count. None of these extras are vital, it's just very helpful to have. If you don't have the board, just use a pen & paper to keep up w everyone's levels - players levels will change often)Each of these booster packs listed below adds something unique, interesting & fun to the base game. There are a LOT more booster packs, I will list them later. These here are the ones I consider *essential* to having the most fun with the base game. These all add something significant & amazing to the base game without changing it in any severe way. So I call them "vanilla" addon packs. Buy them, play them with the Deluxe version, love them. Seriously, now. ;p* Munchkin 2: Unnatural Axe Revised Edition (112 cards)* Munchkin 3: Clerical Errors (112 cards)* Munchkin 4: The Need For Steed (Revised Edition) (112 cards)* Munchkin 5: De-Ranged (112 cards)* (Skip 6 & 7, they are both mentioned below)* Munchkin 8: Half Horse, Will Travel (112 cards)Those are all of the 112 card packs, and they are all excellent! Most of the other packs are 15 card booster packs that don't add anything new, exciting or special. Except this one:* Munchkin Easter Eggs (15 cards) - This is really a *GREAT* booster pack. The art & humor are all top notch, as you will come to expect w most things Munchkin. Fight Bunnythulu. Become even more overpowered (that's a good thing). Adds fun monsters, modifiers & treasures. Who doesn't love treasure?Once you get all of the above packs, mix them all in together with the base game pack and play it as your regular vanilla Munchkin deck. It will be a lot of cards. You will want them all.After all those are added to the basic Munchkin game you have some choices. You can buy & mix several other packs (all listed below) into your main deck which will do fun & strange things to the basic game, or you can do what I did & keep a "pure" munchkin deck w it's own mostly vanilla expansion packs (it's a massive amount of cards without any other themes mixed in -- no vampires, space, zombies, cowboys etc, just regular ole plain vanilla Munchkin-themed cards)._____________________________________________________________________**FULL THEMED GAME PACKS**I sometimes mix some of the other themed decks & smaller packs into a separate blended Munchkin experience that I keep apart from my regular vanilla deck mix listed above. However, most of the themed expansion packs are so complete & so much fun by themselves that I leave them alone, for ex: we usually don't mix Zombies & Vampires....but you could....and it would be awesome.The themed sets all have their own themed expansions & sequels. The Cthulu set alone has 5 booster packs + the main game set. Thats a lot of cards, and it plays perfectly well on its own. But every now and then you really should get crazy and mix some of these together to play something like Zombie-Vampire Munchkin, WITH some of the really good vanilla packs added in (the ones listed above). Or go all wild and buy them all & mix them all in together. Insane, I know.So you could end up with say, a super mixed pack of Super Vampire Zombie Cthulu Space Munchkin, with steeds & rangers. I have got to try that.* Star Munchkin Revised Edition, Star Munchkin 2 (Revised) & Space Ships Star Munchkin Expansion -- VERY fun geeky set. This is actually our favorite of all of the themes. Lots of Doctor Who/Star Wars/Star Trek & other geeky scifi references, great humor. Love it.* Munchkin Zombies, Munchkin Zombies 2 Armed and Dangerous, Munchkin Zombies 3 Hideous Hideouts (Dungeons), Munchkin Zombies Meat Lockers <-- This is a set of 2 boxes to hold all your Zombie cards. Also comes with 2 unique cards you can't get anywhere else. Also, there is now a Munchkin Zombies 3 which is not available here yet but is for sale at munchkinworld-dot-com.* Munchkin Bites! (Revised), Munchkin Bites 2 Pants Macabre* Munchkin Cthulhu (168 cards/$18), Munchkin Cthulhu 2 Call of Cowthulhu (56 cards), Munchkin Cthulhu 3 Unspeakable Vault (Rev.), Munchkin Cthulhu 4 Crazed Caverns (Dungeon cards) & Munchkin Cthulhu Crypts Of Concealment <--This is 2 boxes to hold all of your Munchkin Cthulhu themed cards. This also comes with 2 unique cards you can't get anywhere else. So it's fun as well as extremely useful. The Cthulhu themed set has enough cards that you are going to need these to hold them all.