King of Tokyo

In King of Tokyo you are a monster laying waste to the city of Tokyo, but there is not just one of you, instead their are many more monsters with the exact same intentions. Soon everyone turns from the city to each other as everybody knows… there can be only one king!

King of Tokyo is a dice rolling game where you have to try and be the first monster to collect twenty victory points, or be the last one standing. Your turn begins when you roll the six beautifully chunky dice for the first time, then you decided which dice you want to keep (based on the symbols that come up on them) and then do that again two more times so that you have a pool that you -hopefully- should like.

If you get a punch symbol then you hit everyone who is in Tokyo city if you are out or everyone outside Tokyo if you are in for one health with each other punch adding one more (you have ten health to begin with). You can get health back by rolling hearts, victory points by rolling three of one kind of number and cubes that look a lot like jelly - there not, just don't even try-- by rolling lighting bolts. These jelly cubes can be used later to purchase cool upgrades for your monster, which can be anything from getting more dice or being allowed to roll the dice you have an extra time.

Finally, I am just going to explain a few rules about Tokyo, firstly if there is no one in Tokyo, you go in and you get one victory point. For every turn you are still in their, you get another two points, meaning you want to stay in for as long as possible. However all the punches that everyone rolls will hit you, and you can't heal in Tokyo, giving you a reason to go out. Each time some punches you, you can swap positions with them and get out.

That is it, and as you can see the rules are pretty easy and you can teach them to basically anyone whether or not they have played games before. The small number of rules means that turns go by really quickly and you are never drifting of into space as you wait for your counterparts to finish their actions.

Remember when I said that you could teach this to basically everyone, well you can, but I'm not sure you would want to. Small children could not like the aggressiveness of the game and get really upset when their person dies (my monster gets killed a lot, I blame it on the dice) which will happen.

Also, this game is basically, if you peel everything of, a game of luck. Even if you select the right upgrades and choose the best possible time to go out of Tokyo, if the dice aren't kind, you don't stand a chance at winning. Personally I am fine with this, but some people hate it and hate the game because of it.

On the brighter side, the artwork and components are amazing. The dice make a lovely handful as you pick them all up and throw them down in a cascade of randomness. The artwork on the upgrade cards is really good and thematic and the character boards are really nicely done to.

If everyone in your group you are playing with are fine with the violence and confrontation in this game then it will make a really funny half an hour as people realise that they have just widely miscalculated and died. However, if anyone is more of a pacifist (including my sister) then it will kill that atmosphere as an integral part of the game is beating each other up. Kindness, is not an option.

Overall I really enjoy this game and am fine with all the minor qualms that I have spoken about before, but you do need to pick your group carefully. It is funny and I would say that it was definitely worth it, giving it a 7 out of 10.