Family•Reviews

King of Tokyo: A Comprehensive Review 2024

Tokyo, New York, Monster Island, Oh My! With so many games in the King of Tokyo series by IELLO games, it is hard to know where to start. We’re taking a closer look at each game and expansion to help you find the right monster brawler for your family!

King of Tokyo

The first game in the series is best described as “Kaiju Battle Yahtzee.” The original King of Tokyo is a push-your-luck dice-rolling game. It supports up to six players who will fight for the title of top monster by rolling dice to either earn fame or eliminate their rivals.

Turns are simple. Players will roll six dice Yahtzee style, able to set aside dice they’d like to keep and reroll the rest up to two times.

Players also have the ability to purchase extra power cards which adds some fun effects but isn’t necessary. You can remove the cards and play a more simplified game for younger players learning to read.

King of Tokyo is an excellent starter family game because of its fun theme and exciting dice gameplay. While there is player elimination, it often happens at the end of the game, so no one is sitting out for too long.

New King of Tokyo Stand Alone Game Options

In addition to the original, these games are stand alone games with everything you need to play King of Tokyo. They are not expansions and do not require the original King of Tokyo.

King of Tokyo Origins

Just released in 2024 and currently exclusive to Target until 2025, King of Tokyo Origins is the base game of King of Tokyo, with four new monsters, 15 new cards, and a lower price point, saving you around $10-$15 from the original game. You’ll get everything you need to have a smashing time. However, this game version only plays up to 4 players, and the new monsters do not have any Power-Up cards as of its release.

Depending on the number of players you want to play with or the amount of Monsters you would like to have available, King of Tokyo Origins may be a better fit for your family. Thanks to its lower cost, it’s also a great option for gifting.

King of Tokyo Monster Box

The Monster Box has all ten monsters and two expansions, Power-Up and Halloween, in an oversized box to fit all the future King of Tokyo content in one box. If you have nothing and want to try it all, this is a good value since you save around $35 compared to paying for each thing individually.

However, it’s not the best value if you own the base game and are unsure if you want to add extra complexity with expansions. Also, it doesn’t come with the Even More Wickness micro expansion or any of the monster packs which, as described below, are our more preferred expansion options making it harder to recommend the Monster Box.

King of Tokyo Spin-off Games

There are two other games in the King of Tokyo Series, King of New York and King of Monster Island.

King of New York

King of New York, at its core, is very similar to King of Tokyo but with some added complexity.

The change we enjoyed the most was how the environment could be destroyed for one-time bonuses, and the city started to fight back by dealing damage to monsters in specific neighborhoods.

The extra complexity added fiddliness to the game and generally made our games take a bit longer. This game has a Power-Up expansion as well for unique monster powers. While the games differed, you don’t need to have both King of Tokyo and King of New York in your collection. That said, we plan to keep both in our collection until we play them enough to determine which version is our kids’ favorite. If I had to choose, I would keep King of Tokyo since it is more likely to get the table.

King of Monster Island

This is the cooperative version of King of Tokyo, where you play as monsters working together to defeat the Kings of Monster Island.

This game maintains all the same feels of King Tokyo with the dice rolling and attacking. There is limited but important cooperation, as you can help other players by adding bonus effects to the board or leaving unused dice for them to use. With multiple King Monsters to challenge and five unique allies providing individual player powers, there is a decent variety, so you don’t have the same experience each time. While the volcano dice tower is very thematic, it made it hard to see what was happening on the opposite side of the board and required the box to be bigger than I would have preferred.

Overall, we recommend trying this one out first since it was an enjoyable experience, but we felt it played a little long and do no’t anticipate it staying in our collection for an extended period of time.

King of Tokyo Expansions

There are four expansions for King of Tokyo: standard expansions Power-Up and Halloween, along with two micro expansions, Baby Gigazaur & Even More Wicked.

Power-Up (2012)

This expansion adds one new monster, a “Kung-Fu Panda,” and unique monster power cards for all the previous monsters. The powers can range from one-time powerful effects to ongoing abilities. Having these powers makes each monster feel unique and is a fun addition for players who love unique player powers.

Halloween (2013)

Pumpkin Jack and Boogie Woogie enter the fray as two new monsters. With them, the expansion brings a new set of Halloween dice and costume cards. The costumes add temporary powers, which other monsters can steal during the game.

We consider this a skippable expansion. We do like having the extra set of dice to give to players and help speed up the game, there are better ways to add monsters or individual player powers.

Baby Gigazuar

This monster was previously only available in the King of Tokyo Monster Box, but now its monster board, standee, and Power-Up cards are available independently.

This expansion does not add any gameplay elements and we do not see any real reason to rush out and pick it up.

Even More Wicked

The wickedness track makes those dull victory point rolls into a way to earn unique player powers.

We highly recommend adding this simple add-on expansion to your base game.

Monster Packs

There are four monster packs available. Each monster pack has a new monster, power-up cards, and unique thematic gameplay elements. These inexpensive add-ons are a nice way to add variety to your game without much complexity to either King of Tokyo or King of New York. Our favorite Monsters Packs were Clthulhu, King Kong, Cyber Tooth, and Anubis, in that order.

Our King of Tokyo Buying Recommendations

King of Tokyo is a classic family game and instant recommendation for anyone who enjoys dice rolling and friendly competition. We found that our boys in particular love this game. We recommend the original King of Tokyo base game if your average family gaming group is includes five or more players and King of Tokyo Origins if it is four or fewer. These options are King of Tokyo at its best with no extra fluff or complexity to distract players or drag out the game.

If you want to add more fun to the base experience, we recommend adding the Even More Wicked expansion first, then a Monster Pack of Cthulhu or King Kong. This should provide most families with plenty of fun and variety to explore the King of Tokyo world!