Next King of Tokyo entry is a co-op board game called Monster Island
Release date yet to be confirmed.
The next entry in the King of Tokyo board game series will be a co-op board game called Monster Island.
In a Q&A with series creator Richard Garfield – who is also known for designing the trading card game Magic: The Gathering – it was confirmed that the next King of Tokyo board game will be called Monster Island. The designer also revealed that it would be a co-op board game, which will be a first for the monster fighting franchise, with all previous entries having players compete against one another to become the most powerful kaiju in the city.
The upcoming board game was initially revealed at the Essen Spiel 2021 convention, with a standee depicting a monster and a collection of tokens being displayed by series publisher Iello. No details regarding gameplay were provided, with the sand-filled bowl holding the components hinting at the Monster Island setting.
Apart from Monster Island, King of Tokyo and Magic: The Gathering, Garfield is also the creator of the unique deck game Keyforge, which was recently purchased by Ghost Galaxy – a studio owned by Christian T Petersen, the original founder of the card game’s previous publisher Fantasy Flight Games.
When asked about his reaction to the purchase, Garfield said “I am quite optimistic about the new direction, […] I have worked with the new owner a lot, in fact, he was the person who greenlit the game at Fantasy Flight. He and I are very much on the same page as to what the game is about and what its potential is.”
Besides Monster Island and King of Tokyo, Iello is also the studio responsible for Diamant – a board game previously known as Incan Gold that has players deciding whether to continue drawing cards in hopes of gaining treasure at the risk of more danger – and the fantasy board game Welcome to the Dungeon.
King of Tokyo is a board game for two to six players that involves rival kaiju fighting against one another for control of the Japanese capital. On a player’s turn, they roll a pool of dice up to three times in order to perform certain actions such as attacking, healing, gaining victory points and money. If players roll at least three of the same number, they’ll acquire that many victory points – pushing them closer to the ultimate goal of gaining 20.
Alternatively, players can attack whichever monster who’s currently in Tokyo in order to force them to leave the city, as monsters cannot heal whilst they’re there. Players gain victory points for every round they spend in Tokyo and can damage everyone outside the city whenever they attack. However, every attack from the monsters outside of Tokyo will be directed at whichever character is in the city.
According to Garfield, Monster Island is set to be launched “soon”, with a release date and retail price yet to be announced.