Tokyo Sidekick (Kickstarter)

One of the most frustrating things for me, personally and professionally, coming out of this pandemic is extra excessive shipping delays coming out of the US right now. I was scheduled to have a full CrowdFUNding PREVIEW of Tokyo Sidekicks but it remains stuck at the border somewhere. It did eventually show up recently, and I’ll have a full PREVIEW on the game sometime in the next week, well before this short (16 day) Kickstarter campaign ends. I’ve managed to play a little, and let me just say I am super excited about this game. Just take a look at the campaign video (above) and tell me that it doesn’t excite you too.

Because I’ll get to talk about the game itself in more detail, I’m going to skip most of my usual gameplay summary. (Although it’s still on the campaign page.) But, the basics are that it is a mid-weight, cooperative game for 1-4 players. It’s not a pure deckbuilding game, but that’s one of the primary mechanics. With each player using their choice of heroes and sidekicks, as well as multiple potential big baddies at the end, there’s a ton of replayability here. 

Ordinarily, I’d call this huge, or a table eater, or whatever else. But this is Tokyo… it’s Kaiju-sized. The add-on playmat measures 24″x36″ with the regular board only slightly smaller at 22″x32″. On top of that, each player needs space for their own board, their hero, their sidekick, and a bunch of cards. Assuming the demo images are to scale, players will need about 2 feet of space apiece. The box is a whopping 12.5″x17″ which could be a storage issue for some people, although it’s only about as thick as your average game box.

Pledge levels start at $60(USD) for the standard game, with a box sleeve and a Tokyo Sidekick comicbook, plus stretch goals, which is a pretty reasonable price. Bump that to $75 to also gets the Akihabara Web expansion scenario, or $100 to also get a set of 40 acrylic standees to replace the basic cardboard ones. I’ve seen the acrylics for some of Japanime Games’ other releases and they are pretty swanky. I would argue that in many ways they are a better upgrade than 3D miniatures. $200 is a big pledge, but it comes with the game, the acrylics, the playmat I mentioned, the expansion scenario, custom card sleeves for both the game and expansion, five enamel pins, a 1000 piece puzzle, and a Tokyo Sidekick sourcebook for the in-production BESM fourth edition RPG due out in the fall. (You can expect to read my thoughts on that one later this month.)

International shipping on something like this is often a dealbreaker for many backers outside the US. I was extremely surprised and pleased to see that not only are the shipping costs listed upfront, but they also aren’t unreasonable for the entirety of North America. (Not as nice overseas, but I’ve definitely seen way worse.)

Unless the physical size is an issue for you, this is a game you should be backing. Going through this campaign just makes me even more excited to play it. Now if people would start taking things more seriously so that the mail can get moving, that’d be great.

You can back Tokyo Sidekicks on Kickstarter until September 2, 2020.

You can find Little Future online at https://littlefuture.jp/ or on facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/littlefuture.ltd. (However, both are in Japanese.)

Japanime Games is online at japanimegames.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/JapanimeGames.