Each turn consists of two phases, the boss phase and the monster phase. In the boss phase, the boss first activates its ability, then you roll some of the new red dice into the volcano. These dice then randomly split across the different regions of the island and the boss moves accordingly. After this the boss’s minions (yes there are minions now, no they aren’t yellow!) are activated and then its dice are resolved.

Ha, This game has a sense of humor. I love how the rulebook cover starts with a “Breaking News…” and looks silly!It's always an excellent service with brilliant products at a very competitive price - will use again! Because is a greater menace is lurking. Something big enough to threaten every monster and make them fight together against the same enemy… Their goal: allow their minions to set up the pylons needed to construct the portal. To win, the players must defeat the Boss before they manage to activate the portal or defeat even a single Monster. Cardboard Monster Figures with 6 Plastic Stands (Alienoid, Cyber Kitty, Gigazaur, The King, Meca Dragon, and Space Penguin)

The event cards are interspersed in the Power cards and offer some random events to keep the game “interesting”. Monster Island has appeared in Atari's Godzilla games. In Godzilla: Save the Earth, it is a playable arena that has a sub-arena, Monster Island Bay. The island has a mud pit, a waterfall, and even a volcanic section. Some of the challenges like Vorillium Basketball and Monster Bowling appear to take place on Monster Island, but its never actually said whether they do or not. Frequently, I will keep rulebooks on the chair next to me when learning a game. It keeps the rulebook out of the main game flow, but in a place where I can glance/reach/read easily. I call this The Chair Test: Can I put a rulebook fully open on a chair next to me for easy reading? King of Tokyo is a 2011 game created by Magic: The Gathering creator Richard Garfield. This series includes the base game and all of its expansions, as well as King of New York, King of Monster Island and all of their expansions. That said, there’s definitely more to think about when it comes to what you’re aiming for with each roll, and how you apply the results you eventually get.These monsters lived in Monster Island but only in Ichiro Miki's dream, meaning they never truly existed on the island.}}]] Each player takes the role of a Monster: see the choices above. Interestingly, the Monsters have no special powers: it’s the Ally you choose that has the special powers!! (This kinda reminded us of Minecraft : Heroes of the Village from a few weeks ago when the pets had the special abilities, not the villagers … is this a new trend?) Minions can also help build pylons, but mostly they do damage to players, or shield other minions from damage. As you can probably appreciate from this rundown, there’s a fair amount of upkeep and admin to keep the game flowing – and that slows down the action. I’m not sure why I had so many problem my first few plays: it’s not like I haven’t played lots of co-ops or read tons of rulebooks! I think I just expected a much simpler game? I expected a simple “ co-op King of Tokyo” and got a much more complicated game!

Whilst previous entries in the beginner board game series pit monsters against one another for control of territory to terrorise, King of Monster Island has the kaiju working together to defeat an even bigger and badder monster threatening to destroy the entire planet. Imagine Suicide Squad, but with robots, crab abominations and giant aliens. Meehan, Lolies and Wheels play the Dark Edition of King of Tokyo. King of Monster Island fails The Chair Test! It droops over the side of the chair, and it’s way too big to see everything! It’s a pain to look stuff up: I can’t usually just glance at it! Cardboard Monster Figures with 6 Plastic Stands (Captain Fish, Drakonis, Kong, Mantis, Rob, Sheriff) After the upkeep’s dealt with, it’s the turn of one player to take their actions. This is based on the familiar Yahtzee-style dice rolling that was the core of King of Tokyo. You get three rolls, and can keep any dice faces you like each time. King of Monster Island embraces the franchise philosophy of grandness in every aspect, presenting players with a bigger board, larger monsters and more gameplay mechanics than ever before. The most immediate example of this perspective in action is the upcoming game’s board, which features a prominent volcano piece that sits in the middle. During gameplay, the volcano is used to roll the dice that determine the actions performed on each of the enemy monster’s turns – wherever the dice stop on the board decides whereabouts those actions will take place. Players will need to share their ideas and strategies with one another if they want to achieve victory.

Guerra, Avery (March 23, 2019). "First Look At New Kaiju Film MONSTER ISLAND". SciFi Japan . Retrieved July 29, 2022. Although King of Monster Island can play 1-5 players, I can’t imagine playing this with 4 or 5 players. The game seemed to be great solo, and flowed pretty well at 2, and slightly less better at 3. The problem was that there’s not a lot of to do when it’s not your turn! At 4 and 5 players: the downtime between turns is much more pronounced and not fun. Granted, players can talk and offer a little bit of advice (since it’s a co-op), but generally each player is very focused on the dice and ignoring everything else.