Iello King of Tokyo Board Game - Dark Edition (Limited Edition)

Product Information

For a 2-player game, instead of gaining victory points while entering or starting your turn in Tokyo, you gain an Energy Charge. End of Game All players select a monster to control during the game. Each monster starts with 10 Health and 0 Victory Points. And there are two ways to win—either one player reaches 20 Victory Points and wins the game or one player survives after all other monsters are defeated. But we don’t have to worry about that here. King of Tokyo: Dark Edition is an extremely nice reworking of the original hit Richard Garfield game with brand new art and a few additional rules too. If you have rolled any lightning bolt symbols on your dice, you will then receive as many Energy Charges.

If you are in Tokyo (Tokyo City or Tokyo Bay) and you roll any smash dice, you wound all Monsters outside of Tokyo. No Monster starts the game in Tokyo. The first player will always enter Tokyo City during this step. But I’d like to use this review to comment on the Dark Edition specifically. This is indeed a collector’s version of the game, with enhanced components and cool new features. The new artwork by Paul Mafayon is gorgeous — the box is eye-popping with its accents and evocative cover — and the new bits (especially the translucent dice and energy charges) look fantastic.Replay value is something that veteran gamers might wonder about King of Tokyo. And I’ve wondered that myself. I think expansions help, certainly, but the core game might not be something that you bring to the table all the time.

The thing I love about the story in King of Tokyo is that players can finally dispense with any empathy or pity to the human race and revel in the destruction as they command mighty creatures and robots in something less of a duel and more of a barroom scrap. The only difference is the barroom happens to be Tokyo and collateral damage is inevitable. It’s a new mechanic that adds value to the game, which makes the Dark Edition more than a vapid cash grab. It includes a seemingly minor tweak that I felt made the game better overall. VISUALSNext, the Tokyo board is placed in the center of the playing area The Tokyo board represents the city of Tokyo split into two locations – Tokyo City and Tokyo Bay. King of Tokyo: Dark Edition plays almost exactly the same as the original King of Tokyo. Players try to be the last monster standing or to be the first to get to 20 victory points. They do it by rolling dice and using power cards to wound the other monsters and gain points.

If you’ve been playing board games for any length of time, you’ve probably played King of Tokyo, or perhaps own a copy yourself. Originally published in 2011, this family game was created by Richard Garfield, who most notably invented a little game called Magic: The Gathering. GeekDad reviewed the first edition when it was originally released. There has since been a second edition of the game, multiple expansions, and now Iello has brought out the limited “dark edition” of the game. What Is King of Tokyo: Dark Edition?

Review Summary

Since no Monster starts the game in Tokyo, the Monster who plays first does not cause Monsters to lose heart with smash dice. However, we’re not quite ready to ditch our original 2011 copy either. That’s partly because we own the Power Up expansion and find fun in playing with those monster evolutions as well. We also have King of New York and will still pull that out from time to time for a slight twist on the theme.