by Stuart Platt
King of Tokyo! I love King of Tokyo.
This simple dice game uses a 'Yahzee' esque rolling and keeping mechanism to its full potential as players feel the power at their fingertips as massive monsters and fire-breathing beheamoths clash over domination of Tokyo.
Players adopt the roles of various, copyright-protected monsters (NOT-Godzilla, NOT-King Kong etc. plus a small Bunny piloting a giant Robot Rabbit!)
There are two distinct paths to victory in KoT. Score points or kill all the other monsters.
The genius of this direct conflict game is that, like Cosmic Encounter, your choice of WHO to attack is taken out of your hands. If you're OUT of Tokyo you attack whoever is in. If you're IN Tokyo then you attack everybody else. This means noone feels they are being picked on, so when player elimination happens - and in such a short game this is hardly a problem - there is less frustration and hurt feelings.
ON THE DICE
Trios of NUMBERS (1's, 2's or 3's) generate those points towards a winning total of 20.
LIGHTNING BOLTS generate little snot cubes... more on those in a bit.
Any CLAWS on your attack dice indicate an attack. The monster in Tokyo after being wounded may retreat out - forcing the attacker to take their place. Also, entering / staying in Tokyo will also generate points.
and HEARTS on the dice will heal your monster - but here's the rub: you cannot heal whilst being in Tokyo.
Snot cubes can be spent to augment / mutate your monster from a communal set of 3 special power cards drawn from a deck. These could include wings, laser breath, healing ability etc. which give you extra cool stuff to do during your turn. There are also VP cards that can be purchased (usually at the cost of health) that push you towards that winning target.
Mmmmmmmmm Parasitic Tentacles...
As stated above, I really enjoy KoT. It is a short, fun, dice rolling game and therefore inherrantly luck driven - but with just enough decision making to keep you engaged.
The theme, art and satisfying, chunky dice make this experience another one of my favourite fillers. King of Tokyo scores 4 monster sizd, Tokyo anihilating GAVELS out of 4.
