Okay you might have seen this game come up recently online, a lot of people are predicting it to be the next big craze and I will do my best to explain why. In my review of Machi Koro I will explain how to play as well as how I liked it with 2/3/4 players. I also consider the who should buy section much more important than usual and of course I will touch on my thoughts including why I think Machi Koro is a great replacement for monopoly and why I think some groups might ditch it unfairly.
machi koro box card game japanese art
If you want to read the entire review complete with full sized images or if you want to browse more board game reviews check out my blog theBoard Game Barker
How to Play:
Objective:
The goal in Machi Koro is simple, the first player to complete his 4th starting landmark is the winner. To complete a landmark you must have the right amount of cash and importantly like regular buildings you can only build 1 per turn.
Setup:
To start deal each player 1 of each of the 4 landmarks face down. Next give everyone a wheat field and baker (make sure they are cards that do not have a coin cost on the bottom left) and finally give everyone 3 coins. Then lay out all the available buildings you can buy, we found arranging by colour works better than by price or die roll.
<PERSON> setup
On Your Turn:
Your turn is simple, you roll 1 or 2 dice (if you have constructed your station) and then depending on the result all players get a chance to activate their appropriate buildings. It is important to remember what the colour coding of the cards means and when they will activate.
Note: If you have the station you can choose between rolling 1 and 2 dice, when you roll two dice the results are added together and not counted as 2 rolls (notice the cards that require higher than a 6 to activate).
Green / Purple Cards - Activate only if you roll the die
Blue Cards - Activate if anyone rolled the corresponding number
Red Cards - Activate only if an opponent rolled the corresponding number
All the cards tell you when they activate but if you can remember the simple colour coding you will be able to quickly survey the table and see the strategies of your opponents as well as just making the game move a long a little quicker, plus who can't memorize the meaning of a few colours.
Next you get the chance to buy a building from any available or construct one of your starting landmark cards. This is how you build your engine, note that you can only buy once per turn. Then play passes to the next player who follows the same fast and simple process.
Components:
As this is not the finished copy I will not spend too long on the components, I will note that hopefully they have better currency in the finished version, we are currently working on an appealing solution we have used coins a couple times and dice others but the plastic chips included simply wont do. 581
I am in love with the Art and is actually what first intrigued me about Machi Koro. One thing I do like is <PERSON> gives us dice lovers a chance to break out some of our d6s, rather than pass the dice around we simply each had 2 of our own.
My Thoughts:
Before I delve into how it plays / scales with the different number of players I just want to touch on why this could be the next craze in the board game hobby.
It is very simple to teach. There is luck factor that stops people who are teaching from gaining a huge lead on the players still learning the game and also stops you from having to hold back when teaching, this creates a much better intro experience.
It plays fast and how it plays. A turn can be related very well to Monopoly that I think any non gamer will pick up on it almost instantaneously. You roll a die see if you get money and then spend your money, this is actually a lot more fun than monopoly where you roll dice see if you owe money and then spend your cash. The action of rolling dice at the start of your turn, giving money to other players sometimes, spending your money and passing the dice / your turn to the next player goes around quickly and keeps everyone interested even when its not their turn. All together a game has been taking us 5-20 minutes depending if players know the rules and how many people are playing.
Sense of accomplishment. In monopoly you get to see your properties and you get to see your money making scheme develop as you add hotels and houses to your lots, in Machi Koro your accomplishment or sense of building towards something is amplified because each investment pays off so much easier and quicker. All someone needs to do is roll the right number instead of landing on the right space which yes is just rolling a number but each space cant come up on any given turn. 884