We’re taking a (spoiler free!) look at Machi Koro Legacy! This ten game journey is filled with fun surprises and exciting things for families to discover!
Legacy games are a great way to bring the family together for a fun and unique experience and Machi Koro Legacy is no different!
How Do You Play?
Machi Koro Legacy features the same gameplay as Machi Koro. (Read our full review here.)
In this game you will race your opponents to build all of your landmarks first and win. To do so you’ll roll dice, purchase cards, and build a powerful city that allows you to collect enough income to complete your landmarks the fastest.
In Machi Koro Legacy, you will play through a 10 game series that tells a story set within the world of Machi Koro. Each game you will have the opportunity to make choices that will determine the direction of the next game, unlock new elements, and permanently change cards and player boards — uniquely customizing your copy and creating an original player experience.
The player who has won the most games out of the 10 game series is the overall winner.
If you don’t want to be spoiled…
Part of the fun of Machi Koro Legacy is unlocking all of the surprises in the game. I will do my best to keep this review spoiler free. However, to help you determine if this is a good choice for your family, there may be small things discussed or shown in pictures that are small spoilers of what you can expect in the game. If you would rather not be spoiled in any way, please jump down to the Summary section for our final thoughts.
What Do We Think?
Machi Koro Legacy has nearly everything you could ever want to find in a family legacy game.
The rules build slowly so players can adjust to the changes easily. It’s packed full of exciting components to unlock. There’s a cute story element that you’ll build upon with each game. And after you have played through your 10 game campaign, you can continue to play the game!
Slow Build
I’ve said many times over the years on this site that I love the legacy game structure for kids. Beginning a game with simple rules that you build on over time is such a great way to slowly get players used to a more complex game without overwhelming them. Machi Koro Legacy does this really well. The game never becomes overly difficult, but by the end of the game you have quite a selection of cards and can build your tableau in a wide variety of ways. Slowly adding each card rather than just beginning with a full set means that players will have had a chance to play with each and see which ones they like best.
Exciting Components
We were very impressed with the components included in this game and the fun way of unlocking each new element with those surprise boxes. Our kids love surprise bags so everyone was always jumping up and down to punch open the next one. It’s fun for everyone!
Cute Storyline
I always love an overarching story to my legacy games and Machi Koro did a nice job weaving a story along from game to game. It not only made the current game a bit more interesting but it also built anticipation for what we might find in the boxes ahead. Every time a character was mentioned or a little tidbit said we’d look excitedly at one another and wondered if we were going to uncover that. (No spoilers, but the kids weren’t disappointed.)
Continue to Play
A standard legacy game is typically a one and done experience. Machi Koro Legacy however is playable beyond the 10 game campaign.
While you will write on some cards and add stickers here and there, you never destroy anything. I love this in my family legacy games because 1, I don’t want my younger kids that are often playing on a team to get the wrong idea and start shredding cards of any game we get to the table and 2, I want to get the most bang for my buck. If we can continue to play the game together, then there’s even more value to it. (This is also something I appreciated about My City, another family legacy style game.)
In my opinion, if you don’t already have the base game of Machi Koro, purchasing Machi Koro Legacy is the way to go.
Not only do you get a gaming experience the family can enjoy packed full of fun components, at the end you have your own Machi Koro game and a bevy of cards to swap in an out to customize each game going forward.
In our Machi Koro base game review, we talked about how there wasn’t a ton of variety in the base card set — if you enjoyed playing, you’d probably get bored of the cards quickly and want an expansion. Machi Koro Legacy is like getting the base game with expansions.
That said, after playing through the whole campaign you may not want to play it for a while— that’s okay too! I think that if you play through all 10 games and then never pick it up again there’s enough inside to get your money’s worth. It’s a lovely experience.
Great Legacy Length for Families
I love that the whole legacy game experience is completed in 10 games. This feels like the perfect length for families to tackle together compared to other legacy games on the market where you are signing up for a very long haul — sometimes 20 games or more!
The games take about 30-45 minutes to play so you can sit down and knock two out in a sitting. Making the total commitment about 5 game sessions.
If you play with a full 4 player count like we did, know that the games can take longer. Our average length of time was about 1hr. This wasn’t exactly ideal and the game does start to outstay its welcome as players’ turns start to take longer. With the earlier games that wasn’t an issue, but as more elements get added to the game it naturally adds to the run time as well.
A Game Based on Luck
The biggest thing to remember is that Machi Koro Legacy is a game based on luck.
In this game you are going to be rolling dice on your turn to use their results to either buy cards from the market or activate cards in your tableau. That means that sometimes the dice just aren’t rolling your way and that your genuinely great strategy just is blown to pieces by poor rolls.
One thing that is nice about Machi Koro Legacy is they attempt to introduce mitigation mechanics that allow players to work with some bad rolls.
However, it is important to note, that while there is a small mitigation element added, we do not feel that it is powerful enough to overcome all of the luck driven mechanics in the game.
As we unlocked boxes and added new elements, we realized that each element was yet another addition of luck. More and more dice are added. There’s an element added to the market (determined by dice) that makes it so you are prohibited from buying specific cards. There’s a push your luck mechanic added where you roll for bonuses — if you roll what you need, great, if you don’t too bad, you wasted a turn.
If you are averse to games of luck in any way Machi Koro Legacy could easily be a frustrating game. Even for us, we were about over the luck element by game 8.
This is my one big complaint about Machi Koro Legacy, because I truly think the game is really well done for families. I just wish that they would have thought to add a bit more to the game that wasn’t entirely luck dependent.
Summary
Machi Koro Legacy is a delightful legacy game the whole family can enjoy. The game is packed full of fun elements to unlock that help create an exciting experience while also building upon the game and adding interest. Players who do not like a lot of luck in their games should be aware that luck plays a large role in Machi Koro Legacy. While it can be a bummer when that luck is not in your favor, we find that this game is light and enjoyable enough to help keep things fun and kind spirited without feeling punishing.
This is a great choice for families that are looking for a unique experience to enjoy together and we feel it will be best enjoyed by players around 8-9 years of age and up!
To bring home a copy of Machi Koro Legacy click HERE.
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Game Info:
Title: Machi Koro Legacy
2-4 Players Ages 10+
Designer: Rob Daviau, JR Honeycutt, Masao Suganuma
Artist: Noboru Hotta
Publisher: Pandasaurus Games
A special thank you to our friends at Pandasaurus Games or sending us a copy of Machi Koro Legacy for review. As always our thoughts and opinions are our own.
