Machi Koro Review

   Machi Koro is a game for two to four players that plays in about half an hour.

   Inside, you will find cards that have a number(s) one through twelve, two six sided dice and some coins. When you set up, these will go in the middle where everyone can reach them.

   Each player will also have three coins, two establishment cards and four landmark cards.

   The landmark cards will go face down in front of each player.

   You are now ready to play.

   On your turn, you are going to roll one die. It the number on the die matches a number on a card in front of you, you will do what the card says. If the card is blue, it's a card that gives each player some money. The red ones take coins from your opponents when they roll that number as long as they had the money before the die was rolled. The green ones you get coins if you rolled that number. The purple ones you get coins from others if you roll that number.

   After you collect your coins (or give them away), you get a buy phase. This is when you can purchase cards from the middle of the table or you can flip over your landmark. Landmarks give you special abilities when rolling your dice. The Train Station makes it so you can go from rolling just one die to both if you choose to. The Shopping Mall makes your red and green cards worth extra coins. The Amusement Park you can take another turn if you roll doubles. The Radio Tower gives you the option to re-roll your dice.

   Whoever gets all four of their landmarks flipped over first, is the winner!

   There are a couple upgrades we have done to this game that are not included in the box. My husband used his 3D printer to make coin holders. He found the file on Thingiverse. These work great! If you have a 3D printer, I suggest looking into printing some. We love using them!

   We have also purchased some double six dice to use instead of the six sided dice that came with it. These roll a lot better. We have started switching out the dice in a lot of our games.

   This is a fun, light game we enjoy playing both with our kids and just us after they have gone to bed. It plays pretty quickly so it works great as a filler game or if you don't have a lot of time. I like pulling this game out if I want a game that maybe doesn't have much strategy to it. A lot of it is luck of the dice, so that may turn people away from it. The art is cute and cartoon like but doesn't really jump out at you. The coins are cardboard but work well for what they are. The cards had a slight curve in the middle when we got it, but we've now played it enough that they are flattened out. The insert has plenty of room to add expansions to the box. Overall, it's a game we enjoy and play pretty often.