Glad you covered this, I was interested when it first came out, but other reviewers didn’t seem impressed. Do you think it’s lighter or heavier than Marvel United?
As someone who has both games - I think King of Monster Island has just a slightly more difficult gateway game / point of entry. I just brought Marvel United to play with my cousin, her husband, and my neice and nephew (two grown kids at 18 and 20) They had an absolute blast - and while their faces went blank during initial set up and briefly explaining the rules, they immediately got it after a single round and were invested, with everyone getting to do something epic. I'd definitely bring over King of Tokyo for them to play, but what's understated here is the additional complexity jump (not severe, but also not something to overlook)....so I don't know if I'd necessarily bring over King of Monster Island (for a group of complete non gamers) There's just a lot to keep track of where at MU is basically "draw a card, play a card" MU also gets extra points for the sheer variety of different villains and mechanic + synergies that allow you to get lost in the game...this of course is taking into consideration having at least one or two expansions to help keep things fresh....whereas you have the 3 Monster Bosses in KoMI, the handful of sidekicks that remain the same and....well that's it... the games are never the same due to the power deck of course, so there's that in its favor for sure. I do love MU and KoMI both. While I understand the logistics of pivoting to the Sidekick sheets (and admit it was a brilliant alternative) I'm in the camp of those who feel the "King Of" games are simply incomplete without Unique Evolution Cards....so major major bummer that they have no plans for that official expansion in this game.
Glad you covered this, I was interested when it first came out, but other reviewers didn’t seem impressed.
Do you think it’s lighter or heavier than Marvel United?
As someone who has both games - I think King of Monster Island has just a slightly more difficult gateway game / point of entry.
I just brought Marvel United to play with my cousin, her husband, and my neice and nephew (two grown kids at 18 and 20)
They had an absolute blast - and while their faces went blank during initial set up and briefly explaining the rules, they immediately got it after a single round and were invested, with everyone getting to do something epic.
I'd definitely bring over King of Tokyo for them to play, but what's understated here is the additional complexity jump (not severe, but also not something to overlook)....so I don't know if I'd necessarily bring over King of Monster Island (for a group of complete non gamers)
There's just a lot to keep track of where at MU is basically "draw a card, play a card"
MU also gets extra points for the sheer variety of different villains and mechanic + synergies that allow you to get lost in the game...this of course is taking into consideration having at least one or two expansions to help keep things fresh....whereas you have the 3 Monster Bosses in KoMI, the handful of sidekicks that remain the same and....well that's it... the games are never the same due to the power deck of course, so there's that in its favor for sure.
I do love MU and KoMI both. While I understand the logistics of pivoting to the Sidekick sheets (and admit it was a brilliant alternative) I'm in the camp of those who feel the "King Of" games are simply incomplete without Unique Evolution Cards....so major major bummer that they have no plans for that official expansion in this game.