Richard Garfield is responsible for some of the most iconic tabletop games ever.

Though his most famous and most enduring design is Magic: The Gathering – the game that launched an entire sub-genre of card games and practically a whole industry too – he’s been responsible for a massive number of other games too.

Perhaps second only to Magic: The Gathering is the light hearted, kaiju-battling action that can be found in King of Tokyo.

Published initially in 2011, it’s seen numerous revisions, editions, expansions and spin-offs since then – it has been, and continues to be, a huge success.

Deservedly so!

In King of Tokyo, players take on the role of giant monsters – or kaiju – looking to assert their dominance over the Japanese capital city. Or each other.

That’s right, in King of Tokyo there are two paths to victory: either be the first monster to score 20 points by controlling Tokyo, or be the last monster standing when all others are eliminated.

The gameplay is fast, incredibly streamlined and very easy to learn.

Players roll the six very chunky dice on each turn, with damage, energy, health or victory points up for grabs on each roll. You can re-roll any, all or none of the dice twice after your initial roll, so you must accept the results after your third roll (unless you decide to stop sooner).

Roll three of the same number to earn that many victory points (1, 2 or 3 – with a fourth, fifth or sixth of the same number adding one extra point for each, so five 3s being worth 5 points). Each claw symbol deals a point of damage to other monsters, each heart heals your monster for one point of health (unless you’re in Tokyo – we’ll come to that) and each energy symbol gets you an energy cube, which can be used to purchase special power up cards.

If you’re in Tokyo, you’re under such constant attack that you can’t heal. Also, when you’re in Tokyo, your attacks damage every monster that’s outside the city.

If you’re outside, your attacks are dealt to the monster currently occupying Tokyo. Which means that multiple monsters can get their claws into the lone occupant of Tokyo before their turn comes around – it’s quite tough to maintain the position in Tokyo when there’s more than a few players in the game!

So why would you even want to be in Tokyo? Well, you get a victory point for entering Tokyo and two if you start your turn there, so it’s a risk that’s often worth going for.

So though there’s that Yahtzee-esque dice rolling at the centre of the action, there’s quite a bit of pushing your luck to take into consideration too. If you choose to yield – as in, move out of Tokyo – when you take damage from a monster, they move in immediately, so that timing can be crucial in getting them eliminated instead, if their health remains precariously low, for example.

The gloriously thematic cards add some great wrinkles to the proceedings too, with some effects that remain in play for the rest of the game and others that are one offs.

It’s great, family friendly fun with some genuinely brilliant visual design that makes it look amazing on the tabletop.

Though it may be lacking in complexity for more serious gamers – and elimination can sometimes leave players out of the action for a little too long – it’s a game that doesn’t usually outstay its welcome, being playable in around 20 minutes for 3-4 players.

At 5-6 players, a second spot opens up in Tokyo and it just doesn’t feel as fun to play. It takes a little too long to get to your turn at that player count and the game does suffer a bit as a result.

So this is a game I’d heartily recommend to families or groups of all ages and skill levels.

I’ve had King of Tokyo in my board game collection ever since it was first released – and, though countless other games have come and gone over the years since, it’s remained one that hits the table every now and then.

It remains just as fun now as it’s always been. King of Tokyo is a timeless classic that you can introduce to just about anyone – and you can be almost certain that you’ll be asked to play just one more time, pretty much every time when a new player tries it out!

You can buy King of Tokyo from Amazon here.