Now it's time to give a full rundown of the game, which will debut in the U.S. at Gen Con 2014 in August ahead of its retail release in France and the U.S. in September 2014. (King of New York will be released in other languages, too, and IELLO is finalizing those versions with international partners for release prior to the end of 2014.) Okay, perhaps not a full rundown since I can show neither the game board nor all of the power cards, but this should give you a solid overview of the game:
King of New York is a standalone game from designer Richard Garfield that keeps the core ideas of King of Tokyo while introducing new ways to play. As in KoT, your goal is to be the first monster to collect 20 victory points (VPs) or to be the last monster standing. On your turn, you roll six dice up to three times, then carry out the actions on those dice. Claws cause damage to other monsters, hearts heal damage to yourself, and energy is stored up so that you can purchase power cards that provide unique effects not available to anyone else.
The game board for King of New York is larger than in KoT with each monster occupying a district in the city and everyone trying to shine in Manhattan. When you attack, you can displace a monster in another district, whether to escape military forces or to find new smashing opportunities. Yes, smashing because you can now destroy buildings and get bonuses for doing so, but the more destruction you cause, the more intense the military response.
IELLO's Matthieu Bonin notes that "a few hundred copies" of King of New York will be available at Gen Con 2014, so anticipate a mad rush through the doors for those copies with everyone else needing to wait until September. Rarrrrgh!