Dokapon Kingdom

Friendships are the real casualty in this game, and the design knows it. Players travel a board-like world, fighting monsters, buying gear and taking jobs from townsfolk, but the thing that makes it memorable is how much of that progress can be taken away from you by the person sitting next to you on the couch.

The structure is simple enough to explain in a minute. Each turn you spin a roulette to move, land on a space, and something happens: a battle, a shop, a town, a random event. Combat is a light rock-paper-scissors style system with a few classes to pick from, and it is quick on purpose. The point is not depth in the fights. The point is the stream of small, swingy outcomes that keep the standings unstable. Money, levels and equipment all matter, but luck matters nearly as much.

Then come the tools for spite. Players can attack one another, steal from each other, and use items and spells that do real damage to a rival's position. Quests can be accepted to earn rewards, and the game's tone is knowingly silly, with a cheerful cartoon look and a sense of humor that leans mean. It is a Japanese party game that was brought west by Atlus, and it kept the odd, abrasive edge that made it a cult favorite rather than smoothing it out.

Played alone, it is much thinner. The computer opponents go through the motions, and the repetition of the board becomes visible quickly. It also runs long, and a session can sprawl well past what a casual group expects. Some of the swings feel unfair, and a few turns of bad luck can leave a player feeling like a spectator.

But that unfairness is part of the appeal. With three or four people who can laugh at being robbed, it produces the kind of story you retell for weeks afterward. Few party games on the console were as willing to let a group of friends truly wreck each other, and fewer still made the wreckage so entertaining.