King of Tokyo: Dark Limited Edition

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Thought King of Tokyo couldn’t get any cooler? Think again! IELLO have produced something special for fans of the dice rolling-and-fighting modern classic. This is King of Tokyo, but not as you know it. This is King of Tokyo: Dark Edition! In this ‘Dark Edition’, the core gameplay of King of Tokyo remains. This is still the same Richard Garfield game, where up to six players f…
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Thought King of Tokyo couldn’t get any cooler? Think again! IELLO have produced something special for fans of the dice rolling-and-fighting modern classic. This is King of Tokyo, but not as you know it. This is King of Tokyo: Dark Edition! In this ‘Dark Edition’, the core gameplay of King of Tokyo remains. This is still the same Richard Garfield game, where up to six players fight to take destroy the Japanese capital. You play as rival mutants, straight out of a Hollywood monster movie. You’re still rolling dice – ‘locking’ those you want to keep, and re-rolling those you don’t. The dice faces determine the actions you’ll do on your turn. A trio of 1s, 2s, or 3 equal that many points (first to 20 points wins). You can spend Energy symbols on monster upgrade cards. Claws attack everyone else and Hearts heal yourself. After all, you’re still trying to smash the other mutants’ butts to rule Tokyo, yourself… But this is a darker King of Tokyo. It’s wicked! There’s a Wickedness track, which you advance if you roll 1s and 2s. When you hit thresholds up this track, you earn extra monster abilities. Dark Edition is a limited collector’s edition. Gone is the cartoony artwork. This is like a gritty, pulp version of the game, from a visual point of view. The box has an embossed finish. The components have a deluxified feel. The energy tokens are cool green 3D lightning bolts. The dice are wonderful and chunky, with a black-to-grey frosted look to them. The cards (that you pay for with energy) have a black backdrop, but with fluorescent detailed highlights. Of course, the game is still fantastic, silly fun for kids and adults, alike. Paul Mafayon’s art might look like something out of a serious graphic novel. But rest assured, King of Tokyo: Dark Edition still provides plenty of belly laughs! Player Count: 2-6 Players Time: 30 minutes Age: 8+

Awards

Exceptional Components

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You Might Like

  • Great alternate look
  • Wickedness track and powers are a meaningful edition
  • Components are brilliant through out - those dice!
  • Expansions still work despite art differences.

Might Not Like

  • Still King of Tokyo
  • What happens with expansions?
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Description

King of Tokyo: Dark Edition is a collector's edition of King of Tokyo, with the fight taking place in an alternative and darker world in which the struggle for control of Tokyo has never been so fierce...and wicked!

This edition includes deluxe components (such as an embossed box and lightning-bolt-shaped energy) and all-new art by Paul Mafayon. The game is based on the classic KoT rules, with the addition of a new mechanism exclusive to this edition to offer a fresh gaming experience.

 

King of Tokyo Dark Feature

King of Tokyo Dark Edition Review

Buckle in kids it’s fairy tale time. Once there was a young man who hadn’t yet discovered the wonderful world of board games. On fated day his younger brother visited and taught his the card games Love Letter and Fluxx. The magic was strong and the young man was enchanted. Later that week on a chance visit to a local bookstore he noticed on the shelf a copy of King of Tokyo. Drawn in by the awesome premise of giant monsters fighting through a city he decided he must own it. Purchase it he did and he has never been the same.

King of Tokyo was my first board game purchase. Having played Yahtzee as a child I was immediate familiar with the dice mechanics and wowed by their application here. I resisted the second edition, sentimental as I was about the first, but this Dark Edition has claimed my interest. With the dark and broody graphic design and promise of wickedness, KoT Dark could be the best yet?

Turn on the Lights

KoT Dark has gorgeous art work. From the UV spot box to the use of the same technique on the player dials it looks great in person. I’m not sure the pictures really do it justice. I’m sure there will be some who miss the bright and whimsical nature of the older editions but I am not one of them.

Art changes alone do not justify a new edition, though even if it is limited. So what else is new? There are a few minor changes to the power cards, the energy cubes are now shaped like lightening and the frosted glass style dice are amazing quality, and then there is wickedness. Wickedness is a new mechanic that allows you to gather some tasty powers while going after points.

If you roll three 1’s or three 2’s you get to move your wickedness token up the 10 step wickedness track. Three 1s will net you two steps up the track, three 2s will net you one step up the track.

King of Tokyo Dark body

Wicked Rewards

When you get to stage 3, 6 and 10 of the track you are a awarded your choice of upgrade. These work much like power cards but are usually very powerful. Most are permanent upgrades but some need discarding upon use. This seems like a small change but it’s a big impact. One of the complaints with the original King of Tokyo was that you could play games without getting many or any of the juicy power cards. This was rectified a little in the Power Up expansion which added a new type of evolution card earned through rolling three hearts. If you combined that with this Dark Edition (possible though perhaps not atheistically pleasing) you would now be earning powers for days!

The other thing these wickedness powers do is speed up the end game. King of Tokyo is a game that has player elimination, a game that actively encourages it. Though its short enough to excuse that, nobody likes sitting out. Here the wickedness powers are a game changer, often increasing the rate at which you earn victory points or deal out damage.

From the Beginning

But what if you haven’t played a King of Tokyo game before? Sorry. I got ahead of myself! The gameplay is based on rolling 6 dice up to 3 times. Each time you roll you can choose some results to keep and at the end of your rolls take actions based on what you end up with. Claws attack, hearts heal, numbers earn points and lightening earns energy (the currency of the game). This simplicity it combined with the importance of Tokyo. If you are in Tokyo your attacks hit every other monster, but you can’t heal and every other monster targets you. Why would you stay in such a place? Well, manage to start your turn in Tokyo and you earn 2 victory points. That’s a whole 10% of the score needed to win the game!

Deliciously when you are attacked in Tokyo you can decide to vacate, and the attacking monster must take your place. This makes King of Tokyo a game of risk, reward and timing. Manage to control your opponents from Tokyo with hefty attacks means they chase hearts instead of attacks and you can rack up the points, but is a risky strategy. For a simple game there are a few ways to approach it. Winning the game requires 20 victory points or annihilation of the other players.

King of Tokyo Dark body 1

Back to the Future

One thing that is hard to predict is what will happen next. Generally, not just in board games. There has been no hint from Iello about whether they will remake the existing expansions in a ‘dark edition’ style. And on one level it doesn’t really matter – they will all technically work with each other, but there will be a mash of art styles. With Funkoverse and Unmatched paving the way for mash up battles maybe it doesn’t matter too much? That’s up to you. One think to note though is that either of the first two power up expansions are compatible with the characters included here, but not the New York one! For me I will be retiring my 1st edition copy to the family museum after rescuing the power up expansion from inside of course, as I can’t imagine wanting to play again without wickedness.

If you are new to King of Tokyo then this is probably the best version to get, until they release a big box. If you already own it… well I could possibly tell you to get this new edition… that would be wicked…

Zatu Score

Rating

  • Artwork
  • Complexity
  • Replayability
  • Player Interaction
  • Component Quality

You might like

  • Great alternate look
  • Wickedness track and powers are a meaningful edition
  • Components are brilliant through out - those dice!
  • Expansions still work despite art differences.

Might not like

  • Still King of Tokyo
  • What happens with expansions?