Review: King of Tokyo
In King of Tokyo, by Iello games, you play as monsters, robots, and aliens, each competing to destroy the rest and become the king of Tokyo. Everyone starts the game with 10 health and 0 victory points. You win by either being the first to get to 20 victory points or by destroying the rest of the monsters.
At the start of each turn, you roll six dice. Then you get 2 re-rolls, rolling as many or as few dice as you want on your re-rolls. There are six faces to the dice. 1, 2, and 3 represent victory points, the claw is an attack, the heart is for healing, and the lightening bolt is energy which you can use to purchase cards.
By rolling three 1’s, you get 1 victory point. Roll three 2’s and you get two victory points, and three 3’s get you 3 victory points. If you roll the claw and nobody is currently in Tokyo, you must go into Tokyo. You get a victory point for going in and 2 more for every turn you survive in there. While in Tokyo, if you roll claws, you attack everyone outside of Tokyo. If you roll claws while outside of Tokyo, you attack the monster who is currently inside Tokyo. If someone in Tokyo decides to leave after an attack, they say, “Welcome to Tokyo” and you must take their place. You can heal from your attacks by rolling hearts. However, you cannot heal while in Tokyo. You must leave to do so. There are always three power cards on the table. You get energy cubes when you roll the lightening bolt and you can use them to buy cards that help you in the game. Some cards grant you extra victory points, some give you extra attacks, some help you heal, and the rest do a variety of other things. If you don’t like the options, you can pay 2 energy to discard the three cards and deal out three new ones.
This game is great. It’s one of my favorites. It’s a light game and it’s good for everyone. I play it with my adult gaming group, with my non gamer friends, and I’ve played it with my niece and nephew who are 6 and 8. It’s very easy to learn, very easy to play. Highly reccomended.
