Kingdom Two Crowns

 Rating: 9/10 😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺😺

Ages: 7+ (mostly because younger kids might get frustrated by dying too much, this requires more strategy than you think)

One of my sons came to visit for the holidays and insisted I had to play Kingdom Two Crowns. Yeah, I got addicted really fast. It's a simple game to figure out but isn't an easy one to win.

You basically run back and forth trying to collect money so you can upgrade your walls and buildings, expand your city, hire hobos to work for you, and outfit those hobos with tools so they can be archers, farmers, builders, knights, and other fighters who help defend your little kingdom city against the Greed, weird purple face monsters that come out usually during the night and try to steal your crown. If they manage to knock your crown off and carry it away, you die and get reincarnated as a new monarch in the ruins of your previous kingdom. It's not as bad as it sounds. Most of your buildings are still there. Your hobos are still there, but they have no tools so they are unemployed peasants now until you give them new tools.

There are cool bonuses and things to unlock, like new horses and animals to ride back and forth. Some have super powers and are more useful than others, but all are fun.

I won't admit how many times I died in my current game. I'm still not finished. I'm not sure there is a finish. There are multiple islands to travel between, all with different bonuses to unlock and more Greed to fight and destroy.

This is a great game, but not a quick one to pick up and put back down. Plan on getting sucked into playing "just one more day/project/night/battle" until next thing you know it's after midnight and you really really need to pee but the controller seems glued to your hands.

It's got a fun retro vibe to the graphics which is sometimes annoying because it makes it hard to see what you're really looking at. I have a few minor quibbles and complaints about gameplay, mostly that there is no way to cancel a "build" if you accidentally put money into something you didn't want to do yet. But overall, it's a fun game. Easy enough for younger kids to figure out, but layered enough that it requires some real strategy and planning to succeed at.

There are several flavors of kingdom to try, each with some unique gameplay. So far, I've tried Shogun and Norselands and enjoy both of them. I still have the basic European kingdom and Deadlands to play. I'm looking forward to it!

For an inexpensive game, it promises endless hours of playtime.