Machi Koro 1.5

We love us some Machi Koro here at Pixel Die. Of all the board games I’ve had the pleasure of introducing Kyle and his household to, MK has taken the strongest hold and it’s easy to understand why: it’s all the tactical decision making of a city-builder combined with the thrills of a high-stakes game of Craps. MK sees so much play over there that when Pandasaurus released Machi Koro 2 it led to him venturing into what’s normally my territory, appreciating it for its speed but doubting its longevity when compared to its expanded original. Now Grounding (the original Japanese publisher) has released the official digital implementation of both games as Machi Koro With Everyone, so it should be an automatic recommendation from us, right?

Er. Sort of? It’s a bit complicated. Let me explain.

I’m not going to dwell too much on the game mechanics here as we’ve talked about both games quite a bit prior. Instead I’m going to focus on the implementation of them here, which is broadly excellent, and the value proposition of MKWE, which is a little bit questionable for reasons we’ll get into.

The presentation here is as charming as it is noisy, both in the audio and video departments. You’ve got stumpy lil characters flailing their arms around, emoting all over the place, complemented with all sorts of music cues. My favorite by far is the song that kicks in when a player is at “reach” (one landmark away from winning). I’ve heard some folks say they find it a bit too busy, but none of it impacts the legibility of the game so I’m inclined to enjoy it.

Both games are available from the jump, including thorough tutorials for both. Arguably too thorough as they’re a bit slow, but we’ve been playing these games for years so I’m not going to judge too harshly there. Feature-wise what’s here is barebones but adequate: speed options for animations, a few setup options for Machi 1 including the superior 5-5-2, and plenty of unlockable cosmetics that won’t cost you a dime.

What’ll cost you more than a few dimes is the game itself. At $25 this is a pretty expensive board game implementation, which typically sit in the more impulse-friendly threshold of mobile game prices. This is a nicer port than most, and supports local multiplayer without missing a beat (as well as remote with just one copy if you get creative on PC), but considering both base games’ physical versions are perpetually on sale for $20 or less I have a bit of trouble recommending this for local play in particular.

So why am I hesitant about the value prop if you’re getting both games for $25? Because you kind of aren’t. MK2 is in great shape as that game never received an expansion and was developed to be complete as-is, but MK1 is heavily reliant on its two expansions to fully come into its own, and those are completely unavailable with no current plans to add them in any capacity. Base MK1 is just not great! It’s got a handful of notable balance issues that were fixed in later releases, but if those aren’t inbound I see little reason to play half of the game as-is.

That’s half of my conflict on this implementation. The other half, and the more difficult one, is that MK2 is really really good. Kyle and I were both of the opinion that MK1 with expansions was superior, but now that you can blitz through a game in 15 minutes MK2’s wild cards, infinite stacks of purple buildings, and table-wide effects that handle their own upkeep create one of the best ways to play any version of MK period. We’ve been jamming games of MK2 over Discord with various amounts of players since MKWE dropped and it has yet to lose any of its luster. If anything I’ve come to appreciate it a lot more, to the point where I’d likely choose it over MK1 digitally even if its expansions did make an appearance. The accelerated start draft, greater variability, and explosive endgames just hit every single time.

Where does that leave Machi Koro With Everyone? It’s a quality implementation of one and a half solid games at a price point that gives me pause with regard to the half. That said, if you and your friends enjoy board games and one of you is willing to bite the bullet you can more than get your money’s worth. I’m not sure how many other groups would be as willing to bang out back to back games of MK2 as we are, but I can say with confidence that we don’t intend to stop. I just wish I could recommend this without so many caveats.

7/10