Background

Just a routine reading of Board Game Geek put me onto the release of today’s focus game, King of Tokyo: Duel. There was a banner ad on the homepage. From there, a quick click over to my local game shop webpage allowed me to preorder the game. I did not need any more information. It was King of Tokyo. It was designed by Richard Garfield. It was two-player.

Upon further inspection, it appeared to be a tug of war style game. It had the established characters. Well, my copy arrived. I went to get it. Edward and I sat down to play it.

King of Tokyo Duel sets you and your opponent in a mano a mano battle over Tokyo. As with the original game, there are multiple ways to win: knock the other monster out,  get both the star and building markers into your spotlight zone, or one of the markers reaches the last space on your side of the board.

Rule Clarity

First off, I want to say how much I love the look of the rulebook. It looks like a comic book. It is beautifully illustrated. I recommend reading the whole thing with the pieces in front of you. Duel is similar enough to the original game, but also, very different. Luckily, the rulebook does a very good job detailing how to play, and it gives relevant examples when needed. It does recommend that a few of the monsters not be used in the first game. The rulebook is sixteen pages long, but the last five detail how each monster works.

Time to Explain to Newcomers

Ten to fifteen minutes ought to be enough to get started. There are some more intricate rules. If they are familiar with the original game, as everyone should be, it will take a little less time, as much of the dice mechanics are similar. The time needs to be spent focusing on the dice resolution phase, and each monster’s special ability.

Gameplay

To set up, each player selects a monster, and takes a Life Point Tracker, setting the life to that dictated on the monster board. This is a nice change from the original, and I assume it made the game much cheaper to produce, and much smaller to package. Instead of each monster board having dials, there are only two dials total. And, you are only tracking health, not points.

Next, set the board between you and your opponent, and place the Fame (star) and Destruction (building) markers on their respective starting positions in the center of the board. Shuffle the Power Cards, and place the deck face down at the top. Flip over the first three and fill them in right to left into the spaces marked on the board.

Lastly, set everything else off to the side: energy cubes (yes, cubes, not lightning bolts), buzz tokens (we will talk about in a second), dice tokens, and extra dice.

On a turn, the active monster will go through four steps: roll dice, resolve the dice, power cards or not (gaining an energy cube), then ending the turn.

Like with the original game, you can roll the six dice up to three times and set aside what you want to keep each time. Once the third and final roll happens, it is time to resolve the dice. This is where the game deviates heavily from the original.

But first, before we look at that, there are three results that are similar, For each claw, the opponent takes a damage. For each heart, the player’s monster heals. For each lightning bolt, an energy cube is taken.

Ok. Now onto the new stuff. There are three other faces, Fame (star), Destruction (building), and Special Power (exclamation mark). For each triple of the fame or destruction, move the corresponding marker one space closer to your side of the board. Each additional result moves it another space. So, three stars, move it one. Four stars, move it two.

Each monster board has a unique special ability. If your dice results have the required amount of Special Power dice, you can trigger it. Some even have more powerful effects if you have additional ones.

Next is the buy a power card phase. If you choose to buy a card, pay the amount of energy shown in the upper left corner. Unless you are buying the card at the far right. It is minus one energy. Shift the cards to the right to fill in before flipping over the next card into the leftmost slot.

You can spend two energy to wipe the board and flip over three new ones. Cards come in two varieties, Keep and Discard. Keep has a lasting effect. Discard has an immediate effect, then it is, well, discarded. Some of the cards will have a buzz icon under the cost. This gives the purchasing player the matching buzz token. So, let’s talk about them.

Buzz Tokens are what makes King of Tokyo Duel really stand out to me. They are placed on the board by the purchaser. They can extend a track by adding another space between two. They can shorten a track by eliminating one.  And most offer a bonus (energy, heart, claw, bonus die). The next time you pull a token across this buzz token, take that action immediately. Be strategic! Your opponent will get the same opportunity if pulling the marker toward their end.

If you choose not to buy any cards, take an energy cube. This ends this phase moving to the end your turn phase. Check if you have any cards that activate at the end of the turn.

Then play passes. This continues until one of the three end conditions is met. If you have reduced your opponent's health to zero, the skull, you have won. If you have both tokens in your spotlight portion of the track, (shown in yellow brackets) you win. Or, if you can get one marker all the way to the end of the board on your side, you win.

Replayability

With the variable kaiju powers, the buzz tokens, and paths to victory offers plenty of replayability. I feel this version of King of Tokyo will be well-played for years to come. I hope that iello and Richard Garfield offer more kaijus as they have with the original game and New York. Again, this will only ramp up the replayability.

Component Quality

As with all the other King of Tokyo games, Duel is no different on components or quality. All the dice are engraved. The chipboard monster boards, tokens, health trackers, and game board are all standard quality. The wooden standees are standard and screenprinted. The cards are also of the standard quality. I would recommend sleeving them so they keep nicer a little longer.

Lunchtime Potential

Indeed. King of Tokyo Duel is quick to play. The BGG page and box lists King of Tokyo Duel’s playtime as 20 minutes. Seems about right. The first game might take a little longer as you are figuring out the buzz tokens and the push/pull tug of war mechanic. Every game after that should play much closer to the listed time.

Artwork

I love that the artwork is different from the base games and expansions. Yes, it features the same kaijus we all know and love. But, this is a new game, with a new artist. Quentin Regnes, who has worked on a plethora of Catan games (including Dawn of Humankind, review to come), adds his own take on the classic kaijus. His work on the board is also tremendous. It looks fantastic. The look and feel of Duel might be different than that of the original, but it will quickly grow on you.

Expansions

None yet as this game recently came out. I can see that it would be easy to add more of the established kaijus. Maybe even some new ones.

Bang for the Buck

For less than $25, this is a no-brainer for fans of the King of Tokyo universe and/or two player games. It has the feel of King of Tokyo, but it is definitely better than the two-player game of the original.

Summary

Honestly, King of Tokyo Duel is the type of two-player game I wish was available about six years ago. We lost a lot of players at work, and more were shipped out to site. We had a long stretch of only having two people. This game would have been a HUGE hit back then. Being relatively new, it does not have a lot of ratings on BGG. However, it stands tall with a 7.2 with over 600 ratings. It does have a higher weight to it than the base game with a 2.19 versus a 1.49. That makes sense because it is a different game with a more complex mechanic. But, I don’t know if over 2 is quite right.

In the end, King of Tokyo Duel has been well received by ny son and I, as well as my friends that I have shown it to. I look forward to playing it more. It gets my seal of approval, and it would make a great addition to any game collection as it is perfect for that two-player day!

Before signing off, there is a new character pack coming out this year, Luchador. As of the recording of this episode, it is only listed as 2025. I hope more information will come out soon. Edward and I cannot wait to have a new character to play with!