Kingdomino Origins Review

I'll admit that I found the original Kingdomino to be, just fine. I played it when I first got into the hobby and it was a nice quick game. I wasn't sure if Kingdomino Origins was a necessary step. I was wrong. It's a giant leap forward.

If you've played the original Kingdomino then you more or less will be able to play Origins straight out of the box. Here's the twist. There's 3 different game modes in this version. The first mode, Discovery, is the original game more or less. The only real addition was that volcanos would allow you to add fire to a piece. Fire is crowns, essentially. The next mode is Totems. Each tile has icons depicting a resource. You will add that resource to your tiles. Whoever has the majority will get bonus points at the end of game. The final game mode is Tribes. Here, you will be able to use your resources to recruit tribal members. These people will score points based on what is surrounding them at the end of the game. For example, if you have a Hunter, you will get 3 points per mammoth surrounding them.

The Good: I love the inclusion of additional game modes. Part of what had prevented me from really getting into this series was the lack of variability. Origins changes that. After I finished my first game I immediately wanted to try one of the other game modes.

The Okay: There were parts of the rulebook that were a bit of a head scratcher for me. Particularly around the two player mode. Having played the original I was able to jog my memory but I could see it being somewhat confusing for new players.

The Not So Good: My biggest complaint isn't even a real complaint. It's a very light game but that's not a bad thing. It's the type of game that you can teach to people without too much effort and everyone will have a good time.

Final Score: 8/10

I think this version of Kingdomino was a great step in the right direction for the franchise. I'd love to see what else they can do with the series. It would be interesting to see if there's a way to implement a coop mode or somehow creating a giant map with all of the tiles but I'm not a game designer so I don't know how possible that would be. Overall, this game was really fun and something that I could see myself playing for years to come. Especially as my girls get older and can play with us.