If you’re A Person Of A Certain Age, odds are you have very fond memories of an incredibly specific line of cereal lurking in the back of your childhood breakfast recollection. I’m talking, of course, about General Mills’ Monster Cereals. Count Chocula, Franken Berry, Boo Berry, and all the rest made the best breakfast companions a kid could ever ask for — and now, you can spend time with them in a new way as an adult: A General Mills Monster Cereal card game is on the way. Called Monster Crunch! The Breakfast Battle Game, the game is made by Forrest-Pruzan Creative and published by Big G Creative; it will be available as a Target exclusive starting Aug. 26. Even though that's still over a month away, I, for one, am counting the days until I can finally buy it.
Despite their popularity with ‘90s kids, General Mills’ Monster Cereals are actually much older than the entire millennial generation: They first hit the scene in 1971. When they were launched in March of that year, the only two flavors available were Count Chocula and Franken Berry, based on Count Dracula and Frankenstein’s Monster — but although the selection may have been somewhat smaller than it later grew to include, the cereals held the distinction of being the only chocolate and strawberry flavored cereals on the market at that time, according to General Mills. Boo Berry, a blueberry-flavored cereal fronted by a ghost mascot who sounded like Peter Lorre, came along in 1973, rounding out the core trio.
Two additional flavors later joined the line, although they failed to achieve the same success as their predecessors: Cherry-flavored Fruit Brute, which featured a cartoon werewolf on the box (and makes frequent appearances in Quentin Tarantino films), debuted in 1974, but was discontinued in 1982. Fruity Yummy Mummy came in to fill the void in 1987, but it, too, left shelves a few years later in 1992. Then, roughly 10 years ago, all of the Monster Cereals — including Count Chocula, Franken Berry, and Boo-Berry — underwent a change in availability: Instead of haunting grocery store shelves year-round, they became seasonal specialties only available around Halloween, frequently as Target exclusives.
The annual release of each season’s batch of Monster Cereals has become quite the to-do in recent years, with updated box art making the arrival of the breakfast treat even more of an event — so my sense is that, once word get out about this Monster Cereal game, there’s going to be a similar rush to snap it up. Bloody Disgusting recently reported that Monster Crunch! The Breakfast Battle Game will be available as a Target exclusive in the fall of this year; Bustle has further confirmed that the game will be on shelves as of Aug. 26, as well as available online at Target.com a tad bit earlier than that. It will retail for around $19.99.
According to Big G’s page on the game, the goal is to “eat” as much cereal as possible. “In this fast-paced game of luck and strategy, players collect as many Cereal Cards in their Bowls as they can,” reads the game’s description. “Milk Tokens” allow you to combine Cereal Cards, thereby letting you “take bigger bites” — and, apparently, the Monster you choose to play as can dramatically affect how you build your strategy: Each character has its own “special powers” you can use to your advantage in your quest to eat all the cereal. Recommended for two to five players age 9 and up, a round of the game takes around 20 minutes to complete.
Not going to lie, though: As fun as all of that sounds, I am perhaps most excited about the game’s packaging. The box is designed to look like a vintage Monster Cereal box — except that instead of belonging to one individual Monster, it features all five of ‘em hanging out together like the spooky friends they are.
I love it.
If, for some reason, you are not absolutely enamored of the idea of a game based on General Mills’ Monster Cereals being a real thing you can actually play, A) I don’t think we can be friends, but also, B) fear not, for there are many other games in Big G’s pantheon, at least one of which is likely to strike your fancy. Have you long harbored dreams of becoming Sydney Bristow and living your best Alias life? Try Shifty Eyed Spies. Have you always felt a deep kinship with Kevin McCallister? The Home Alone game is calling out your name. Do happy little trees and bushes calm you down when you feel anxious? You’ve got not one, but two Bob Ross games to choose from.
I am seriously considering ordering both Bob Ross games for myself. Just sayin’.
Look out for Monster Crunch! this August at Target — and in the meantime, you can always browse eBay for ancient boxes of vintage Monster Cereals or other related swag. Nostalgia dies hard, am I right?
