Thanks for the replies. I'm still on the fence. I have a niece and a nephew and that was another thing making me lean towards getting it since it looked like it could be a fun game to play with them. I've also considered getting the game for my nephew for his upcoming birthday, but my sister's kids don't take care of things so I've never bought them any board games because they're bad about losing pieces. I guess I could buy it for him but keep it here, but that seems like a jerky thing to do since I'd be playing it more than he would! :D
As for playing time, we play multi-player Magic and those games can drag on for hours some times, so we're used to that. I made a deck designed to end games quickly and it did work at doing that, but it also resulted in me getting ganged up on whenever I played it, so I had to get rid of it. I don't think any of us would mind a game of King of Tokyo going 45 minutes to an hour. In fact, one of the things I'm worried about with King of Tokyo is games being too short and not being very satisfying.
Small World was a game that I was very interested in, but I couldn't find a demo for it and it's a pretty expensive game. My money is pretty tight these days so I can't afford to buy I game I may end up hating or I'll only play a couple of times and never touch again. We're all Game of Thrones fans, so that was another game I was looking at, but it looks a little tedious to play. One of our friends that has moved to Arizona was in town last year and he brought his Mage Knight game and he and the guy who's house we play Magic at loved it, but I was kind of bored playing it even though I won my first two games. The Game of Thrones board game reminded me of it. Something I'd enjoy playing a video game version of by myself, but not something I'd like to play at a table all night.
One complaint I've read about King of Tokyo was dice randomness. I've played Blood Bowl online on and off for a few years and I've grown to hate too much randomness in games. It really sucks when the dice or cards just screw you over. In fact, that's one of my big beefs with Magic. You get those games were you don't draw enough land or you draw too much land or you can't draw the color you need and you just sit there and get helplessly beat up on. With Munchkin, it always seems like there's one guy that just can't get any good card draws and has to sit there while the rest of us play (the guy that likes Mage Knight is almost always that guy). Watching videos of King of Tokyo, it didn't seem like that would be too bad, though because of the re-rolling. Still, quite a few people have said "King of Tokyo is all luck" which has me worried, especially having played Blood Bowl for so long. That game would make me want to throw a chair through my window some times!
One thing I've been seriously considering is getting a co-op game. We're all usually pretty good about not getting mad at each other during games, but, still, there are times when someone gets pissed during a game. There's certainly been some times were I got mad because I felt like I was getting ganged up on for no real reason (I don't mind getting ganged up on when I'm the biggest threat). Most of the co-op games I've looked at didn't look so good, though, and a lot of people have said co-op games usually end up being one person telling everyone else what to do. It did seem like King of Tokyo wouldn't have that problem of people getting singled out, which I found appealing. You're either in Tokyo hitting everyone out of Tokyo or you're out of Tokyo hitting whoever is in it. I've read that people intentionally staying out of Tokyo and just going for points can be a big problem with the game, though.
What I'm looking for is a game that's fun for everyone, that's not too short and not too long, has enough strategy to be mentally engaging but not so much that it becomes a tedious slog to play, and has enough randomness and chance to be exciting but not so much that it determines the game, all with strong replay value. King of Tokyo looks like it hits some of these things, but not all. It looks like it's got SOME strategy to it, but I worry that it doesn't have enough. I also worry about the replay value of it.
I guess I could buy it, play it for a while and if it gets old, sell it on eBay later.
Anyways, thanks for the replies and any other responses will be welcome.
As for playing time, we play multi-player Magic and those games can drag on for hours some times, so we're used to that. I made a deck designed to end games quickly and it did work at doing that, but it also resulted in me getting ganged up on whenever I played it, so I had to get rid of it. I don't think any of us would mind a game of King of Tokyo going 45 minutes to an hour. In fact, one of the things I'm worried about with King of Tokyo is games being too short and not being very satisfying.
Small World was a game that I was very interested in, but I couldn't find a demo for it and it's a pretty expensive game. My money is pretty tight these days so I can't afford to buy I game I may end up hating or I'll only play a couple of times and never touch again. We're all Game of Thrones fans, so that was another game I was looking at, but it looks a little tedious to play. One of our friends that has moved to Arizona was in town last year and he brought his Mage Knight game and he and the guy who's house we play Magic at loved it, but I was kind of bored playing it even though I won my first two games. The Game of Thrones board game reminded me of it. Something I'd enjoy playing a video game version of by myself, but not something I'd like to play at a table all night.
One complaint I've read about King of Tokyo was dice randomness. I've played Blood Bowl online on and off for a few years and I've grown to hate too much randomness in games. It really sucks when the dice or cards just screw you over. In fact, that's one of my big beefs with Magic. You get those games were you don't draw enough land or you draw too much land or you can't draw the color you need and you just sit there and get helplessly beat up on. With Munchkin, it always seems like there's one guy that just can't get any good card draws and has to sit there while the rest of us play (the guy that likes Mage Knight is almost always that guy). Watching videos of King of Tokyo, it didn't seem like that would be too bad, though because of the re-rolling. Still, quite a few people have said "King of Tokyo is all luck" which has me worried, especially having played Blood Bowl for so long. That game would make me want to throw a chair through my window some times!
One thing I've been seriously considering is getting a co-op game. We're all usually pretty good about not getting mad at each other during games, but, still, there are times when someone gets pissed during a game. There's certainly been some times were I got mad because I felt like I was getting ganged up on for no real reason (I don't mind getting ganged up on when I'm the biggest threat). Most of the co-op games I've looked at didn't look so good, though, and a lot of people have said co-op games usually end up being one person telling everyone else what to do. It did seem like King of Tokyo wouldn't have that problem of people getting singled out, which I found appealing. You're either in Tokyo hitting everyone out of Tokyo or you're out of Tokyo hitting whoever is in it. I've read that people intentionally staying out of Tokyo and just going for points can be a big problem with the game, though.
What I'm looking for is a game that's fun for everyone, that's not too short and not too long, has enough strategy to be mentally engaging but not so much that it becomes a tedious slog to play, and has enough randomness and chance to be exciting but not so much that it determines the game, all with strong replay value. King of Tokyo looks like it hits some of these things, but not all. It looks like it's got SOME strategy to it, but I worry that it doesn't have enough. I also worry about the replay value of it.
I guess I could buy it, play it for a while and if it gets old, sell it on eBay later.
Anyways, thanks for the replies and any other responses will be welcome.