At over eleven years old, King of Tokyo has stood the test of time, bridging the gap between earlier examples of what we now call “modern board games” and the current Kickstarter generation, which sees bigger and flashier boxes released every week. With both of the current major expansions included (but none of the Monster boxes or promos) King of Tokyo Monster Box is currently the most comprehensive way to jump into this dice-rolling king-of-the-hill extravaganza.
Now, we’ve already reviewed King of Tokyo in its base game form already. With that in mind, I am going to focus a bit more on the expansion content that comes included in the box. There are two bundled expansions (Halloween and Power Up!), both of which date back to around 2012 and 2013 respectively — so there’s nothing new here sadly. The one unique addition in the King of Tokyo Monster Box as far as I can tell is a cardboard dice tray — which is kinda nice, but nothing to get too excited about.
To briefly recap what King of Tokyo is all about, I’ll just summarise it very quickly. Basically, up to six players each take on the role of a giant monster (or kaiju if you prefer) attempting to invade Tokyo. Each monster has a health and victory point dial, and the idea is that you can only gain points whilst occupying Tokyo, but that’s also the only place where you can be hurt – and every other player will be attacking you.
A deck of superpower cards can bend and change the rules for each character as the game progresses, and this adds an element of variation and randomisation. It’s also worth bearing in mind that dice rolling dictates almost everything that a player does on their turn, so expect to have a level of further randomisation in the outcome from one game to the next. Some of the very best superpower cards are those that allow players to narrow down the random dice rolls, but some of the most fun cards are those which have the craziest effects. It’s this kind of silliness that makes King of Tokyo so much fun for kids of all ages.
Moving back to King of Tokyo Monster Box and let’s take a look at each of the two bundled expansions specifically. Firstly we have Power Up!, which was initially released in 2012, and features Pandakai — a new character who is clearly inspired by a certain spiritual panda from a popular cartoon released around that time. Pandakai is not the main event in Power Up!, though — that honour belongs to the actual power up cards that give this expansion its name.
With Power Up! in play, the monsters each gain a deck of eight cards that are placed face down beside their health and victory point dials. When a monster rolls three hearts (which are usually useless when in Tokyo, as healing is not possible there) they can draw two power up cards, choose one, and then keep it secret to play when ready. Some of these cards result in immediate, temporary effects, whilst others provide a permanent benefit. My summary of how this feels is that it adds an element of uniqueness to each creature, at the cost of a slight rules (and reading) overhead that might exclude the very youngest players.
The other bundled expansion is Halloween, which originally debuted a year after Power Up!, in 2013. Halloween features two new characters — Boogie Woogie and Pumpkin Jack, which are unsurprisingly themed around everyone’s favourite scary time of year. A set of six orange dice are also included for purely cosmetic benefit – and these can either replace or mix and match with the basic black dice, but there’s no difference in gameplay terms when you use them. The only other addition here is a deck of twelve costume cards which are shuffled into the superpowers deck as normal (or can be dealt at the start of the game) which have a few alternative rules.
Costume cards basically confer a permanent bonus whilst being “worn” by a monster, and simple examples would be ones which allow players to do different things with hearts, or gain powerful attacks when multiple claws are rolled. On that note, costumes can also be “ripped off” by a monster who rolls three claws against another monster wearing a costume. Just as with Power Up!, Halloween adds a little more complexity, but to be honest it is a more straightforward, largely cosmetic expansion.
Taking the base game of King of Tokyo, and adding the two main expansions in a single box is a no brainer in my opinion, and I am surprised it’s taken so long. However, the fact that such a box has been released around ten years after the original is testament to how well Richard Garfield’s design has stood the test of time. There are few dedicated gamers (especially with kids) who don’t have King of Tokyo in their collection, and if you don’t, I strongly urge you to begin by picking up this consolidated copy. Yes, it’s a shame that monster boxes and promos are not included, but that’s something else you can look out for if you enjoy the main game.
You can find King of Tokyo Monster Box on Amazon.
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