* The Good, The Bad and The Munchkin / The Good, The Bad and The Munchkin 2 - Beating a Dead Horse --> Buy these 2 together* Munchkin Booty (Revised), Munchkin Booty 2 Jump The Shark (Revised Edition), Munchkin Booty Fish & Ships Booster Pack (15 cards) --> Buy these 3 all together to make a Booty set. The 3 packs all work very well together (of course you can always mix these up w other sets).* Super Munchkin (Revised), Super Munchkin 2 (Revised) -- Superhero themed. Good stuff.* MunchkinFu (Revised), & MunchkinFu2 Monkey Business - Humorous theme inspired by all those old black&white martial arts movies you watched & loved as a kid. No clue what those are? Oh my, you did lead a sheltered life. Let's fix that now shall we? Go now, young grasshoper. Play this game while watching Steve Odekerk's parody movie "Kung Pow Enter the Fist". Then & only then will you have achieved mastery of the ancient lost art of monkey-fu.* Munchkin Apocalypse (168 cards) - Take every disaster movie you've ever seen and make it a Munchkin themed expansion. BAM. Fun & funny, just as good as all the other great themed expansions. This one adds a new card type, appropriately called Seals (watch out for that 7th one, lol). Seals do change the gameplay a bit, and they DO work with every other game-changing addition, including dungeons, Necronomicon, etc, though mixing all those types could cause mild confusion (Warning: if confusion occurs, accompanied by gastric distress, small bladder, irritable bowel or voices in your head, call a doctor). This is actually a fun addition to mix in with any other themed set imo, but your mileage may vary._____________________________________________________________________**Munchkin Christmas Collection**There are enough of the Christmas booster cards that I wanted to make a special standalone holiday set. To do this I needed to add the small xmas booster packs to a main themed set, bc at this time there is no standalone Christmas themed full set. This is not a problem bc you can add them in with any regular full themed set, or even your regular vanilla deck if you like.I chose to mix Munchkin Impossible with the Christmas theme booster packs. Crazy fun, & funny! This makes a special treat to play every year that we all look forward to. The Santa packs are all especially funny. There are several packs out now & it seems they release a new small xmas booster pack each year. So far there is:* Munchkin: Santa's Revenge (15 More Cards!)* Munchkin Reindeer Games Booster* [Munchkin Waiting for Santa] -- **NOTE** -- Munchkin Waiting for Santa is available here for ~$20, but it sells for only ~$5 at the official Munchkin Store page [...]. This is the only one I've found that is cheaper there, everything else is cheaper here at Amazon, plus you get the free saver S&H here.* Munchkin: Naughty & Nice Booster Pack (15 cards)_______________________________**NEW UPDATE** Munchkin Holiday Surprise! (released in 2013)Description: "It's an amazing present for all the good little Munchkins. 68 holiday themed cards, everything from the first three Christmas boosters plus the 2012 booster, some promo cards never before available at retail, Plus four new cards. Also includes a new "Christmas Kill O Meter" unique to this set, two special Munchkin dice - one pearly red, one pearly green, and a printed rulesheet. All in a 6in x 9in box."Buy this set instead of the 4 listed above. This "Holiday Surprise!" set has all of the cards from the 4 sets listed above, as well as adding some new cards and cool unique items. This should still be added to & played with a main themed set as it is still not a standalone full set. Technically there are enough cards for 2 people to play a regular game using only the xmas cards, but it plays much better & is much more fun when you add these to a full themed set.Also, it is cheaper to buy this set of 68 cards than it would be to buy each of the previous 4, even if you could get the other packs, since some are out of print now. So you save $$ plus you get some new cool stuff thrown in. At $16 This set is a *very* good deal. In fact, I am buying it even though I already have the other 4 sets, just for the new cards & other extras._____________________________________________________________________**MISC BOOSTER PACKS**All of the decks in the the next list (themed or otherwise) can all be added to plain vanilla or any other main theme (like Zombies) & mixed together into one huge fun mess. Mix & match into different combinations. The options for this game are limitless. Go nuts.