King Kong Board Game

From my collection of vintage monster-themed board games comes "King Kong," made by Ideal in 1976. This was a tie-in product released in collaboration with the King Kong film remake that came out the same year. The film was not well-received; critic Leonard Maltin didn't mince his words when he said: "it dispels all the mythic, larger-than-life qualities of the original with idiotic characters and campy approach." Ouch. Still, the game is cool!

The box features fantastic promotional art from the movie poster, of Kong standing atop the World Trade Center towers (a change from the original film's climatic setting at the Empire State Building).

The game board is huge (appropriate for a story about a gigantic ape climbing gigantic buildings), measuring 32 inches long when fully opened.

The board represents the World Trade Center, and your mission as a player is to successfully attack Kong before he reaches the top. He, however, can spin about and knock you off the building, which is not a good thing.

Cards pulled can help ("take a helicopter ride!") or hinder you on your mission.

The spinner is totally cool, a tiny King Kong:

Vintage monster games generally command high prices, but Ideal's "King Kong" is still rather readily available and pretty reasonably priced, perhaps because of the remake film's unpopularity. See if you can find one, and play it this Halloween!