King of Tokyo: Origins Review – Solid Entry Point for Kaiju-Sized Dice Battles

King of Tokyo: Origins is a new entry-point version of the popular board game franchise, with a handful of new monsters and cards but the same familiar gameplay as before. Released earlier in 2024 and currently available as a Target exclusive, King of Tokyo: Origins is iello’s latest standalone expansion of the popular King of Tokyo franchise. The new game is specifically meant for newcomers of the series, with a lower price point ($29.99 instead of $45) and a focus on the core rules to help bring in new players. 

Designed by Richard Garfield, King of Tokyo is a popular game that mixes Yahtzee-style dice-rolling with push your luck mechanics. Each player controls a different kaiju vying for control of Tokyo as they rack up victory points in order to win. On their turn, players roll 6 specialty dice up to three times to deal damage to other monsters, score victory points, or collect energy that can be spent on cards. If a player is in Tokyo, they become the target of every other monsters’ attacks and also can’t heal, but they also gain valuable Victory Points by keeping ahold of the city. Players outside of Tokyo can still be targeted by the King of Tokyo’s attacks, but they can also try to heal up or beat down their opponents into submission. The game ends in one of two ways – either a player collects 20 Victory Points or they are the last monster standing after every other monster’s health is reduced to zero. 

In general, King of Tokyo is a very swingy game, where players have little ability to mitigate poor rolls and ability cards are too often wasted because players don’t survive long enough to really exploit them. Because of the very random nature of the game, King of Tokyo is somewhat divisive in the tabletop community, with some fans loving the fact that anyone can win any session (my four-year old recently beat me in King of Tokyo: Origins following a truly impressive two rounds where he dealt 8 damage to all other players while holding Tokyo, thus wiping everyone out) and others hating the fact that the strategy of the game takes a backseat to pure luck. Iello has released several expansions that add unique monster powers and a variety of cards, but King of Tokyo: Origins opts to strip the game down to its very simple and easy-to-play origins. 

On the one side, if you’ve never played King of Tokyo or you have kids and are tired of playing the likes of Candy Land or Chutes & Ladders, King of Tokyo: Origins is great because it’s truly an introductory experience and can be combined with other King of Tokyo games with minimal fuss. There are a handful of new cards and the monsters in the game are technically new, but there is no real gameplay wrinkle meant for veterans (or survivors) of the King of Tokyo franchise. This is purely for newcomers, which is perfectly okay and is even recommended considering it’s currently sitting exclusive on Target shelves until early next year. 

King of Tokyo and I go way back – I was playing the game with my wife and friends when she went into labor with our oldest child – but somehow I’ve never owned a copy of either the core game or its expansions. For me, King of Tokyo: Origins fills a valuable spot in my board game collection, as it is an easy version of the game that I can play with my kids in a matter of minutes. While King of Tokyo: Origins would probably never wind up on my table after the kids go to bed, I’m already tempted to pick up one of the more complex versions of the game because I’m sure my family will be looking for more kaiju battles for quite some time.