Let’s get ready to rumble!

My family has a soft spot for Yahtzee. So when King of Tokyo was describe to us as “Battle Yahtzee” we were instantly all in. I mean just look at that box. It screams 80’s rampage awesomeness and was designed by Richard Garfield, the creator of Magic the Gathering.

King of Tokyo Overview

In King of Tokyo, 2-6 players duke it out king of the hill style until there is one player left. Players assume the roles of Godzilla-esque monsters stomping around Tokyo gaining fame and pounding on each other through a series of dice rolls.

Set up of the game is dead simple. Get out the board, choose a monster, layout the energy cubes and reveal the first 3 power up cards. Then warm up those dice and get ready to start chucking! Turns will go around the table until either there is one monster left standing or a monster has hit 20 fame (stars). In addition to a monster standee, each player gets a monster board that tracks health and fame to make things easier.

Smacking monsters around or gaining fame happen through the dice rolls. On your turn, you roll the 6 dice three times and set aside dice you want to keep after each roll. At the end of the third roll, you resolve the dice and distribute their effect to the other players around the table or yourself. These are no ordinary dice by the way. In addition to numbers 1-3, these dice also have some interesting faces on them:

• Claws will inflict 1 point of damage to other players for each claw rolled.
• Hearts will heal your character 1 point of damage for each heart rolled.
• Lightning will award you one energy cube for each lightning rolled.
• Those 1-3 numbers will give you fame so long as you roll three of the same number. Roll three 2s and that will award your monster with 2 fame points. For each additional like number you roll after that you get an additional fame point.

King of the Hill . . . I mean Tokyo

The King of Tokyo board is interesting. There are only so many spaces in Tokyo that monsters can occupy (one space for 2-4 players and two spaces for 5-6 players). If all the spaces are occupied in Tokyo the remaining monsters are placed on the outskirts of the board. There are both perks and disadvantages for being either inside or outside of Tokyo.

When a player enters or starts their turn in Tokyo, they gain fame points. When they roll damage they damage ALL monsters outside of Tokyo. However, while in Tokyo you cannot heal your monster. For the monsters outside of Tokyo, you can heal yourself but when you attack you can only attack the monster inside of Tokyo, not the other monsters outside of Tokyo. Now, there is a bit of push your luck when managing control of Tokyo. If a monster takes damage while in Tokyo, they can choose to leave and the player that dealt the damage would move into Tokyo. This plays out like a table top king of the hill and it is really fun.

You’ve got to have power!

These rules by themselves are pretty cool but rules are meant to be broken. Over the course of battle you will be rolling lightning and collecting energy cubes. These energy cubes can then be spent on the power up cards on the table. When you purchase a power up card you can get rule breaking powers that only apply to your monster. Some cards have on-going effects that let you roll 7 dice instead of 6 or take 4 rolls instead of 3. Other cards are one time cards that may heal you or hurt other players. There are many different types of cards that can be purchased that can change the tide of battle in your favor.

Experience

This is a really good game. The turns move quickly and once you get used to moving in and out of Tokyo the game flows pretty smoothly. It is not a very complex game but there is some strategy involved. During our plays we are constantly balancing damaging opponents, healing yourself, and controlling Tokyo to achieve victory. The yahtzee style mechanics are something that anyone can pick and have fun with while the power cards add some nice surprises to keep things interesting. The artwork is light and fun and the dice are nice and chunky. Seriously, you need two hands to chuck these puppies!

I do have some nitpicks with the game however. While I like the board, it is kind of weird to have a board with only 2 spaces on it. Seems like a bit of a waste and that it is not really needed. Also the energy cubes you acquire are on the small side and kind of don’t fit the theme of the game. You roll a lightning bolt but collect a green cube? Lastly, this is somewhat of a luck based game, and that may turn some players off.

King of Tokyo is great family game that should be everyones collection. Even after owning for all these years it is still one that gets requested on our Friday family game nights.