While some dice faces – like claws to damage enemies, hearts to heal, and energy you can accumulate to buy upgrades – will be familiar to veterans of the previous game, others are new. Feet allow you to move board segments; spanners let you buy support tiles which can be activated for an extra dice face; and stars give you experience rather than points. So how what is this new beast? And how does it work? Well for starters, King Of Monster Island is a co-op game for 2-5 players and this time you’re all working together to battle a single huge boss monster that is intent on opening a portal on an island for its own nefarious purposes. Straight out of the gate, you can see the production values of this new iteration. Not only is the island board bigger than Tokyo by a significant margin, but there is now a 3D volcano dice tower in the centre! It’s this tower that is the most spectacular aspect of Monster Island, but also epitomises one of it’s biggest problems: randomness. Before I go further on that, let me explain how the game works. I am not sure why, but it took me three times to play this game to get the rules right. The first time I played solo, I thought that all Minions did their thing on the Boss’s turn: Nope! Just the Minion IN THE ZONE with the Boss! It even says that at the start of step 4 (see below).

In the end, you’ll notice I ended up playing with the rulebook up on the table (see above) taking up tons of space! There are lot of punch outs: minions (left), crystals (upper right) , and Support tiles (lower right).There’s a cool volcano in the box that you build: it serves as a dice tower for the Boss (the Bad Guy) dice! 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.

As good as the King of Monster Island rulebook was, it failed The Chair Test. Caveat Emptor! Unboxing The core loop of the game is very much the standard approach to cooperative play. You’re facing multiple threats – your monsters’ health; pylons; minions – while battling against a timer of the boss increasing in power each turn. It’s a standard template for a good reason: it provides a fun game experience that slowly cranks up the tension – although, as ever, it’s susceptible to an experienced player bossing everyone around rather than fostering true cooperation. These red dice activate the “bad news” parts of the game: they summon minions, give the Boss fame, and build crystals. We have detected irregular movement on the Monster Island. The volcano is erupting like never before. Monsters from all around the world are gathering on the Island, what is happening? They don’t even fight each other anymore!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? We have to wait a long time for each other’s turns. Although each player seems to really get into their own turn (having their own thoughts and re-rolls without consulting the others too much), the others are waiting for their turn without really participating too much. It’s one of the problems I had with King of Tokyo: you just have to wait too long for your turn. Most games have no problem with The Chair Test: see the rulebook for Agents Of SMERSH: Epic Edition on the chair above. ( We reviewed this game a few weeks ago). It’s easy to read, it sits open on the chair, and it allows me to just glance at it without any effort. These monsters lived in Monster Island but only in Ichiro Miki's dream, meaning they never truly existed on the island.}}]] Those of you paying attention might remember that we should have loved Shadow of the Bat ( see review here) because of the Batman theme, but the “roll dice for actions” really took it down a notch so that we just liked the game.

Monster Island appears once again in this film, and serves as a home for Godzilla, Anguirus and several other monsters. Godzilla and Anguirus break out of the Island's containment systems after they learn of Gigan and King Ghidorah's arrival on Earth. In this film, a variant of Monster Island appears within the imagination of the main protagonist, Ichiro Miki. Many more monsters live on Monster Island, including Mothra, Manda, Gorosaurus and Baragon, as well as two new monsters that have origins in Ichiro's real-life experiences, Gabara and the Maneaters. In his dreams, Ichiro journeys alongside Minilla as they both learn to fend off Gabara, with Godzilla coming along to help. King of Monster Island is NOT just a “ co-op King of Tokyo“: it’s much more. Be aware. Player Count 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. 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.

Of course, one of the best bits about these games is the monsters that you get. The boss monsters in particular are pretty special here, especially the biggest one, Lavalord. Of the player monsters, I do love Megamoth and Pagurah (huge cyborg moth and massive crab thing), while H.A.D.E.S is different enough to make playing it fun. That said, I’ll probably start rotating in Tokyo favourites like Gigasaur and Cyber Kitty before long. However, in spite of not liking King of Tokyo, I did like King of Monster Island. I liked it partly because it’s a co-op (there is some cooperation), there’s much more strategy than King of Tokyo, and the production is great. But be careful: King of Monster Island is a step-up in complexity from King of Tokyo. In fact, Andrew was thinking it’s more than just a step-up, it’s maybe 1.5 to 2 steps up! So, if you liked the silly simplicity of dice rolling in King of Tokyo, be aware that there is a lot more going on here! King of Monster Island is NOT just a “ co-op King of Tokyo“: it’s a much more complicated co-op in the world of King of Tokyo. Three Survivors Crustaceous Rex, the Giant Bat, and King Cobra were rounded up and imprisoned on the island. The island utilized massive force fields to keep King Cobra and Crustaceous Rex from fighting the Giant Bat was allowed to roam freely but prevented from using its sonic shrieks by a special collar and kept from leaving the island by lasers. While there’s an echo of the same fun in King of Monster Island, there’s just not as much riding on each roll – at least not until the late stages – and the game often rewards you for playing it safe.

King of Monster Island has a weird-sized box: see above with a Coke Canfor scale (this weird shape may be why it fails The Chair Test?)

Monster Island was filmed in Cape Town, South Africa; Los Angeles, California; and New Zealand. [3] [4] Release [ edit ]