King of the Beasts: Mythological Edition
From: Playroom Entertainment
Reviewed by: Ron McClung
King of the Beasts: Mythological Edition is a new card game from Playroom Entertainment.
King of the Beasts is a game where the players vote on and bet on one of several mythical beasts in hopes that this monsters comes out as King of the Beasts. It is a casual and quick game of luck and good guesswork.
From the website: “The mythological animals are battling to see who is the ultimate King of the Beasts.”
The game is very simple. Players place cards (almost more like square tiles) beside one of six different beasts, representing votes for the king while placing cards in front of themselves in their scoring (betting) pile. The game consists of a Voting Board with a picture of each of the 6 creatures on it. There is a set of cards that the players draw from, each with pictures of these beasts. The number of cards for each creature ranges from 10 to 12. The cards are shuffled together and the starting hand is 5. The rest of the cards become a face-down card deck. Five cards are drawn from the deck and laid down face up as a Pool.
The youngest player goes first. Play begins by the first player declaring one beast and taking all the cards of that type of animal from the face up pool. Once those are brought into his hand, the player can choose to perform a “meld” – play two to six cards of the same animal type (but not necessarily the type just chosen from the pool) onto the table. One to three cards can be allocated to the voting board and one to three cards can be placed in front of the player to be used as points later. Theses cards are placed face down in front of the player and can not be looked at again until it is time to score. This is where the challenge comes. The strategy revolves around just how much you invest in the animal to make him king and how much you put into your scoring pile to bet that the animal is going to win. It is also important to pay attention to what animal cards the opponents are picking up and putting into their hands and into their scoring (betting) piles while also watching what animal is close to becoming king.
Once the player places his cards, the pool is refreshed to 5 cards and play continues to the next player. Play continues until one animal on the voting board has six cards or six votes to become king. Once that occurs, scoring is calculated based on the King as well as the second and third place animals. The matching three winning animals in your scoring pile are tallied by the rules given in the rule book. The player with the most points wins.
There is a little quirkiness to the game in that you never refresh your own hand. You have to rely on taking cards from the pool to refresh your hand. This means that at times there is very little you can do on your turn other than draw a single card from the pool and place it into your hand. The game works fine, I just found it a little quirky that you never actually refresh your hand.
The game itself is very attractive. The art is fantastic. It is well explained and easy to play. It is also a relatively fast play. It relies more on luck than skill so it is not an intensely strategic game, but it is still a fairly satisfying and fulfilling game that can be played with a higher degree of strategy for those that want to.
In conclusion, one of the best things about this game is that its quick and easy. You can play with your kids or hard-core gamers looking to fill 15 minutes. An odd note was that the packaging seemed a little overkill for the amount of components for the game. It is a cute little game that I could play as a time killer between larger games. It may involve more luck than hard-core gamers would want out of a game but for the casual player, it is a fun little game.
For more details on Playroom Entertainment and their new Tile Game “King of the Beasts: Mythological Edition” check them out at their website http://www.playrooment.com, and at all of your local game stores.
King of the Beasts: Mythological Edition
From: Playroom Entertainment
Type of Game: Tile Game
Game Design by: Reiner Knizia
Art by: Jessica Peffer
Developed by: Reiner Knizia
Number of Pages: 2 page book
Game Components Included: 66 Animal Cards, 1 Voting Board, Instructions (English, Spanish, French)
Retail Price: $ 15.00 (US)
Number of Players: 2-5
Player Ages: 8+
Play Time: 20 minutes+
Website: www.playrooment.com
Reviewed by: Ron McClung