Its long life isn't a mystery, either; the rules are straightforward and easy to get your head around. Plus, its broad range of subjects mean you don't need to be a font of obscure knowledge to win. Azul is gorgeous to look at, and its gameplay is every bit as mesmerising. A good description for this one would be 'color-based crossword'; you have to line up tiles to make patterns or complete the perfect set. It's a soothing process that's more of a personal puzzle than a head-to-head challenge, and that puts it alongside the best board games if you're a fan of head-scratchers.
Inspired by a French city of the same name thanks to its sprawling medieval walls, Carcassonne's board is created as you go. Because you earn points for placing meeple - little wooden people - on completed towns, roads, and farms, you end up in a high-stakes tug of war to steal settlements from under an opponent's nose or keep them away from your investments.
It's a must-have. Need board games for kids that'll delight your children but won't make you tear your hair out if you join in? Don't worry, we've got you covered. Regardless of whether you need something to take with you on the road or for an evening at home, you'll find the best board games for little ones and their grown-ups below. King of Tokyo is a great choice for big and little monsters alike.
Putting you in charge of tongue-in-cheek super-creatures that are based on classics like Godzilla, it's about stomping all over the city and getting points in the process.
Fast-paced and full of character, it'll delight players of any age. Being able to play as a 'Space Penguin' also makes it a winner in our books. This bizarre little game is perfect if concentration is a problem; it's got the secret sauce of being fast-paced yet easy to understand. More specifically, it can be completed in under 15 minutes.
That means you won't mind playing round after round, especially because Sushi Go's gameplay is so moreish. It's different every time you pick it up, too - you never know which cards you'll be able to choose from. You can usually tell how good a board game is when it's got lots of special editions, and Spot It! As well as a classic version, alternatives featuring everything from Harry Potter to Star Wars are available.
And because all of them can be completed within 10 minutes or so, they're an essential purchase if you have young children. If your kids love Halloween, Disney's Haunted Mansion adaptation is a must-have that needs to be in your collection. Offering a good balance between spooky vibes and wholesome fun, this is a strategic ghost hunt that gives you plenty of reason to smile.
The game oozes personality, too - it's a visual delight with inventive mechanics to match. What do you get if you throw Jenga and superheroes into a blender? Rhino Hero, that's what. A charming challenge of steady hands, this game challenges you to build a tower without it tumbling to the ground. And even though there are powerup cards to keep things interesting, Rhino Hero's simple rules that are light on text make it ideal for kids who don't like to read.
This game has a brilliant elevator pitch: the undead have invaded class, and you've got to fight them off unless you want endless detention with a zombie teacher.
It's not far from something you'd find children playing in the schoolyard right down to them using 'weapons' like toy lightsabers , and that makes it one of the best board games for younger players - especially because the gameplay changes over time. Short on willing victims to play with? Don't worry, we've got a few suggestions that'll get the ball rolling. These board games for 2 players are perfect no matter whether you're gearing up for date night, travel, or a competitive head-to-head.
They aren't consolation prizes, either; we've been sure to include options that are actually better with fewer people around the table. Never has a game been more on-brand than Disney Villainous. It delights in letting you be as mean as possible, and you're encouraged to scupper a foe's plans in search of your baddie's happy ending. It's surprisingly tactical, too; there's plenty of unexpected depth beneath the surface, and you'll need skill to come out on top in this battle of backstabbing.
Unusual, accessible, and delightfully compelling, Jaipur deserves to be in everyone's collection and on any list of the best board games. Casting you as one of two traders in the eponymous city, your challenge is to earn an invite to the maharaja's court by being the best businessperson in all the land.
How you do that is up to you, though; there's plenty of room to experiment. Many have tried to topple Pandemic from its co-op throne, but it remains undefeated as one of the best board games around. Particularly because it's easier to get into now than ever; this bite-size version condenses things down but still leaves plenty of room to carve out your own strategies.
Despite having almost 40 years under its belt, Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective is still as good now as it was when it first hit shelves in the early s. Laced with intrigue, crammed with immersive props, and providing enough challenge to inflate your ego if you win, this is the perfect choice for anyone that fancies themselves as an armchair detective. Although it's based on the Disney movie, Hocus Pocus: The Game isn't as light and breezy as it might appear at first glance.
While it boasts a cute art-style, this is a real challenge thanks to inventive gameplay that forces you to approach things differently.
It never feels unfair either; it's always easy to see where you went wrong and how to improve next time. Looking for a board game you can take with you on the go? It doesn't get much better than Bananagrams. This is the ultimate crossword puzzle, and you've got to create connected words out of all your letter tiles before anyone else does. Frantic and cerebral, it gets your gray matter moving and never plays out the same way twice. If competitiveness around the table is getting you down, the best cooperative board games should help.
Providing challenges that can only be solved by working together, they emphasise teamwork over an every-man-for-himself scramble. Funnily enough, games night is much more fun when you're not trying to screw each other over The best board games normally have you battling it out with other players, but Horrified is different.
