King Of Tokyo: Power Up Review

King Of Gateway Board Games

Richard Garfield’s King of Tokyo has quickly become a staple entry-level board game. Since its release in 2011 there have been multiple expansions as well as spin-offs including King of New York and King of Tokyo Dark Edition. New York adds a new power track and Dark Edition is aimed at an older audience, embracing grittier designs over the original’s cartoony aesthetic. There is also the newer King of Monster Island which changes the game to a cooperative experience. There you take on larger creatures, birthed from the island’s central volcano. However, the first expansion back in 2012 was Power Up! and has since become a favourite among the game’s fans.

So what is King of Tokyo? Based on the Yahtzee mechanism of rolling a handful of dice three times, locking in dice as you go along, it is essentially a fighting game. You start by choosing a monster, placing it around a central board, which depicts Tokyo. On your turn you will roll a number of dice as you attempt to get certain icons. The claw will mean one hit point to another monster. If you are in Tokyo, those hit points cause damage to every monster not in the city. If you are outside, then all damage is done to the current King. Last one standing wins. You might also get energy cubes which are used to buy cards that offer either one-off or ongoing effects. Finally, there are the numbers one to three. If you get three or more of a kind, then you will get points and first to twenty points wins. It is a great game of pushing you luck and can be monstrous fun!

Panda Power

The first thing that comes with this expansion is a giant Panda named Pandaki. In a world post-Kung Fu Panda, this expansion is on the more cartoony side than some of the others. However, it offers a very different looking monster to the more classic giant lizards and apes. As with most of the monsters available, Pandaki, doesn’t have any specific powers or differences and so this addition is very much just an aesthetic one. The substantial change comes with the evolution cards. Much like the power cards of the main deck, these will offer an array of additional things that a monster can do.

These decks are designed for each specific character and will be placed next to the monster’s controller for the duration of the game. Each time that you roll at least three hearts you get to draw an evolution card into your hand. Once there, they can be played at any time. It is worth mentioning that you don’t have to have used your hearts in order to get the card. So when in Tokyo you might decide to keep hearts even though they can’t be used to increase your health, just to get some extra ability.

This box adds a pack of cards for each of the base characters as well as for the newly introduced Pandaki and each is unique to their monster. For example, Pandaki has a ‘Bamboo Supply’ card that, when played, allows them to either add a power cube to the card at the beginning of their turn, or remove one from the card to their personal supply. The King for example can use ‘chest thumping’ to force whoever is in Tokyo, to retreat. There is a nice mix of permanent effects as well as on offs such as Meka-Dragon’s ‘Mecha Blast’ which will allow them to do two extra damage when they play that card.