King of Monster Island

Everyone gets to be a kaiju!

In this cooperative board game up to five players can team up to defeat one of three boss monsters (with 2 difficulty modes each) who are trying to claim the volcanic island. There is actually a volcano piece that gives the board some height and is used to determine what the bad guy does by rolling their dice through it which is pretty neat! The standees for each player kaiju is great too, but there is no difference between them other than flavor. You also all start on 10 health and 0 fame.

Should any player start their turn on 0 health everyone loses and it is the same should the villain or his minions complete three crystal pylons that secure his power. To win, players just have to bring down the villains HP to 0. Easy for the first monster who only has 15, quite challenging for the biggest one on 35. This is in part because you can't hit the main enemy should he have any minions in the same area, they all take hits first - starting with the somewhat resilient shield ones.

Of the nine player dice you can roll up to six on your turn and each face of the d6 has a different symbol. Walk, hit, heal, gain energy (used to purchase special cards), build support (which summons supply ships), and gain fame which is a main feature of the game. Getting 1 fame lets you take a ridiculous ally card and each of these are unique - ninjas let you stab shield things easily while scientists constantly inject you with energy for example. The more fame you get, the more powerful your ally abilities become. This is also true for the bad guy who gains more skills as his fame increases.

The crux of it is that you can leave rolled die on the board so that your allies can use whatever you rolled on their turn, but that requires both a measure of strategy and luck. All up its a very fun game that is pretty easy to teach and fast to get going. Recommended!