It challenges you to team up against some of the most beloved monsters of all time instead, and the whole thing creaks beneath the weight of nostalgia as a result. It doesn't rest on its laurels, though; this is a unique, memorable adventure in its own right with co-op gameplay to die for. Want to level up from Clue? Mysterium fits the bill nicely.
A murder mystery where you've got to solve the crime before dawn, it has all the trappings of a classic; the s setting, a creaky old mansion, and some Sherlock Holmes-style deduction. It's anything but predictable, though. You see, one of the players is dead… and they're trying to solve their own murder.
If you're hunting down the ultimate co-op experience, Pandemic is a front-runner. Season Zero takes that even further; your actions carry over from one session to the next. Better still, a s Cold War theme reinvigorates what is already one of the best board games - this version challenges you to stop Soviet spies and their bio-weapon. As the name would suggest, your team's commanding officer has bitten the dust, so you'll need to get your hands dirty with push-your-luck tower defence if you want to complete their mission.
A horde of flesh-eating bugs is also on the way, so you'd better be ready by the time they arrive. The Jaws board game turns you into a cold-blooded monster - a "perfect engine and eating machine", in fact.
But you know what? When it's this fun, we're not complaining. Based on the classic movie, this adaptation casts you as the film's heroes or its peckish great white.
The result is a tense and often brutal co-op experience that nails its inspiration's atmosphere. These conditions are things like "highest card" or "most different colors.
Otherwise you're out, which wouldn't be okay but is, because games only take a few minutes. Stacking and timing the various numbers and colors in your hand to stay ahead is a slippery beast, far trickier and more satisfying than such a simple game has any right to be.
If you've ever wanted to explore a haunted house, this is the game for you. Players start out cooperating, building the board as they open creaky doors and climb creaky stairs.
At some point, though, the "haunt" will trigger, starting one of fifty scenarios picked on the circumstances of the trigger. In most, one of the players turns traitor and a thrilling race is on to see which side wins.
You won't believe the sheer number of atmospheric horror tropes this game crams into the box when it's often on sale for twenty-five bucks.
Out of print and expensive for some time, Santorini's latest incarnation is great value for both components and play.
The aim is simple: get one of your two cute ancient Greeks atop an imposing three-high building stack. Stacks, though, can get capped with a forth story, blocking them. So you and your opponent race around the cramped board, building and blocking at every turn. The easy rules belie considerable depth and viciousness as you try and box in enemy workers.
And a wealth of Greek god powers ensure impressive variety. The Best Cheap Board Games. Bang for your buck. By Matt Thrower Updated: 9 Jan pm. Betrayal at House on the Hill. Welcome to Your Perfect Home. And if the deck of City cards runs out, you lose, so it's no good to just focus on clearing disease and not researching, because there's a time limit.
So you all club together, making decisions on what you can triage this turn to avoid disaster, but equally trying to work which cities you can risk leaving in a precarious state, because you're running out of time to trade cards and find the cures. It's a great collective experience, and here's one you can blast through to victory in half an hour. It does lack a bit of variety compared to full-size Pandemic, and the optional Crisis cards which are extra negative cards, supposed to add unpredictable wrinkles to your game don't really address this, as our full Pandemic: Hot Zone — North America review explains.
But you know what else it lacks compared to the full-size version? The higher price. This is a great antidote to borden. This is a game of building a delicious sushi meal out of adorable pieces of food with faces! It's extremely cute if you don't think about it too hard and super-simple. Everyone starts with a big hand of cards, from which you'll take one, and pass the rest on to the player next to you.
Every other player will do the same, so you'll be given a new, slightly smaller, hand that you'll again take one card from before passing it on — this continues until you've run out of cards, then you'll add up the points from the cards in front of you, and go for another round.
The tactics are in deciding what cards you're going to take. Some sushi types are worth good points on their own, some are worth little if you have one but lots of you have several the same, some only give you points if you have the most of that type out of everyone, some stick around over later rounds and give you points at the end of the game… there's loads of possibilities. It leads to big triumphs, and some rounds where the person before you keeps taking what you wanted just before you can — you'll have to adjust your plan as you go plenty of other stuff to grab instead.
There's a bigger version of this game called Sushi Go Party, which has lots of extra sushi types that you can rotate in and out of play every time you bust it out, keeping it fresh …get it? It also supports up to eight players! Sadly, it's just over our price limit here. There's also a new dice-based version called Sushi Roll that we really like: instead of cards to pass around, you have dice that you roll each time.
It's a bit more interactive between players, because you can swap your dice with other players' if you'd prefer what they have, but again is more expensive than our limit. This is one of the biggest bargains in board-gaming — you get a beautiful 3D ship made of cardboard, a big pile of cards, and a really fun game, which is the important bit, really. It's usually available within our price range, though it's price fluctuates, and it's occasionally slightly over — forgive us, because it's so good.
You're all aboard a fantastical flying ship going from island to island, and each turn one player is the captain, who rolls some dice to see what the obstacles you'll encounter on the journey. To make it to the next island, the captain needs to have cards in their hand matching the symbols on the dice — they'll discard them to move on if they can, otherwise the ship crashes.
