King of Tokyo Duel

The Game

King of Tokyo is a highly popular game by Richard Garfield, designer of the even more popular Magic: The Gathering. These two are very different games. I have read about King of Tokyo but have not actually tried it. Now I have tried the two-player version. 

King of Tokyo Duel is a kaiju (monster) game. You are the monster. You fight the other monster while rampaging the city. This is a dice game. You roll dice to see what you get to do. You can reroll up to twice, and each time you can decide which dice to reroll and which not to. After rolling, you use your dice to perform actions. 

The different icons on the die faces mean different things. There is an icon for smacking your opponent. If you reduce your opponent's health points to zero, you win. There is an icon for healing. You can recover from your injuries. Two icons are for a tug on war on the game board. You compete to see who is causing more damage to the city and to the (human) army. This is translated to two tracks on the game board. You try to pull the marker to your end of the track. If you manage that with either one of the tracks, you win. Alternatively, if you manage to get both markers to move to about the mid point on your side, you also win. 

The other two icons are lightning bolt and exclamation mark. The bolt is money. You get to buy power cards, some of which are single-use, others give you a permanent ability. Exclamation marks are used for activating your monster's unique ability. The game comes with many different monsters, and every game you can pick a different one to play. They have different health values and unique abilities. 

The shop offers three cards. 

Some power cards come with tiles you can add to the tracks on the game board. They augment the tracks, possibly extending or shortening them, and creating new functions on some of the spaces. 

The Play

This is a simple and quick game. To win, you either knock out your opponent, or cause massive destruction. You are at the mercy of the dice. This is a game with some luck. Collecting lightning bolts to buy power cards is long-term investment. This can be risky if your opponent is going for speed. By the time you build up your abilities, you might be near defeat. So the tempo of the game is something you need to be alert about and respond to. 

Both the blue and red markers are in the lighted region on the right, which means game over. 

The Thoughts

This is a short and speedy game. It is fast and furious. There is some strategy so it is certainly not brainless. At the same time there is a fair bit of luck in the die rolls. The game is so-so for me, because I feel I don't have a lot of control.