Review: King of Tokyo

Everyone has heard of Richard Garfield. The man only created THE defining CCG of all time, Magic: the Gathering. With KING OF TOKYO, Richard Garfield brings us an outstanding game for 2 to 6 players in which you will be able to play mutant monsters, gigantic robots and other monstrous creatures, each of whom attack each other with monstrous glee in an attempt to become the one and only King of Tokyo:

When it is your turn to play, you throw six dice. Each die has one of the following six symbols: 1, 2 or 3 Points of Victory, Energy, Healing or Attack. In three successive throws, you are going to choose whether to keep or discard each die in order to come up with combinations that will enable you to win Victory Points, hoard energy, restore your health or attack other players.

Players who attack Tokyo will find themselves inside Tokyo and will be crowned King of Tokyo...and will end up finding that all of the other monsters are now against them!

There are also special cards that you can purchase with the energy you collect from the dice rolls and that can either have a permanent or temporary effect, such as growing a second head which grants you an additional dice, body armor, a jet pack, poisonous spikes and many more great ideas out of cheesy monster movies. I can just hear the MST3K guys in my head every time I play this game. The cards in my opinion are key to victory in many instances of this game.

In order to win the game, one must either destroy Tokyo by accumulating 20 Victory points or be the only surviving monster at the end of the game.

I have played the game nearly a dozen times now in groups of three and up to five. It was enjoyable each time I played. The rules are simple enough for children to understand and is a lot of fun--especially when you are allowed to emulate the monster you are playing at the table like me and my son do...

This game makes for a fun family game night. Highly recommended.