Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 30 through 21
The next round of my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition is up on Malts and Meeples on YouTube. Checkout what games made the list and which ones are new, and which ones you maybe want to play. And you can join me every Wednesday at 9 PM central time for the next 10. And then two weeks after that, the week after Thanksgiving, for the finale of my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition.
Catch up on previous videos here
100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31
Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition – 30 through 21
30 – Hanamikoji
- Published by EmperorS4 in 2013
- Give gifts to win the favor of Geisha through tricky card play
This is one of my favorite if not my favorite two player only game. There are others on the list that I like at two a lot, but this probably my favorite pure two player game. In this one you want to win the favor of Geisha and you do that by giving them gifts. But it’s how you give them gifts that is so much fun. The four actions you take per round, and each them offers a good decision. Mainly because you don’t know what your opponent has, you don’t know what’s yet to be drawn, and of course you sometimes have to give the ultimate decision to your opponent.
29 – For Northwood!
- Published by Side Room Games in 2021
- Try and win the favor of the woodlands rulers by taking the exact right number of tricks
This is a weird game. For Northwood! is a solo trick taking game. And that sounds like it shouldn’t work, but it really does. Mainly because of the powers and abilities and how all of those work. You play out eight hands and you need to win 0 to 7 tricks each time. But you need to decide how many tricks you’ll win before hand. So it’s using your powers and abilities to mitigate or push for winning those tricks and not getting too high or too low. If you can pull off all eight, that is going to be perfect win.
Currently Not Available But Could be through Gigamic.
28 – Arkham Horror: The Card Game
- Published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2016
- Investigate, fight, and solve the mysteries around Arkham in a Lovecraftian story
This is a fun game in Fantasy Flight Games Arkham Files line, in fact it’s my favorite of them. I really like how they use deck building and just cads to create an immersive narrative and experience for a game. It’s fun to play through the story, use your deck, and try the best you can to not fail the checks that you’re given. And it’s also nice because it is a campaign, you play through multiple scenarios, but it’s not a long campaign, so you can pick and choose which short campaigns that they’ve put out for the game that you want to play through.
Buy Arkham Horror: The Card Game
27 – Star Wars: Unlimited
- Published by Fantasy Flight Games in 2024
- Battle to beat your enemy by destroying their base with your dominance in space and on the ground
This is the only Trading Card Game to make the list. And you know I have some beef with Fantasy Flight and Asmodee around how they are handling sending out destroyed cards and basically saying it’s not their fault. But this isn’t for that.
Because, I love the game. The game is a ton of fun to play and I like the deck building for it too. It’s fun to always have a “commander” basically that helps determine what colors you should build it. And I like how the game play is simpler than that of Magic the Gathering. You never worry about running out of lands because your ability to play cards is just cards. Of course, it gives you a great decision as to which cards you put into play as resources or keep in your hand to play.
26 – PitchCar
- Published by Ferti in 1995
- Race around the track and be the first to cross the finish line in this flicking dexterity game
PitchCar is just a fun game. I love how simple it is to teach and play and of course how fun it is to set-up a track and build something crazy, if you want. You want a loop, you can build that. You can add in a jump or you can go up a level and have more track go beneath. Of course you need a buy a bunch of it to do that, but it’s worth it to build more and crazier tracks. At the same time, it’s also fun just to have the basic track as well to play with. And it is a good game for all ages.
Currently Not Available
25 – Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
- Published by Stronghold Games in 2021
- Build up your card engine to be the most influential corporation in the terraforming of mars
This is fun card engine building game. You build out a tableau of cards that provide you resources, take actions, help you terraform. But there is more to the game than that. You need to pick what action you want to do, as do your opponents. You may pick the same one but whatever action you pick, you get a bonus doing that. But it isn’t just your action you take, you take your opponents action as well. So I love the strategy in what action do I take based off of what action I think my opponents will take. I might not get a discount or a bonus for doing it, but I do for the one I pick.
Buy Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition
24 – Forest Shuffle
- Published by Lookout Games in 2023
- Build up your forest and surround them with the nature that gives you the most points
This is such a pretty game. That is not the spot you’d thought I’d start most likely, but it is. And I like the game a lot for that, but also because it’s a really fun game. In Forest Shuffle you place out trees and then surround those trees with creatures and other plants to build out your forest. Each tree only is able to support a card per side, with a few exceptions. Every card you play is going to give you points in some way. I love it when a game is able to let you score points while still keeping the game simple, which Forest Shuffle does amazingly well.
23 – First Rat
- Published by Pegasus Spiele in 2022
- The moon is made of cheese, so as rats you want to collect items, build space ships, and get to space
The game has a great theme, let’s start there. I enjoy the theme of First Rat and I’m sure that it does help push it higher. But I also like the diversity in what you can do in the game. You might rush to get pieces and shoot one of your rats way up the board. Or you may collect points in other ways, unlock more rats and get them onto the board or push the lights further so when you start to collect resources you get more. And each way is going to give you a good way to win the game. So fun theme, not too complex, but lots of good decisions.
22 – Ready Set Bet
- Published by Alderac Entertainment Group (AEG) in 2022
- Bid on a horse race in real time, can you make the right calls and win all the money?
This is a party game, kind of. I say kind of because it isn’t a party game in the traditional sense. Or what you think of a party game when you think of the mass market ones you find at Target or Wal-Mart. But Ready Set Bet is a fun, light betting game that is done in real time. I love this game for it’s stand-up moments. All the bets are down and all of a sudden the #2/3 horse is coming out of nowhere because you rolled it’s number twice and the race changes.
21 – Paper Dungeons
- Published by Alley Cat Games in 2020
- Roll the dice, level up your heroes, and explore the dungeon in this roll and write game
I suspect that this is my highest rated roll and write game on the list. I don’t know of one that I’d have put higher. But I like this one because it gives you a lot to do but not too much. You need to balance leveling up characters, getting health potions, moving around the dungeon, crafting items, and being able to fight the various bosses to score points. That is a lot, but it really comes down to rolling some dice and deciding how to use two of the dice rolled. And then, if you figure out what to do well you combo into a whole lot more.
Upcoming Streams
Just a reminder on my streaming schedule. It’s not just all my Top 100 Games (of all time).
- Monday night, time varies, I play different small solo games, though I might be looking to start up a campaign again. And generally the streams do start between 8 and 8:30 PM central time.
- Wednesday at 9 PM central is going to continue my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2024 Edition for another six weeks. After that expect this to be when I play my small games. Only 5 more weeks left of my Top 100 Games, then likely this will switch to smaller solo games and video games.
- Friday at 9 PM central my wife and I are streaming a playthrough of Baldur’s Gate 3. Join us for the adventure of Nina and Kaerok and see what choices we make.
The best way to know when we go live, though is to subscribe and click that notification bell. I can’t promise, and in fact it’s pretty unlikely, that I’ll have events to click on ahead of time. Though I do want to get better at it. I hope that you can join a stream and hop into the chat. And let me know what games in this list are your favorite or that you want to try.
Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here
1 Comment