• Game: King of Tokyo
• Publisher: iello
• Designer: Richard Garfield
• Genre: Dice-rolling monster bash
• Players: 2-6
• Playtime: 20-30 minutes



• What's Hot: Fun-focused gameplay that keeps it simple; subtle depth coupled with exciting luck; lots of drama and high stakes; sells the giant monster theme efficiently and at a conceptual level; great artwork



• What's Not: Slightly expensive; some quality concerns

by: Michael Barnes

Richard Berg’s Godzilla game released a couple of months ago might have been a Kaiju-sized debacle, but iello’s dice game King of Tokyo manages to completely salvage the Japanese monster movie theme in what is one of the best games of 2011.

Created by Magic: The Gathering designer Richard Garfield, this small footprint design leverages a tremendously fun King-of-the-Hill concept with a simple dice-rolling game that practically begs for abundant name-calling, trash-talking, and general badmouthing between players responsible for sending ersatz versions of King Kong, Godzilla, and other giant monsters to wreak mayhem on the Japanese mainland. It’s a game that is definitely classed as filler with a very short playtime (thirty minutes tops) and few rules. It’s the kind of game that doesn’t look like much, but the above-the-table fun and subtle depth proves that there’s more here than meets the eye.

Each player manages a monster represented by a large cardboard standup and the goal is to either be the last monster standing or to accrue 20 victory points. The board is small, and really only serves as the “hill”. On a turn, a player gets to roll six custom dice with two rerolls of any or all of the dice if they choose. This creates some interesting strategy and some great push-your-luck gameplay. It gives the player control over the final outcome of the roll, and in many cases a strategy might change over the course of the dice rolling on a given turn.

On each die are numbers one through three that generate victory points if you manage to get three of a kind; roll up three ones and you’ll get one point. A power icon supplies the player with green power cube, a currency that can be used to purchase one of three displayed power-up cards that offer all kinds of monster powers ranging from extra heads (dice), mutations, military involvement, and other fun, crazy advantages that are well worth investing in. A healing icon regenerates wounds, and since this is a game where players can be eliminated a timely healing roll can literally keep a monster in the game. A claw die face does damage, and this is where it gets outright nasty.

If a player’s monster is in Tokyo and they roll damage icons, then all other monsters at the table take the blow. If a player outside of Tokyo rolls damage, only the monster or monsters in Tokyo are wounded and they have the option to step down, taking the hits and allowing the attacker to take their place. Moving into Tokyo generates a victory point, but being in Tokyo when your turn comes back around gives you two for every round you’re there.

But here’s the kicker. Monsters in Tokyo can not heal so there is a tremendous risk of elimination if you hang out too long. Naturally, this means that you should constantly harangue and belittle the player that sheepishly steps down when you blast them with three or four damage dice. It also means that players occupying the city should ideally be taunting and harassing all comers, mocking bad die rolls and basking shamelessly in Kaiju glory when their turn comes back around and they get the survival bonus. Beard-scratching luck-haters and mousy gamers with tender feelings need not apply.