Men at Work Review – More Unstable Than Charlie Sheen in a Scaffolding Rig

Thirty-one years later and I still can’t believe Men at Work successfully added `Vegemite sandwich` into the lyrics of a hit song. But we’re not here to talk about the Australian National Anthem, we’re here for Men at Work the board game, a 2-4 player hands-on building construction game from Pretzel Games.

Its theme song would be more like:

Bob the builder

Can we fix it?

Bob the builder

Yes, no… maybe?

While playing Men at Work, you’ll spend turns following orders from the worksite supervisor. Gingerly placing girders, builders, bricks and, beams onto a construction site, building upon pieces placed before. That is until it all comes crashing down. Or a player gets enough Employee of the Month awards to consider a peaceful retirement.

It’s a competition to find out who’s the best at holding their nerves, and their construction materials.

Don’t Touch That!

While other construction games have you building tall structures, like Jenga, or The Fuzzies. Men at Work has them apple bottom jeans, and boots with fur, and keeps it low, low, low…

Which just sounds counterintuitive.

In these games, you want the central structure to grow, as it creates the stress response of not wanting to be the one to make it crash. Although this is fantastic for reaching a nerve-racking climax, it’s not conducive to interesting decision-making.

There’s only one place to put your piece, and that’s on the top.

In contrast to this, Men at Work spreads out on the tabletop like a bottle of jam. Allowing for more creativity in where you place your items. Especially when combined with the challenges you’re provided with each turn. You’ll always have multiple choices on where to place your piece, making it a compelling decision without being overly complicated.

After all, Men at Work is a dexterity game, so the difficulty comes from placing the pieces on the construction site. Where by some dark magic, and despite being solid wood, these pieces still feel more unstable than Charlie Sheen at the height of his tiger blood saga. As the scaffolding grows, the stability worsens, and it becomes increasingly challenging to find a spot for you to complete your challenge.

Strike Three, You’re Out!

Men at Work operates on the baseball system; it’s three strikes and you’re out. When you knock off any pieces from the construction, you lose one of your three safety permits. Anyone who loses all three of their permits is out of the game.

While this works well in baseball it struggles to be as useful here. Inexperienced players, or unlucky ones, can exit the game early. Leaving them to spectate for the rest of the game – which can take a long time. Although player elimination can work in games like Sub Terra, Men at Work is proof that sometimes, it’s a bad idea.

You’d think that this leniency benefits all players equally. However, it benefits more experienced and better players than anyone else. As often they’re able to stretch out each strike, decreasing the chance they’ll be eliminated before the shaky-hand players.

To combat this, Men at Work incentivises players to take risks with its Employee of the Month award.

Starting halfway through the game, these awards are given to players who, place the highest piece on the construction site. When a player earns a number of these awards they win the game.

Having this alternative victory condition is awesome because it creates both positive and negative moments of tension. Someone might need one more award to win the game, or they might be one safety violation away from exiting early.

Eventually, you’ll reach a point where you’re forced to attempt the Employee of the Month award or fall behind. The pressure felt during this time will make even the most steady-handed surgeon a spaghetti-fingered mess.

Not for the Faint of Heart or Unstable Hands

Over the years I’ve played several similar dexterity games like Tak Tak Jack, The Fuzzies and Go Cuckoo. However, each of these games came with a flaw.

In Tak Tak Jack, it’s the long setup time of having to build the central tree. For The Fuzzies, it’s the anti-climatic end game where instead of a bang it’s a soft thud. While for Go Cuckoo it’s the leniency and non-existent ruling on dropped sticks.

My only issue with Men at Work is its player elimination, and that’s not even a big deal because it normally happens towards the end of the game. Otherwise, it gives me everything I want while sticking to the familiar formula of building a structure and hoping it doesn’t fall.

Allowing anyone interested in playing to start without a lengthy rules explanation or a 17-minute introduction to modern board games.

Men at Work is an absolute blast and one of the only games my group begs me to bring week after week. So if you’re in the mood for a build-em-up knock-it-down type of dexterity game, or just looking to play something while the snags are cooking on the BBQ. Then this is one game you need to check out.