Board Kings treats players like royalty

Nikki Moylan

A screenshot of gameplay in Board Kings, a new app.

Nikki Moylan, Co-editor in chief

If you’re looking for a new game to pass the time in between classes, Board Kings is a colorful new app which promotes playing with friends and also stealing coins from them.

Board Kings is a brand new game developed by Jelly Button, a mobile gaming company formed in 2011 and based in Tel Aviv, Israel. Their first game was Pirate Kings, a glorified roulette wheel which they dubbed “the original mingle player experience.”

The premise of Board Kings is simple: You own a game board which doubles as a town where bunnies live, and travel through the town through a roll of the dice. For every square landed on, you earn cash which can be used to upgrade town facilities, increasing the number of bunnies. Rolling doubles allows for more coins collected.

Landing on certain spaces allows you to choose a card, which ranges from an extra cop on a space to collect fines from visitors, to 10 extra rolls. Watching a short, 15 to 30 second ad about another gaming app will also get you another card as well.

One of the most addicting aspects of the game is collecting tokens, or “idols”, with the possibility to gain new ones by landing on a space and randomly selecting one.

There are numerous cute tokens, ranging from in-game themes like candies or techno-esque devices. Collecting all of the idols from a series will allow for you to use special dice. The themes of the board itself are not necessarily important, but add for a customization option and can be changed as often as you like. The more bunnies living in your town, the more themes you can unlock.

People can also purchase “gems” which are used to buy in-game items, more rolls and tokens. This gem currency can be obtained for free by landing on one of the squares, avoiding the temptation of in-app purchases that is so common in the industry.

What makes Board Kings appealing to users is there is no real pressure to spend money on the game in order to advance; people are able to progress at their own preferred speed.

While it is fun to work on building up your own town, the most essential part to playing Board Kings is going to others’ boards, stealing money from their town’s banks, and destroying their buildings. People also run the risk of being thrown in “jail”, where in a fashion similar to Monopoly, you must roll for doubles or pay a fine.

Connecting the game to Facebook and playing with friends is highly recommended, but you can also travel to strangers’ boards as well. Inviting Facebook friends daily gives you 20 free rolls. There are also spaces on your board which randomly choose people who you can steal from and displays the amount of money you can take.

One complaint most users have mentioned in the comment section is the fact that everyone is given a limit of 35 turns, and 4 turns are generated every hour. Definitely a game which should be played when you know your day is going to be busy so turns can regenerate over time.

The game also has an impressive social media following, specifically on Facebook and Instagram, for a small, up-and-coming gaming company. They often organize competitions for 50 rolls in exchange for a review in the App Store or on Google Play.

Board Kings is currently available on Apple and Android devices.