CMON Gekido

I think the makers of Gekido: Bot Battles had something like the opening sequence of Big Hero 6 in mind when they made this game and, to be fair, it's not too far from it. In the box are six pre-painted plastic robot miniatures (about the size and standard you'd expect from, say, Krosmaster figures) , a deck of Tech cards, lots of dice and a nine tile modular arena. Now, For what I paid (£9.95 plus postage), this seems like great value for money but, at the RRP (which was apparently over £50), you'd feel extremely shortchanged so pick it up while it's cheap.As for game-play, it's pretty straightforward: you move your bot, target your bot of choice and roll the dice to attack. Attack commands are essentially Yahtzee: you have five dice and you have to get a certain configuration of symbols within three rolls. You get the symbols you want, you cause damage in the amount expected. You fail to get the symbols you want, you malfunction and cause damage to yourself so there's an element of risk involved in selecting the more damage-heavy attacks. Certain tiles on the arena floor help or hinder you and then you can receive Tech cards which can turn the tide of an attack very quickly when played. As well as the attack command dice, you get damage dice to represent how much punishment your particular bot can take. Tetsubot, for example, has six of these dice, effectively allowing it to take 36 points of damage before it is destroyed. This is part of the tactical fun of the game: some bots are weak on attack but good on defence and some are poorly armoured but lethal. Players choose their bot and utilise the arena spaces to their best advantage. Another interesting mechanic of the game is Upgrades and Powers: the more damage your bot takes, the more deadly it becomes. Each die of damage lost becomes an Upgrade or a Power that can add armour, additional damage to attacks or even change the outcome of a die roll so players are positively encouraged to get stuck in.Ultimately, Gekido: Bot Battles is a very fast and fun game. It is a light game with very few mechanics to think about and can be played by ages 8 and up. Personally, I would recommend this game but with a few caveats: Firstly, the arena could be a little better designed or just presented as one solid board as I don't see the real benefit of it being modular when there's only nine tiles in the box and you can't really have less than nine tiles. Tech cards are useful but can often require more explanation and that can slow the game down at at times. Also Powers and Upgrades can make a simple attack and damage calculation very long-winded. Lastly, there's the Push rule. When a bot successfully damages another bot there's an option to push that bot one square in any direction (as long as it's not onto a space already occupied) . This is a wasted opportunity for extra mayhem as the arena tiles are just not interesting enough; there's no scope for traps or devices that damage a pushed bot even further. Extra arena tiles might've added this functionality.So, three stars. It's a nice-looking game with some very interesting mechanics that is ultimately let down by the lacklustre design of the game board itself. Yes, it could be fixed with some house rules (and that's probably the route I will take) and the bot figures themselves could also be customised with paint and ink washes to make them look a little more battle-hardened (and that's something I'll probably do as well). I think the commercial failure of this game, due to the initially high RRP, has sunk any chances of expansion packs with extra bots and/or arena spaces and that's a shame, although there's nothing to stop more dedicated players from making and adding their own bots.

This is a fun easy game for the kids to learn and play

El paquete llego en excelente estado, el juego es parecido a King of tokio pero con Miniaturas pre-pintadas, el juego es muy barato para la calidad de la producción. simplemente excelente.

This game is a hidden gem at the price Amazon had it. The MSRP is $65, and Amazon regularly has it for $20.The gameplay is solid and the theme and mechanics are synchronized very wellThe miniatures are high quality and painted. They represent the bulk of the MSRP, and make the game an incredible bargain at anything below $40.The cards do well for modifying the gameplay but are lacking on the art department and premium finishThe two player duel mode is a highlightThe errata message on the company page isn’t a deal breaker, don’t let is stop you from grabbing a great game at a great price.Depending on the person, the age range is likely better communicated as 8/9+The game would benefit from additional attack dice, and higher quality cards, outside of that it is great addition to a collectionCheck the dice tower review, their assertions are accurate

The production quality is a mixed bag. The robot miniatures are great. However, two of the robot cards have already been errata'ed and the situational rules regarding Attack/Defense cards are unclear at times. There's potential, but you get the sense this one was rushed.