After the dice are rolled, but before cards are played, everyone else on the ship gets to decide whether to get off the ship and pick a treasure from the island; or whether to stay on and risk whether the captain will be able to beat the dice or not. The further the ship travels, the more each island's treasure will be worth.
Here's the kicker: the captaincy rotates after every single turn, in flagrant disregard for the need for qualifications. And the captain isn't allowed to get off. And there are also power-up cards people can play, which can both help and hinder the current captain, or can even save you and only you from a crash. After every crash, you go back to the start of the islands, and keep going until someone gets enough points to win.
It's so easy to play, it's a ridiculous amount of fun, and it has the thrill of gambling without anything untoward. Exit: The Room is a whole range of games there are 13 in total that are designed to give you the escape room experience at home — each is based on a different theme, including 'The Abandoned Cabin', 'The Polar Station' and 'The Sunken Treasure'. Inside, you'll find components such as code wheels, cards, clues and all kinds of puzzles, which you'll have to work your way through.
We're not going to go into as much detail about these as we would for other games, because you obviously need to explore them yourself to get the real experience. Instead, we'll say that the puzzle levels feel perfectly pitched, they're really satisfying to crack and move onto the next stage, and the whole thing is ideal to bring together friends or family for a few hours. There's no worries about time or anything, making it less stressful than a real escape room.
Each box can only be played once, because you'll need to actually alter parts of the game at times. How much would taking that many people to the cinema cost? So cheap, so simple, so good. All you do in this game is trick your friends, either by lying or telling the truth, depending on which you think will bamboozle them most. The 64 cards are divided equally among everyone, and they're divided evenly into eight different types of pest rats, flies, cockroaches, etc.
If it's your turn, all you do is take a card from your hand, place it face down in front of someone else, and tell them 'This is a [pest name]'. You can choose which pest type to say — lie, or be honest. That person now has three options: they can say they think you're telling the truth; they can say they think you're lying; or they can pick up the card, look at it, and do the exact same thing to someone else at the table, with the option to change what they claim it is, branding you a liar or not in the process.
If they answer whether they believe you or not, and they're wrong, then the card goes face up in front of them permanently. If they answer and they get it right, then it goes face up in front of you. The aim of the game is avoid have four of the same kind of pest in front of you, because that's an instant loss, and the game is over — there's no winner here, only a loser.
Within that simple frame work, there's so much scope for crafty thinking — when you pass someone a card that you claim is a rat when they've already got three rats face up in front of them, you put their mind in overdrive.
Should they just say it's true, because then even if they're wrong, they still won't get a rat this turn? Should they just pass it on, because maybe that's slightly safer? Of course, it being such a fast and silly game, you don't have to think about it at all… it still works great. There's so much game in this box!
Honshu is a pretty little game of building a pretty little Japanese town. Each turn takes place in two phases: first, you'll choose a card from your hand, which has six squares on that represent different zones: housing, resources, factories, parks, lakes, and empty brown land. Everyone puts their cards in the middle, and whoever's card has the highest value written at the top gets to choose which cards they want from everyone's options — then the second highest, and so on.
Once everyone's got a card, you'll build up your town by placing that card next to a tableau of cards you've already placed, trying to maximise how many points it gives you. Houses get you small amounts of points each, but if you form them into a big cluster, it really adds up.
Lakes are worth tons of points if you chain several of them to touch each other, but are barely worth anything on their own. Factories give you points at the end provided you have a matching resources square… everything has a use. After twelve rounds, you've built up a sprawling town, maybe using the cards you wanted, or maybe using whatever you were able to pick up. Even if you lose ultimately, there's a deep satisfaction to looking over what you've built.
This all already makes it highly repayable — you'll have to change your tactics every time depending on what cards you get — but it also comes with a couple of ways to change the game in the box.
One gives every town a totally different starting card they're all essentially identical normally , changing your tactics further; another adds bonus ways to score on top of the usual ones, giving you even more ways to build. You are ocean-floor treasure hunters, diving down from your submarine to grab swag. The problem is that you're cheapskates, so everyone up to six players is sharing the same oxygen supply.
And it runs out much quicker than you think. You lay out a path of face-down tiles from the submarine, and then roll dice to see how far along the tiles you'll move. After you move, you have the option of picking up whichever tile you're on, and having it as treasure — it has a points value printed on the underside. You can then keep moving down the track if you like later tiles are worth more , or at some point you announce that you're turning back, and then move up towards the submarine.
If you make it to the submarine, you get to keep your treasure. The problem is that every treasure you pick up makes the oxygen counter move down by an extra notch on your turn — and also takes one point of movement off whatever you roll.
And remember, there's one oxygen counter for everyone, so the greedier people are cutting down how much time you have left as much as themselves. It's common to end up just one space outside the submarine, with enough oxygen for one more turn, banging on the outside desperately hoping to be let in… and rolling too low to move.
After each round, the gaps in the path left from treasure taken so far are squeezed up, bringing the higher-value tiles within reach, making dangerously deep dives even more tempting. This comes in a teeny tiny box, and is one of the most beautiful games ever made — the design is just gorgeous, from the box art to the submarine design to the little wooden diver figures to the tokens of different shapes for different quality of treasure.
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