Great Games #5 King of Tokyo

Favorite Games #5 King of Tokyo

Giant monsters thrashing it out for control of Tokyo, whats not to love? King of Tokyo is a dice rolling game similar to Yahtzee, the twist is that players are giant monsters and the dice dole out damage, healing, energy or victory points. Just like Yahtzee you're trying to make combinations of dice, but in King of Tokyo your goal is to either get to 20 victory points or to kill off your opponents.

My favorite part of King of Tokyo is the player cards, to keep track of your health and victory points there are wheels inside the cards that display a number in a little window. This game mechanic works super well and is easy to handle even for players with less than perfect manual dexterity.

On interesting thing about King of Tokyo is how gameplay changes with different numbers of players. With 3 or 4 people you'll tend to focus on victory points and have less combat. With 5 or 6 you tend to have a lot more combat and the winner is usually the last monster standing. I've played King of Tokyo a lot and especially with big groups that don't know each other well everybody will start out being polite to each other with relatively few smacks but as the game progresses somebody (usually me) will become "that guy" and deliver a barrage of smacks and then its on!

King of Tokyo is a great game to play with kids or novice gamers, the dice are some of the best feeling I've ever used, they're slightly bigger than normal d6 and heavy with good feel in the hand. We play this game often with Angela's family and everybody has a great time.

Great Games #4 Tokaido

Favorite Game #4: Tokaido

Another Japanese game and I think its safe to say this is Angie's favorite game. In Tokaido players journey the East Sea Road having a traditional Japanese vacation. On the way they can interact with interesting people, buy souvenirs, paint pictures, eat interesting food and relax in hot springs. This is a game where enjoying the journey really is the goal. Each activity earns players points and the player who had the most satisfying vacation as measured by the points, wins.

My trick to winning at Tokaido is to not play to win, just to have fun. Tokaido is a very zen game, its probably not a great choice for young kids, its recommended for 8 and up but in our experience this is a pretty adult game. The pace is relaxed and players who want more excitement should probably look for another game like King of Tokyo.

There are several expansion sets for Tokaido, the miniatures are worth having although they are a little too big for the board. The other expansions I'm not too excited about, the game is well balanced the way it is and I feel like the expansions upset that balance.

One last piece of advice is to play Tokaido in a relatively quiet place, maybe with some Japanese music in the background, this will enhance the zen like experience. We've played in loud environments and it really hurts the game overall. Remember this is all about the journey not the destination. I often find myself at the end of a game of Tokaido wishing their was more.

Great Games #3 Love Letter

Favorite Game #3: Love Letter

Love Letter is another quick card game. The goal is to get your love note to the Princess and receive a token of her favor. To get your message to the Princess you ask for help from one of a cast of characters including a Guard, the Baron, Priest, Handmaid, King, Countess or if you're really lucky you can pass your missive directly to the Princess herself. Each character has some special ability or trait to help you in your mission. In each round one card is put back into the pouch which adds variation to the gameplay. Each player holds one card, on their turn they pick another card and choose one to play. The round ends when either the deck is empty or all players but one have been eliminated. Rounds are quick, each is 3-5 minutes so a game will involve several rounds.

Intended for 4 players we've played Love Letter with as many as 6 people although the rounds just get really short. This is another good game to introduce novice gamers to although it might be a little difficult for young kids.

There are several variations of Love Letter, a friend gave us the Batman variation in which your goal is to capture the highest criminal of Gotham, the joker. While I like the variation I'm pretty traditional and prefer the original. I'll put links to a couple variations below. One other nice thing about Love Letter is its low price which makes it affordable for most everyone.

Great Games #2: Dixit

Favorite Game #2: Dixit

Dixit is a French game thats a little hard to explain but easy to play. Players are each given a hand of cards with pictures on them. The active player chooses a card and says a word or phrase that characterizes their card. The other players then choose a card they thing fits with the word or phrase. The cards are then mixed together and laid out for all to see. Players vote on which card they think belongs to the active player.

If the rules ended there Dixit would be a somewhat fun, somewhat frustrating game but the scoring method is what really makes Dixit interesting, if everybody votes for the active player's card or if nobody votes for the active player's card the active player gets no points and everybody else gets zero. Non-active players get 1 point for everybody who guessed their card. This sets up kind of a perverse scenario where players want to vote for themselves, however if only some players vote for the active player's card the active player and the players that chose the active player's card get three points plus one point for each player that chose their card. So its more valuable to find the active player's card than to not. Play continues until somebody scores 30 points, score is tracked on a board with delightful little rabbit tokens.

This is another game thats good for younger players and for people who normally claim they don't like board games. Dixit takes a lot longer than Sushi Go and is better in quieter environments. There are several expansion packs and, at least for the version we have, the box is built to accommodate those additional cards. I'll put links to the main game and a couple of the expansions below.

Great Games, #1 Sushi Go!

I see its been awhile since I've posted, best intentions and all that...

Anyway some of you may know that Angela and I are tabletop gamers that is to say we like to play boardgames. These aren't your games of old although we're not opposed to a game of Life now and then. Today's boardgames are full of strategy, adventure and other sorts of foolishness and fun. In the next 5 posts I'll to introduce you to 5 of our favorites.

Favorite Game #1: Sushi Go

Sushi Go is a card game where your goal is to accumulate points by collecting delicious pieces of Japanese cuisine, or at least cards depicting delicious Japanese cuisine. You start by playing a card from your hand, you then pass your hand to the player next to you and receive a new hand from another player, play another card and then pass the hand, on and on until all the cards have been played. Some cards are worth points by themselves, some require a set of cards to be worth anything and some others become more valuable as you have more of them. The play mechanic of passing the hand keeps things moving and when you're playing in an advanced group play can get really quick.

Sushi Go is an excellent game for novice gamers, kids, older folks, and people who say they "don't like games". We've invited total strangers into our gaming group to play Sushi Go and had them ask to buy our copy. There are a couple versions of Sushi Go, I like the Gamewright version particularly because of the artwork and the metal carrying case. Although the rules specify 2-5 players we've played with as many as 8, for that to work you need to recycle some of the cards but if you shuffle frequently its fine. Available anywhere games are sold but remember if you use this Amazon link your faithful blogger gets a cut.