* Penny Arcade - This is PA+Munchkin in a 15 card pack, how could you not love it? If you are a fan of Gabe & Tycho, these are must have. Even if you don't know who PA is, these are good Munchkin cards that will play well with everything else. I put these cards into the ever growing Christmas deck for extra hilarity. And honestly, my main vanilla Munchkin deck has enough cards at this point ;p This is a great bonus pack, get it.* The Guild 15 card Booster Pack - If you are a fan of Felicia Day's "The Guild", you will want this. If you've never heard of The Guild, these are still good cards to add in to anything.* Munchkinomicon Booster Pack - A fun little pack that plays very well when added in with any main themes. Very easy to use, has it's own fun rules printed on the back of the main card, which you mix into play. The other cards sit on the side waiting to be played separately, which happens once a player finds the main Necronomicon card. ***This pack works best with a smaller deck so you can find the Necronomicon card faster, which is the whole point of this pack.*** I sometimes put it in with Christmas or in with a single themed pack like Mission Impossible.* Munchkin 6 Demented Dungeons - I like this mixed in other themed decks more than in regular Munchkin decks. It is fun but...different. Most people in our group usually prefer not to use Dungeons. Dungeons add new rules for a few new over-sized cards that can overly complicate games. We just pop them out to play occasionally for variety.* Munchkin 7 Cheat With Both Hands - This pack was literally MADE for the purpose of mixing themed decks. FYI, don't be confused...this pack replaces 2 old packs that are no longer in print, but that can still be bought here. "7 - Cheat w Both Hands" replaces "7 - More Good Cards" & the old "Munchkin Blender" pack. You don't want the old packs, just this new one.* Munchkin Reloaded (15 cards) - This is a re-release of some previous 15card pack they no longer sell. Just a few more fun cards to add more craziness to the mix. Like most of the vanilla 15 card booster packs, they are best used when mixing multiple themes together in my opinion.* Munchkin Marked for Death - Mediocre pack of 17 mediocre cards. Just mix 'em in with most of the other 15 card packs.* Munchkin Monster Enhancers - **I think this pack was discontinued, as it has not been in stock on Amazon for a long time.** This one is great for adding to vanilla Munchkin or mixing into your blended multi-themed decks. Works great for both! (these are cheap, just buy 2).* Munchkin Dragons Booster - Nothing special here, just more regular cards, which is normal for these small 15 card booster sets. It is 15 cards total, mostly monsters...dragons of course...3 treasure cards, & 1 nearly useless hireling who is only good at helping you fight...dragons. Still, if you collect all the sets, you will probably want this. The cards are good cards overall. It's just this small pack is not very exciting, & certainly not vital for play like any of the 112 card packs I mentioned at the very top are (the ones I listed w the base game).I mixed the following all together with 6, 7 Reloaded & Marked (using 2nd packs of each, since I would never find the cards from each pack once they are blended into my main deck). I plan to add Munchkin the Guild, & Munchkin Conan The Barbarian <--a small pack, & Munchkin Conan <--- for some reason the Amz search never finds this one, my guess is it gets confused about these being 2 different items. (This one is a full themed expansion, it's ASIN# is B00857S1WY).* Munchkin Level Playing Field Game - This is really only for people who bought the regular base card game but not the Deluxe version. This is just a gameboard, some small player tokens & 4 new cards. It's only worth $5...but it costs $20. Save yourself some trouble, just buy the Deluxe edition in the first place. The Dlx version has a much bigger board & much nicer player tokens. This board is tiny. Or buy this if you are truly ridiculously obsessive about owning every Munchkin card ever made. What? Don't look at me like that.* Avoid This Pack: Munchkin Fairy Dust -- It's the only "bad" official pack. Considering every other official pack & expansion (so far) is pure awesome, guess there had to be one that just doesn't work. If you really have to have it, just mix it in with a ton of other packs & hope for the best. The cards in this pack essentially break the game, so I really suggest you avoid it completely. This small pack is just not worth the trouble.