We all act like monsters at one time or another. King of Tokyo is living the old movie monster dream. Goal is to be either the last monster standing or at least the most destructive. This game is for ages 8 and up and is for 2 to 6 players. It combines fighting and basically yahtzee. So it will appeal to a large amount of people.

This game usually goes over well so I’ve played it quite a few times. Last Christmas I bought it for my nephew because he loves video games and to me this plays like one. The dice offer an element of luck but you still get to decide how to use what you roll so things aren’t completely out of your control.

The Setup

To set up the game each player picks their monster. They take their monster board and character. The monster board is kinda like what you’d see in a video game, it tracks your points and your health. To start set the points to zero and the health to 10. All monsters start outside Tokyo so the character can stay with each player.

Place the tokens, energy cubes, dice and deal out three power cards face up near the game board so everyone has access.

How to Play

On your turn roll the 6 black dice. Like yahtzee you can roll 3 times and choose to keep and dice between rolls. At the end of your third roll you can resolve the dice as follows:

• Numbers – Any numbers in a set of three give you that many victory points. If you happen to roll four of a kind you’d get the rolled number in victory points plus one for the extra dice. For example if you roll rolled four 2’s you would get 2 + 1 victory points.
• Lightning Bolts – you get one energy cube per lighting bolt
• Heart – if you are outside Tokyo you can receive 1 health per heart. If you are inside Tokyo you gain zero health for hearts rolled. This makes the decision to stay in Tokyo tricky.
• Claw – If you are in Tokyo deal 1 damage per claw to everyone not in Tokyo. If you are not in Tokyo deal 1 damage per claw to the monsters that are in Tokyo.

General rule is if no one is in Tokyo, you must enter and place your Monster in Tokyo City. Only one monster can be each spot on the board at a time. For taking the spot you gain 1 victory point and 2 points if you remain their by the start of your next turn.

Players may choose to give up Tokyo after being damaged. Each claw dice represents 1 damage which equals one negative health. If a monster chooses to leave Tokyo then it moves out of the Tokyo space, but still gets the 1 damage. If more than one clawed hand is rolled then the monster may still leave while only taking 1 damage, or stay and take more damage. Remember if they stay for their next turn they will gain two victory points. So depending on their health that may be a good decision. Once a player leaves Tokyo the attacking player must enter.

There are two spots on the Tokyo gameboard, if the number of players becomes less than 5 Toyko Bay is closed and the monster in it moves either to the Tokyo space if it’s open or out of Toyko.

The energy cubes you gain can be used to buy one or more power cards. Each card has a cost indicated on it. Only three are available to purchase at a time, when a card is purchased a new card will replace it. If a player chooses they can pay 2 cubes to replace all 3 of the existing cards. Cards can be resolved at the end of your turn.

If a monster runs out of health, then they are eliminated from the game. Discard their energy and power cards.

To win the game you need to either be the last monster standing or the first to have 20 victory points. If you have 20 victory points but have zero health you are still eliminated.

Once you get into the game it plays nicely. The randomness of the dice and the powers from the cards add certain elements to keep you on your toes. This is definitely it’s one of my favourite attack style games. I mean who doesn’t want to be a space penguin?