Thanks! We're still using Rob Hunt, who's been our videographer from Day 1. He just likes to play with the style sometimes (usually just small tweaks).

Totally agree on the monster art, I love the tiny rabbit sitting in the head of Cyber Bunny. :) Also two player tag team KoT works very well, where one player is North-South and the other is East-West and the player with the first monster to win wins the game. The tagging adds some extra tactical decisions on when to switch in or out and keeps the games pretty close throughout.

No problem! Your distinction of "polished" vs "unpolished" in another comment makes sense to me as a way to rephrase it, and is something I agree with. You get games that you can tell have been extensively playtested, and have a theme and components/artwork that all integrate intuitively with the gameplay and enhance it, and you have others that have good elements, but don't come together in the same way. Also, I can't overstate the value of a well-written and proofed rulebook. -K

We have been playing this game as an ice breaker to those in our gaming group for several weeks and I was happy to play the expansion which one of our members got recently. This game was already fun but the evolution cards in the expansion have made the monsters so much more dynamic. It's usually our go to game when we are waiting to play longer or more involved games with many players

You know, I always just unquestioningly love oversized dice (see also: our review of Seasons), and never thought about how unweildy they could be for kids to have to roll. That's a great point.

You are induced to this statement by the subliminal input of the color coordination of Joanna dress with the game box! :-D

Hee! I see the Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) Rulebook in the background behind Kaja, and I immediately felt my head try to explode.

We love King of Tokyo! The 2 draw backs I have (and they are very minor) are A) the insert is terribly tight, along with the stupid zip lock bag for the energy cubes. Just through them out and get some snack bags instead to hold little components. And B) The dice themselves... though fun and thematic being over-sized, after the first several plays, littler hands wish they were normal sized dice.

Since I deal with distributors/publishers a lot, I'm much more likely to pay attention to how competently the distribution/sales end is managed by a given company and divide them into "well-run publishers I like dealing with" and "publishers to avoid dealing with directly if at all possible". Size can be a factor there, but it's not always, and that only applies to the business end (I may still like their _games_ and consider them well-produced). - Kaja

Really great review. Your diction, presentation, and opinion were all great! Keep doing reviews they are very informative and fun to watch :)I might just buy this game now!

I already said this before but YOU TWO ARE AMAZING !! Thanks !!

It depends on what you like -- the theme, or the gameplay. There are lots of other light, dice-based fillers (Zombie Dice is probably the best match) out there, as well as games with "take that" mechanics that let you attack other players (Munchkin is very popular, and Gloom may work as well, while Cosmic Encounter has a lot of these features in a longer/more complex package). The theme is rare-ish, and the closest match is probably Smash Up!

I love King of Tokyo and the Power up expansion. When we play it we laugh and have a great time. The expansion is awesome, it really adds a lot to the original game. It gives you more options. Nice review, keep up the good work.

Thank you for the very efficient and quality videos. Much appreciated.

The only other game that I can think about that is centered around giant monsters is Monsterpocalypse, but that is a miniature game, which is a different beast.

Thanks for the Video and discussion. Will be waiting for the next one.

Being out of board gaming for a few decades, the quality of the upper level games mechanics really surprised me. The tightly directed player actions and information display mechanisms are really impressive. Does those originate from the Euro-games. Before, I never really heard about them.

That looks like a blast! Thanks for reviewing this game :-)

I think that's a difficult distinction to make, especially in an industry that has so many small-scale (e.g. 1-3 full-time staff) publishers. It's honestly not a set of categories that I usually think in, though I'll definitely notice differences in production values. Generally, though, that doesn't extend past whether I get excited about a game's "shiny" factor or not, and I'll judge gameplay separately.

Probably. It's on the list of viewer suggestions.

I may just be having difficulty with your terminology -- to me, what you've said breaks down better into "well-designed" and "less-well-designed" games. I've seen plenty of both from big-name, well-established publishers, and much smaller publishers. While Print & Play is a bit of a weird category, I can't really single out "amateurs" in a business where the vast majority of designers (even established ones) don't do this full-time, and would count as hobbyists in many other industries.

Yes, I need to be clearer. Apologies ^v^ I am thinking of more in terms of design rather than business operations on the publisher level.

I like to play without player elimination, where you just restart when you die, and it's all about getting victory points. If you kill another monster(s) you get 2 VP. I also like playing where each player starts with 1 random Evolution.

Oh, and we play where you can buy a random Power Up card from the top of the deck for 4 Energy Cubes.

The top layer of mechanics are closer to the player and has more interface elements. The lower level of mechanics are core ones that detail interaction between game elements. War Games could be said to focus on the lower level mechanics. The biggest innovation with war game on the higher level in the last 50 years may be the introduction of hexes... ^.^

Oh! Love today's Video. But wondering if you changed your video director as the cinematography and editing style seems slightly different from the previous videos. Or it may just be me.

This game is great. Thanks for telling me about Power Up. Radioactive Panda looks like fun.

Yep!

Ladies I love your videos. They are informative and enlightening. But I must say, you two are looking especially beautiful in this video. I know it is not game related. Just wanted to pay you two a compliment.

Yes, with that small a size, it is less likely that they have people with professional purchasing or customer relationship management training. I have seen many cases in which university graduates with decent business training could improve a lot of the basic processes.

I would say it works best with 4-6, and if you have 2-3 look at changing the amount of VP a player gets for being in Tokyo at the start of their turn to 1, so a player can't simply sit in there and rack up VP. Saying that, I would likely just play a game better built for 2-3 players.

Thank you! I'm looking those games up now. Subbed. :D

Awesome game. Probably the best of the little dice games like Zombie Dice. Martian Dice. etc.

I've found that this game is a blast with 4 or more players, but not as much fun with less than that. Also, it really stinks if you're the first monster eliminated from the game. You just have to sit there and watch everyone else have fun.

i'm gonna save up some money to get this one! Kaiju madness :D

So apparently in Canada pretty girls are into board games. Please find a way to export this sentiment to the US!

Hey, cool video. Any other games with the same or similar theme? Like giant monsters or such? Recommendations for other games if I like this one? Cheers! :D

Hello!. For you, what the the criteria the divides professional games and amateur games? I have been looking many games and there are games that feel like amateur games. Many of the Victory Point games, and Print &play games fall into this category for me. But I'm not exactly sure what criteria i'm using. Is is just the graphic design and component designs? If so, it's just about Money that differentiate them. I'm not sure. What is your thoughts?

Can you do a Cosmic Encounter review?

my first purchase : )

I would say Martian Dice would be a better comparable filler game to King of Tokyo than Zombie Dice (with a lack of cards, obviously).

So, games with better higher level mechanics, I think, may give off a sense of sophistication and elegance that makes one feel like as if the game was made by someone who knows something and not a kid with spare time. This may be what people usually call "Polish".

Hellloooooooooooooooo ladies! ;) Love this game and it's a great filler IMO. Wish I could find Power Up here in the states.

But, some print & play games have really interesting game mechanics but I don't really feel they are games made by professionals. For example when you go to war games, a lot of them feel like amateurish even though there are some interesting mechanics deep under the hood. May be it depends on how good is the specific types of mechanics being employed by the game designer. A game has layers of different types of mechanics with different levels of interaction with the player.

I totally ship you guys.

Am I the only one mad they aren't saying Kaiju?

So hot!