The best games with monkeys/apes 2026

Rhino Hero: Super Battle is a captivating 3D stacking game that sees the return of Rhino Hero, this time joined by fellow super-heroes Giraffe Boy, Big E., and Batguin. Players engage in an exciting challenge of building a wobbly skyscraper while navigating fierce battles among these charismatic characters. The game adds an extra layer of fun with the presence of mischievous spider monkeys that players must contend with during their skyscraper construction and superhero battles.

Unmatched: Battle of Legends, Volume Two features four heroes: Yennenga, Achilles, Sun Wukong, and Bloody Mary. The game introduces a new battlefield and includes pre-painted miniatures for each hero, along with custom life trackers adorned with stunning artwork.

Coconuts is a lively dexterity game inspired by the "Monkey King" character from Chinese mythology. In this engaging and playful game, players take turns launching coconuts towards cups positioned in the center of the play area. Successfully landing a coconut in a cup allows you to stack it on your board. Even more strategically, if you land a coconut in an opponent's cup, you can claim it and move it to your board. The game also features "Monkey King Magic" cards, which add a twist by allowing players to disrupt their opponents' shots in various ways. The first player to build a pyramid of six cups on their board is the winner.

Animal Upon Animal (original title: Tier auf Tier) is a delightful and family-friendly stacking game that challenges players to carefully balance wooden animal figures to create an ever-growing pyramid. The game is designed for all ages, showcasing both fun and skill in a simple yet engaging format.

Beasty Bar takes the party to the animal kingdom with a twist on the classic card game format. Picture this: animals decked out in their finest, queuing up to get into the exclusive Beasty Bar nightclub. But not all will make it past the bouncer. In this competitive and cheeky game, players use their animal cards, each boasting unique abilities to shuffle the queue's order. Your goal? Outwit your opponents to get your animals through the door, with a mix of strategy and luck determining who gets to dance the night away and who's left out in the cold.

Cheeky Monkey is a gambling game featuring eight sets of animals, including elephants, seals, and monkeys, represented by plastic chips. Players draw chips until they decide to stop or draw a duplicate of an animal already collected, returning their current chips to the bag in the latter case. Special rules allow players to steal matching animal chips from opponents or trade monkeys for chips on top of their opponents' stacks, with the game ending once the last chip is added and bonus points awarded for the most chips of a single type.

Piraten Kapern is a German adaptation of the game Otsarot o Tsarot from 2011. Players embark on a treasure hunt, aiming to collect as much as possible without rolling too many skulls. The active player rolls eight special dice, setting aside skulls and continuing to roll other dice for points based on combinations, while also drawing pirate cards that can affect their turn. Once a player reaches 6,000 points, the game concludes after all others have had one last turn, and the player with the most points wins.

My Little Scythe is a charming, family-friendly board game that offers a light and engaging experience inspired by the critically acclaimed Scythe. It's a game of adventure and whimsy, set in the enchanting Kingdom of Pomme, where players control delightful animal miniatures on a quest to earn trophies and achieve victory.

Zooloretto is a charming and strategic board game where players become zoo managers, tasked with building and managing their own zoos. The goal is to attract the most visitors by creating a diverse and well-organized collection of animals.

Design the best wildlife sanctuary over five rounds. In each round, draw three cards, play one, and pass the others (simple drafting phase). Each card features four biomes, each containing an animal, and at least one biome must be covered when discarding a card. The entire sanctuary must fit within a 6 by 6 grid.

It's party time in the jungle! Build a pyramid, play bowling, throw and catch, and take on many other small challenges to win medals. This action game encourages young children to interact with objects and develop their fine motor skills.

Animals on Board is an accessible and clever game featuring a two-tier cardboard tray that holds each player's animal tiles. Players draw three animal tiles at the start, choose one to place face down on their ark, and form a collective of remaining tiles in the center.

Being a zoo animal is challenging. The enclosures are too small, the daily routine is dull, and the visitors are unbearable. You need to escape the zoo within seven days, collaborating secretly with other animals to collect discarded trash and devise a clever escape plan. Each player has a unique animal card and plays on a board with a path made of colored fields.

The game features a play area with motorized trees that have rotating tips. Players use levers to raise and lower the treetops to catch animals and transport them through the jungle to the beach. You can also knock down your opponents' animals using the treetops, sending them back to the start. The first player to bring five animals to the beach wins.

Hey, monkeys! It's time to climb and grab the juiciest fruits before the other monkeys do. To reach the top of the tree in Banana Matcho, roll the dice and create the most valuable fruit combinations while avoiding the top monkey "Banana Matcho" on an opponent's roll.

Baobab features players constructing a tree using 108 random cards they cannot see. Each turn, a player declares how many cards they will play and places them according to the card's instructions. Falling cards lead to penalties, and the game ends when a player places their last card; the one with the fewest cards in their penalty pile wins.

In the year 2083, humanity has long since vanished, leaving remnants of its existence. Nature has reclaimed the land, and evolved apes have formed tribes, mastering human artifacts in their pursuit of knowledge. As the leader of one such tribe, guide your group toward collective intelligence by collecting resources and points through a unique deck-building and resource management system, ultimately aiming to reach 80 points to win.

What are monkeys doing in your living room? Players must compete to collect the most bananas in this simple pantomime game featuring bizarre and wacky poses. Each round, one player imitates an action while others guess, leading to funny penalties that require them to hold strange positions during their turns. The goal is to collect as many penalties as possible before the miming ends.

The game resembles the classic Ker Plunk. Players drop plastic monkeys through a hole in the top of a transparent plastic "tree," where several colored sticks are inserted to prevent the monkeys from falling. Players must remove a stick of the rolled color while trying to avoid letting monkeys drop, with the player holding the fewest monkeys at the end declared the winner.