Cooperative King of Tokyo. Overview of the game King of Monster Island

 I have been waiting for King of Monster Island for a long time. This is a co-op dice-rolling game in the Lord of Tokyo setting. My box arrived about a week ago. I played solo and co-op.

BOOK OF RULES

 The authors of the game have a sense of humor. It's funny how the rulebook starts with the heading "Breaking News" and it looks ridiculously silly.

 Overall, the rulebook is very nice: gorgeous illustrations and titles. It is written quite clearly. First, there is a list of components with a brief description of each.

 The layout is described in detail with a huge illustration on two pages. The rest is fine. Sometimes I did not immediately find the right rule in the book (there is no alphabetical index or glossary), but in general everything is simple and clear. It's a shame, though, that there isn't anything useful in the back of the rulebook. And it is quite wide. You can't put it on a chair - only on the table.

COMPONENTS

 The King of Monster Island box is somewhat strange, of non-standard dimensions. For clarity, a comparison with a can of cola.

 There are quite a few tokens here: minions (left), crystals (top right), support tiles (bottom right).

 The field looks luxurious. Also in the box is a prefab volcano that is a tower for the boss action dice. You collect it and put it in the center of the field; looks great

 There are also health and glory counters — for both the good guys and the bad guys — as well as ability cards and a volcano.

 Black dice belong to players, and red dice belong to the boss.

 Energy cards are player ability cards that are purchased for energy. In the same deck are event cards that add an element of surprise.

 There are also maps of allies and bosses in the game.

 All the components are of excellent quality and the game looks great.

GAME PROCESS

 Basically, King of Monster Island is Yahtzee (dice poker). You roll a handful of dice, keep the results you like, then reroll the others, after which you can reroll them one last time. Just like Lord of Tokyo, Yahtzee and many other dice games. And the most interesting thing is actions on cubes.

• 1. Heart: Gain 1 health.
• 2. Star: get 1 glory (spent on buying allies).
• 3. Tool: 3-4 tools can buy support tiles.
• 4. Leg: Move yourself, move an ally in the same zone as you, or deal 1 damage to a minion.
• 5. Paw: Deal 2 damage to a minion or boss.
• 6. Energy: Get 1 cube of energy (spent on buying capabilities).

 As you can see, the game already looks significantly more difficult than Lord of Tokyo.

 Players choose their monsters. Interestingly, the monsters themselves do not have any special features. The difference between the two is which ally you choose. X+1 cards of allies are offered to choose from, where X is the number of players.

 In the solo game, I randomly chose monkeys and medbots. Once you accumulate 1 glory, you can use your ally's first attribute, and as the game progresses, you will activate their other attributes.

 To win, players need to defeat the boss together.

 As you can see, with the growth of fame, the boss has new abilities.

 The players have 10 black dice for everyone (you usually roll 6, but sometimes some of the dice are blocked for a while), and the boss has his own red dice. They throw themselves into the mouth of the volcano and scatter over the island. And activate kapos effects: summon minions, bring glory to the boss, build crystals.

 As with most co-op, the gameplay consists of phases of bad (the effects of minions and boss dice) and good (the effects of player dice, ability cards and support tokens) events. There is also the concept of movement in the game: as a rule, players can only affect objects in the same zone as them.

 The order of moves is boss-player-boss-player. And so for now the monsters will not defeat the boss together. If the boss defeats one of the monsters, if he builds 3 pylons or if there are no minions left in the bag, then you lose.

SOLO MODE

 Not entirely sure why, but it wasn't until the third game that I managed to play by the rules. The first time I soloed, I thought all the minions activated on the boss's turn (actually only the minions in the same area as the boss activated) and I lost without a chance. The second time I thought that after activating the dice in the boss zone, you reroll them at the beginning of the next turn (they are actually removed from the field). Finally got it right on the third try, even though I've played a bunch of co-op before. I guess I was just expecting to see a much simpler game, no more than a co-op version of Lord of Tokyo.

 In general, I liked the game: it is fan-made, with a lot of interesting solutions. However, situations when the wrong dice fall out every time are very annoying. I liked playing solo and I don't mind playing it again. Compared to other cube metal co-ops, King of Monster Island is easier than, for example, Reckoners, but not by much.

COMPARISON WITH KING OF TOKYO

 From the components, design and characters, it is immediately clear that the action of King of Monster Island takes place in the same setting as "Lord of Tokyo". However, these games are not compatible.

 I'm one of the few who didn't like Lord of Tokyo. It's just a lightweight cube shooter where you hit each other, flip the dice... and that's it. For me, there is too much randomness and downtime in it - these impressions were formed after a game for six. One player was quickly out of the game and had to wait for the rest to play, and I had to wait for the other 4-5 people to come. In addition, you have no idea what will fall on the dice; the gameplay boils down to "roll the dice and manage the results better." There is almost no strategy.

 However, I liked King of Monster Island. A little because it's co-op, a little because there's a lot more strategy here than in Lord of Tokyo. However, the difficulty has also increased significantly. So if you prefer simple mindless dice throwing, I must warn you that this game is much more complex. This is not just a co-op Lord of Tokyo, but a middleweight co-op in a Lord of Tokyo setting. Despite the appearance, King of Monster Island has a lot more mechanics and actions: block dice, grow crystals, buy support tiles, ability cards, cube tower, bad dice activation, minion activation, boss moves, boss abilities and upgrades, moves and upgrades monsters, pulling minions out of a bag, tracking abilities, etc.

CONCLUSIONS

 Both my friends and I liked King of Monster Island. We rate it 7/10. The components are excellent, the gameplay is quite fan-made and slick. The optimal composition is 1-3 players.

 However, Reckoners is, in my opinion, a much more refined co-op cube shooter. It has much more player cooperation (since you roll the dice and plan moves together) and less randomness (since you can always do something useful with the results that have fallen or help your friends), and the players choose their own turn order. In King of Monster Island, you sometimes have to wait a long time for your turn, which makes the game much worse with 4-5 players.

 I think King of Monster Island might well appeal to newcomers unfamiliar with co-op; although it has less co-op than Reckoners, each player is more independent. It is colorful, fun and with excellent components. If you like the setting of "Lord of Tokyo", King of Monster Island may well be for you. Just keep in mind that this is not just a co-op Lord of Tokyo, but a much more complex game.