King of Tokyo Review

“MOM! I Want Tokyo!”

Do you remember growing up and pretending to be a giant monster stomping through the city of your choice? Now you can (well sort-of) with King of Tokyo. King of Tokyo is a competitive king of the hill style game for up to 6 players where you play the role of a giant monster fighting over who is the superior monster and who will finally control Tokyo.

How To Play

Depending how many players you have, players chose their respective monster and setup outside of the game board. If you are playing with 4 players, you will only play with Tokyo City. If playing with 5 or 6 players, you will be using both Tokyo City and Tokyo Bay. Then you draw 3 of the power cards and place them above the board.

The game begins by choosing who goes first by rolling all 6 of the black dice and whoever gets the most Attack results. Once first player is established, you can roll all 6 of the black dice 3 times. After your first roll, you can keep any number of the results and put them to the side (if you are happy with the roll, skip to the next phase), you can then re-roll any dice you didn’t keep. Then repeat the process once more if you need to. Now you can resolve the dice, here are the results:

• Victory Points: you score Victory Points by matching 3 of the numbered results (1, 2, 3), you can also score additional points for each additional matching numbers (if you roll
  four 2 values you score the initial 2 points for matching three of a kind and you score an additional 2 points for the 4th result.
• Energy: Use these to purchase Power Cards
• Attack: Deals 1 damage per Attack result to any monster (if you are in Tokyo, you deal the amount to all monsters outside Tokyo; If you are outside Tokyo, you deal damage to the monster currently holding Tokyo)

If there is no monster inside Tokyo, YOU MUST enter Tokyo (however you will receive 1 Victory Point) and if the player inside Tokyo takes damage and doesn’t want continue to hold the city, you can yield Tokyo to the player that damaged you. If you hold Tokyo till your next turn, you gain 2 Victory Points. You can also use any energy you’ve accumulated to purchase Power Cards. Power Cards come in 2 different types:

• Discard: These cards are a one time use card
• Keep: These cards stay faceup in front of you for the remainder of the game

Purchasing Power Cards

These cards can be used to alter the tide of the battle by increasing your health, decreasing your opponent’s health, score Victory Points, etc. in order to give you an edge in the battle. When you purchase a Power Card, YOU MUST replace the card immediately. If you have the available energy, you can continue to purchase new cards.

Winning King of Tokyo

Winning at King of Tokyo is rather simple. In order to win, it comes down to one player that is ether the last monster standing (meaning all other monsters health points are 0) or you have accumulated 20 Victory Points.

Our Take

King of Tokyo is an exciting competitive game for 2 – 6 players that features a simplistic play style perfect for younger players to learn and with comical designs, hundreds of card combinations and a mechanic that relies on the luck of the dice roll. Although some matches can take time to complete or can take as little as 15 minutes, King of Tokyo can create some very exciting matches and is never dull.

Want to buy a copy of King of Tokyo for yourself? Click here to get yourself a copy today!