Board Game Review: King of Tokyo The Dark Edition

Who will outlast the competition? This dice rolling battler ensures galactic sized fights between classic monsters. Build your hearts to stay alive, purchase extras with your accumulated charges, or go for the knockout. It's up to you to determine who will be The King of Tokyo.

Spider: Well, I thought it was a fun family game. The theme was really cool and that anyone that likes King Kong or Godzilla would love it. For the most part the turns were really quick, which I liked. We haven't played the original version, but the Dark Edition has really interesting, good art. I liked the components.

Cat: I agree, I really liked the art. It was fun and allowed me to channel my inner villain. Glowing eyes, fangs, claws. I'm all in for the destruction.

Spider: The way it was balanced was fun. There were several ways to win, like you could go for last man standing or sit in the background collecting points. The wickedness gauge was fun and that helped to collect additional traits. You can also buy cards from the market to either immediately use or keep.

Cat: Having those different options made the game more interesting and kept me guessing what people would do. The Owl and the Dog loved to troll each other with who was in the lead. When I played with Dog, he typically liked to collect charges, stay out of Tokyo, and accumulate power. However, the Owl loved to push his luck with rolling the dice and collect extra powers from the wickedness trail.

Spider: I did like how there were always ways to recover. The push your luck aspect of staying in Tokyo was fun.

Cat: I would say I had a tendency to overstay my welcome and not yield Tokyo soon enough. However, I think I'll stick with that strategy in future games because it was fun to pit myself against everyone and see if I could pull off the victory.

Spider: I thought some of the instructions and wording on the cards were confusing. I could see how the terminology could be interpreted differently which could have vastly different outcomes.

Cat: I can see that. The cards were open to interpretation, but for the most part I would err on the conservative side of interpretation because otherwise felt OP.

Spider: I found that there should be a card limit because I was able to take advantage of charge earning cards to buy more cards. I ended up missing some of the bonuses I earned because I was able to collect so many cards, which seems weird because this isn't really an engine builder type game.

I also didn't like that there were no asymmetrical powers inherently within the characters. The theme lended itself so well to have unique options per character and that just wasn't capitalized. There were separations in the cards, but those are free market and anyone purchase them.

The player elimination aspect was the tough part with kids. When someone gets eliminated early, that person just sits there staring and bored. I'm not wild about that mechanic, but I get that's what you sign up for with giant monsters clashing in Tokyo. I just realized that it was disappointing watching when others get eliminated because I wanted them to keep playing to keep the suspense of the game going.

Cat: Player elimination with a 6 and an 8 year old was TOUGH. They both understood the mechanics and most of the time it just ended up being about how the dice rolled. So when the little felt the big emotions of being eliminated first, it kinda brought the game down. It did provide great learning opportunities on how to approach games, winning, and losing. I still think it's a great game for kids, but with at least one or two ounces of patience and coffee.

Spider: Overall, it was a fun game and I liked playing it. There were a couple of times when it got down to two players and it just dragged on. I did enjoy messing around and trying different strategies to win. I thought it was cool that Dog tried staying out of Tokyo for some games and he was able to win, likewise he tried some games where he stayed in Tokyo for as long as possible and he still was able to win some. There is a lot of replay value in the variety of ways to earn points, recover health, and dole out damage. Whether you were investing in cards, stocking up on energy, riding it out or maintaining health you could build your own strategy within the basic framework.

Squid (age 12): I liked all the different pieces in the game and the overall aesthetic. I liked the variety of the characters and how each theme fit them. I thought that being able to go beyond the luck of dice roll with the cards was fun.

Owl (age 8): I liked rolling the dice. The tiles could be confusing and didn't like how you can easily get eliminated. My favorite character was the Meka Dragon.

Dog (age 6): I liked the different cards you could buy with the charges. I liked to move up the wicked points counter to get extra good things every turn. The Kraken was my favorite character.

Overall Ratings

Pros:

quick turns

variety of strategies

fun cards

Cons:

vague wording on cards

player elimination

lack of asymmetrical powers

Spider: Three Spiders