* Also to avoid: Munchkin Axe Cop, which is designed as a full standalone game, but which you can mix with other munchkin themes decks or cards. This particular game is bad, really really horribly bad. Even the people in our family & gaming group who like the Axe Cop comic hated this as a Munchkin game. I don't mean mildly did not like it, I mean, "this is truly terrible, why did they make this, I would rather stick a fork in my eye than play Munchkin Axe Cop". It was just that kind of bad._____________________________________________________________________**SPECIAL NOTES**_____________________________________________________________________* Munchkin Quest *This is a completely different game. "Munchkin Quest" is NOT part of the Munchkin card game described in this review. It is a fun game of a completely different type. Don't get confused when you see it.* Card Shuffler *You are going to want a manual card shuffler like Manual Card Shuffler. Trust me on this one. The auto shufflers can bend your cards & they jam a LOT. A manual shuffler won't have that problem. And you WILL need a shuffler once you add these extra packs. Munchkin cards are smaller than regular playing cards, but these shufflers DO work on them.* Unique Gameplay Items *There are several fun items you can ONLY get at the official Munchkin store page (warehouse23-dot-com ---> I suggest you check there every few months to see what's new & unique), such as an exclusive card booster pack they release every year that has cards you can not get anywhere else. There are also promo pens, coins t-shirts & other items, all of which actually have their own rules for using them in the actual game! It gets really crazy. Plus, you are encouraged to make up your own "House Rules" for how you & your friends & family like to play.This quote comes from another reviewer of the Need for Steed expansion, "Munchkin is a great game to play with close friends, so long as you all understand that the purpose of the game is to torment one another endlessly."That really sums it up nicely. Enjoy!

As a long time Gamer I found this game to be quite enjoyable. The term ‘Munchkin’ harkens back to the days of old when meeting younger new players at gaming club meetings. They always over-read the rules and found any loophole to take advantage of. Hence, they were dubbed “Munchkins”. That spirit of crazy do-anything-no-matter-how-illogical-to-win spirit is captured herein.I originally bought this game to play with my daughter. She won't play serious dungeon/adventure board or card games, but after reading a few cards of this game she eagerly agreed to a simple two player learning game, and now we are hooked! This game is written with good humor, which we both enjoyed. As an old school player myself, I found the humor of the Steve Jackson Games Team welcoming like an old friend. My daughter just thinks the cards are fun; Boots of Butt-Kicking, the Duck of Doom, etc. These are great fun! They are loaded with imaginative humorous puns!Some might find a card or two inappropriate for younger players. I feel you either have to be easily offended or think children should be raised in a bell jar until they are twenty one to find this game objectionable. If you are the kind of person who is offended by the terms “Sneaky Bastard Sword” (a play on words), “Horny Helmet” (A helmet with huge Horns), or “Kneepads of Allure” (Not explained), then don’t complain, simply DON’T BUY THIS GAME FOR YOUR KIDS! Yes older, adult players may get the subtext of the artwork on the “Leather Armor” card, but a ten year old probably won’t see it. Take a chill pill and let your kids mature a little.Now, the game play is simple, very simple. This is no huge strategy game. Gameplay is literally as easy as; Kick the Door in, Kill the Monster, Grab the Treasure, and Go up a level. Get to level 10 first, and you win. There is some strategy added with helping and hurting the other player. There are times when it is advantageous to both hurt and help an opponent in the same turn. (See my definition of Munchkin above). The final stages of the game almost always end very cutthroat, and pulling out all the dirty tricks you can to stop your opponent. If your kids or you can’t handle this; don’t buy!Playing time 30-60 minutes, 3 Players recommended, but 2 player games are possible just less fun. It will take several playing sessions before you experience all the cards, and should you find they get boring or predictable, there are eight expansions with new cards, new concepts and new variations on the game. I’ve already bought a few.