Vulcanus
A Japan-alogue review
A Swift Takeover of Tokyo
Best for: those who like asymmetrical co-op games with plenty of moving parts.
2 - 4 players
60 - 80 minutes
16/12/2019
One of you gets to poop lava and destroy Tokyo. The rest of you have to put a stop to it. All right, this one isn't an indie game, but the fun I had insprired me, okay?
The main aim of the game is for the humans to fill up their rescue gauge and for the kaiju to fill up its damage gauge. Each person you rescue/burn to death, each lava block you put out/spew onto the board, and each missile you launch fills these up on both sides. Once you've filled your sides slots, you win!
The game itself plays in a series of 6 rounds, each denoted by an event card at the start of the round.
Then the humans and kaiju decide which of the action cards they will play from their hand, and in what order. These cards are placed face down on a board in such a way that the human actions and kaiju actions take turns. Actions include moving rescue vehicles, making bases, putting out or pooping out lava, stomping people to death, ransacking the city... The usual types of actions.
Once all of these have hopefully put a spanner in the enemy's plans, the kaiju gets its own lava phase. Read: burn little plastic pawns to death and add bonus lava to your damage gauge. Only after the kaiju has finished burninating the village do the humans get to evacuate their people. Then they also get to move their investigation level up a bit. The kaiju also levels up along the way, gaining exp with each lava block left in its wake.
The good thing about the game is that it's very fast paced and you don't end up feeling like you have nothing to do. It also lends itself very easily to some excellent roaring moments and a lot of banter. The action phase card placement will also create great meta for people used to playing the game, and I think that's where the strategy will really start to come in.
When we played it felt very evenly matched the whole way through between kaiju and humans. It might have just been our game, but I definitely wanted more chance to form a clear lead, lose it, and retake it. We lost by one move in the end and were basically on the same gauge line the whole way through. Maybe you like this kind of close race, but I wanted a little more up and down.
The themeing and the lava blocks are really great, as are the vehicle and tent pieces. The kaiju itself could do with being bigger, even if it means it sticks over the edge of an area boundary.
The game is heavily language dependent so if you're going to give it a go you'll need a Japanese reader in the group. The game also uses about 20 different boards (OK fine, 7) so you'll need a big table and long arms. If you can't get long arms, well, maybe invest in a grabby hand thing from the dollar store.
As a game for the collection, if you like the theme and the idea of it being a fast paced heavy game then it could well be for you!