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Sam Hill (23 KP) rated Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King in Tabletop Games

Jun 21, 2019

Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King

2015 | Adventure, Exploration, Fantasy, Fighting, Miniatures

7.0

(2 Ratings)

Tabletop Game Rating

The minis are outstandingly cute (0 more)

mechanics are clunky and slow (0 more)

Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King is the follow up to the hugely successful Super Dungeon Explore (spoiler alert; I wasnt the base games biggest fan). Forgotten Kings has slipped a little more under the radar, possibly due to the hugely controversial kickstarter for the base game, and Soda Pops split from the publisher who helped launch their (and a number of successful KS campaigns), but also likely due to the fact that since the base set came out miniature based board games have gone from being a rarity, to a more mainstream product.

Its here that Forgotten Kings falls to pieces. When SDE launched it was a top end board game, and was excitingly innovative, playing like a fusion of Warhammer-a-likes, Euro board games, and an rpg. With no direct comparison it shone out as something special, but Forgotten Kings has launched into a market surrounded by superior games more tailored to specific gamers.

Want a quick fun mini based game; here's Zombicide, want a complex deep and strategic mini based board game; here's Dark Souls.

And therein lies the issue, Gorgotten King is a mesh of simple things and randomness, and a level of complexity in set up phases that makes you read the rules three times.

The one thing Forgotten Kongs nails perfectly is the miniatures. The models are detailed, cute and fun to paint. If you can pick up a decently priced copy and have a use for then it is almost worth picking up a copy just for them.

Forgotten Kings also has one feature to lift it above the original version; the introduction of Arcade mode. Whilst the normal rules requires one player to sit in a dungeon master style role in Arcade Mode an AI system has been introduced to allow you to solo play, or all play on the same side.

Like the original Forgotten Kings still feels very much like an 8-bit experience on a board, but, like its video game counterparts, the competition has moved on to better things.