Gorilla Marketing is a new party game from Roxley that involves the naming of ridiculous products, movies, and more. Over two rounds, players compete to create names for things and then write the advertising tag lines. Each winning title and tag line is rewarded with a banana, and the player with the most bananas at the end of the game wins.

The game features a zany judging mechanism and the high-quality production that is expected from Roxley games.

It’s a good laugh for big groups, and it’s easy to play, so let’s see what type of monkey business happens in Gorilla Marketing.

STORY

The CEO of an advertising agency replaced all the advertising executives at the company with gorillas. The bitter manager hired primates to fill all of the vacant positions.

Players in Gorilla Marketing are the new employees, and it’s absolutely bonkers in that conference room. The best advertising executive will get the most bananas so the competition is fierce.

GAMEPLAY

Three to eight players will participate in the party game. At the beginning of the game, the main category is decided that will determine what overarching topic will direct the ideas in Gorilla Marketing.

Products, movies, food trucks, college courses, organizations, companies, and bands. These are the categories that will drive each round, and each player will roll a die to discover which particular sub-category they will judge.

Players then pass the booklets to the left, writing on the other players’ categories.

How do you figure out what to write, though? That’s the clever bit in Gorilla Marketing. Each round, the active player draws dice from the bag and rolls them, revealing a letter or symbol. The active player keeps rolling until either two red-faced dice have been rolled or four total dice have been rolled.

In the order drawn from the bag, the dice will spell out an acronym that each player must use to write either a title or an advertising tag line (depending on the round) on the booklet in their hands.

For example, if the active player draws and rolls three dice that spell S, T, and W, then one player might write “Sexy Toilet Wipes” as the name for a Bedroom Product. Small words like “the”, “of”, “and”, or other conjunctions and prepositions can be mixed in without a problem. So another player might use the same letters to write “The Sleepy Type of Wrap” for a Baby Product.

The dice also contain blanks or 2X symbols that can influence the order and construction of letters that must be used.

And because the booklets are for different sub-categories, each player is using the same set of letters for different products.

The first round determines the title of the product. After the booklets return to their original judge, the round concludes and the judging phase begins. Players roll dice again to decide between two different awards, and then they read the suggested names out loud to the table before deciding which one wins.

The second round functions in the same way as the first, but instead of titles, players are creating advertising tag lines for the winning titles from the first round.

Whoever has the most bananas at the end of both rounds wins!

Gorilla Marketing is a laugh-out-loud game that is easy to learn. Kids and adults can all pick it up with ease, and the creative possibilities are enormous. Difficult letter combinations create absolutely ridiculous results.

It’s exciting to play, and it rewards players for clever writing and bizarre thoughts. It’s sure to elicit frequent laughter, and the game plays differently depending on the group of players.

Also, the low stakes of Gorilla Marketing will be comforting to those unfamiliar with board games or to those that are uncomfortable with competitive games.

VISUALS

Roxley publishes games with high-quality design and production, and that commitment extends to Gorilla Marketing. The player booklets are glossy plastic, and the dry-erase markers easily write and erase on the surface.

The wooden bananas, custom dice, and other components all nestle snugly within the game box, and the organization keeps everything separated and ready for a quick game.

Graphic design and illustrations of primates all match the design aesthetic of a ‘60s advertising agency. It’s more mad gorillas than Mad Men, and it works.

Overall, a nice job and the long box will catch the eye when it’s brought to the table.

REPLAYABILITY

The game is an engine for creative writing, which means the replay value is absurdly high. Gorilla Marketing will be different every single time. The players may be different. The dice rolls will be different. The combination of categories will change. The winning titles will be different, which means the advertising tag lines will be different.

Everything changes, which means that Gorilla Marketing is infinitely fresh, and that’s a sign of a good party game.

WHAT IT COULD HAVE DONE BETTER

The weakness with a game like Gorilla Marketing is that it depends on the players.

For judging the winning titles or tag lines, that decision is up to the active player. Even though the fun in Gorilla Marketing lies in the creation of silly ideas and sharing around the table, there is a scoring mechanic. And that is beholden to whoever is playing the game. For some groups, this won’t matter. It won’t affect the gameplay. But some groups might have competitive players that won’t choose the best title or most amusing option because of the player who wrote it. If your group has hyper-competitive players, Gorilla Marketing might not shine as brightly.

Mixed party groups might also limit the possibilities in the game. Adults might want to flex their creative and NSFW muscles in Gorilla Marketing but are limited if kids are involved.

Who you play games with will determine how good Gorilla Marketing is. And that’s a drawback for me. I’ve played too many games with friends and acquaintances who possess the potential to ruin an otherwise relaxed and goofy game.

That criticism might not be relevant in your gaming world, and if it isn’t, then I think you’ll find a lot to love about Gorilla Marketing.

VERDICT

A wacky party game that hinges on the creativity and participation of the players, Gorilla Marketing is a highly-replayable experience that will have gamers laughing a lot. It’s bonkers. It’s easy to learn. And it’s a great job by Adam Wyse and Andrew Bosley.