by xfoley8
MisterFurious wrote:
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.
If randomness is an issue for you, King of Tokyo will drive you crazy- it's all about the dice, and the card abilities players purchase can sometimes undo any kind of strategy you have going and give someone who was at the bottom of the heap an easy win.
Having said that, I think the game is a blast if you don't take it too seriously (as long as you play with 3 or more), and younger kids would probably love it.
As to co-op games, as long as you don't play with someone who wants to dominate and gets upset if he doesn't like other players' choices, they are a lot of fun (Pandemic and Forbidden Island, especially). Of course, there is constructive criticism, and "man, you're an idiot" criticism. All depends on the personalities you play with. If you play a lot with a younger nephew, Forbidden Island is a good place to start (and it's very cheap, comparatively speaking), although maybe a little dry if you prefer 'action' and goofy cartoony artwork in your games, like you get with KoT. I would say FI meets most, if not all, of your criteria- there is definitely strategy involved (but still some chance based on the tile layout and card shuffling), it plays fairly quickly (30 minutes or so with 2 or 3), has few small parts that could get lost (unlike Pandemic), and usually a good deal of tension, especially towards the end.