by Incredibul
Maskounet wrote:
What's better in KoNY? Thematic, of course. You can go rampage against buildings and military units! Why wouldn't you love that? Don't you get that in every single monster movies ever made? And what about the super star card? Who wouldn't want to be a super star?
Some other things fall a bit more flat. That statue of liberty is weirdly thematized. Skulls doesn't scale like the other die faces. Ok, the game is not perfect.
My point is that KoNY is a good variation, neither for the casual gamers nor the hardcore gamers. But for something in the middle.
I don't have anything against any publisher who supports a successful product, tries something new with the author and puts illustrators on the payroll that just make beautiful work. But I will make the point that while on paper King of New York is more thematic because it replaces the "boring" numbers with destroying buildings, fighting against the military and fame, for me, the real play experience is actually less thematic. Suddenly, a game about Monsters fighting against each other loses exactly that focus. That already starts when explaining the game: "King of New York is a game of Monsters fighting each other. This is the claw symbol to do that, and here is the hearth symbol to heal wounds, and here for gaining the games currency. Now to the other three symbols that have different mechanisms...". In the explanation of the game, the new Mechanics of King of New York that are not about Monsters fighting each other takes 2/3 or even longer to explain the game. If I go to the movies and want to see a Monster fighting the Military, I go watch Godzilla. If I want to see Monsters fighting each other, I watch King Kong vs Godzilla, and I expect the military to be helpless, puny humans watching how the powers of nature destroy their civilisation, not shooting one of the monsters down because it destroyed to many buildings!
I think it actually detracts from the core theme. But then again, that's my personal preference: I think a great design starts if there is nothing you could take away from it, and then carefully think about if you really need anything extra.
As I said, I actually bought it because that seemed to be the consensus here on BGG and I wanted to make a counterpoint for everyone who stands before the same decision, because I actually lost two years of the awesomeness that is King of Tokyo to give people another perspective. I think there was a bit of what I think is the "cult of the new" with King of New York, and I am very happy that IELLO lured me into King of Tokyo with those extra King of Tokyo powers in Power Up! and almost at the same time putting in a new edition of King of Tokyo, which brought countless hours of fun to me and my gaming group.
I also put this review in because IELLO right now bringt out single monster packs, and I worry they think there are only customers that want "something extra". I am perfectly fine with more of the same and don't want to explain extra rules to someone because he thought C'thullu would be fun.