Richard Garfield is probably responsible for more people spending more money on a single game than any other individual on earth. After pretty much starting the Trading Card Game genre single-handed thanks to coming up with Magic: The Gathering, he's had free reign to develop other games safe in the knowledge that his reputation (and probably his bank account) is solid. Of course, we've previously looked at Netrunner here on EN World, his first design after M:TG that has received a new lease of life thanks to Fantasy Flight, but I'd like to introduce a much lighter (though no less entertaining) game by Garfield – King of Tokyo.
Everyone loves monster movies –they're the perfect way to shut your brain off and relax for a couple of hours, watching a massive beast tear apart a city. While most people woud be able to name Godzilla off the top of their head, the Japanese movie industry actually developed a whole raft of terrifying creatures. Generally born through misuse of nuclear technology, they were a reminder of the horror that befell Hiroshima and Nagasaki in World War II and of course, the monsters would always be defeated in the films.
In King of Tokyo, it's all about the monsters – you and your fellow players grab the irradiated beast,alien or immense robot of your choice, set your health to 10, score to zero and you're good to go. There are two ways to win: either be the first person to hit twenty points (the dull way) or smash every single opponent into smithereens (the fun way). Having a couple ofroutes to victory means that the game is nicely balanced – you decide your approach and can change it on the fly depending on what the other players are doing.
The game works in a very simple fashion. At the start of your turn, each player grabs a handful of dice (minimum six, but you can sometimes have up to eight) and rolls the lot. Different symbols do different things:
- 1, 2 and 3: Three of a kind of the same number will simply give you that amount of points. Any extras add one further point (so three 2s will give you two points, four 2s give you three).
- Lightning bolts: Lets you grab an Energy Cube from the pile. These can be spent on special ability cards that can generally boil down to skewing the rules in your favour or giving you points.
- Claws: Allow you to attack other monsters. Each claw means they lose a health point.
- Hearts: Lets you heal up, one heart for one health point.
There's one other thing that is a major aspect of the game – the concept of being either In Tokyo or Not In Tokyo. This is the trickiest part of the game to understand but inall honesty isn't that hard... The game comes with a little board representing the city, and the first player to roll at least one claw must place their standee on it. They're now In Tokyo and they score apoint immediately. Any attacks they do hit everyone Not In Tokyo, and vice versa. At any time after someone who is In Tokyo has been attacked, they take the damage and can then choose to leave, movingthe attacking player into the city. Oh yeah, also, you're not allowed to heal while you're In Tokyo but you do get extra points at the start of each of your turns. That's quite important to remember.
So, it becomes an extravaganza of pushing your luck. Do you clamour to get into the city, racking up the bonus points but constantly being whacked by everyone else? Or doyou stay outside, getting digs in where you can and hoping you can roll those all-important triples? Either way, King of Tokyo ends up becoming a battle where you'll need to combine luck and judgement if you want to win. It's a very simple little affair but that doesn't mean it's not entertaining – in fact, its a fantastically raucous way to bring an evening of gaming to a close as well as a cracking game to introduce to those who may be a little unsure of the kind ofstuff we normally play. It's big, it's silly, it's fun – who wouldn't enjoy playing such a thing?
