We love games of all different shapes and sizes. But sometimes as players of games we get locked into certain types of games that we really like. Or maybe we thumb our noses at games that don’t look like they are in the right size box to have the right amount of fun. So let’s talk about five smaller box games that are maybe overlooked when it comes to the board gaming hobby. Of course, these are going to be ones I like.

5 Small Box Games You Should Try

5. Ninjan

Ninjan, for me, needed to make the list, because it’s such a small box and there is a good amount of game in that small box, for a game that is rock, paper scissors. The twist on it is that you don’t play rock, paper scissors against another person. Instead you are playing it against the main board at the same time as other people are playing it against the board.

So how does that work? Well, cards go from 10 to -6 (if I remember my low number correctly), in each of rock, paper and scissors. Everyone plays out a card face down and then you reveal. The player with the highest value card, and in the case of a tie, say two players play 10’s of scissors and paper, the one that beats the other, is going to play against the center cards first.

That card that they just played out, then replaces the one that they just beat. And if they didn’t beat any, they add it to one of the stacks anyways. And now that card is part of what can be beaten. So it might change, for example, if the scissor can’t beat anything a rock, that paper would want to cover and get those points, into a scissors and remove an option.

Now, you might not want to win too. Why, because cards go from 10 to -6. And those numbers don’t just determine the order you go, they determine your points. So a -6 is negative points. And that adds some strategy into how you play.

4. Slambo!

Next up is one that I talked about earlier this week and that’s Slambo!. Slambo! is a sumo wrestling themed game where you are trying to knock your opponent out of the ring. This is a simple game where you have cards that are positive or negative in your hand. And you are playing on a stack of cards trying to keep it between 0 and 10. If you can’t, you are knocked out and lose a life, so to speak, once someone has lost two, the game is over and everyone else wins.

That’s the game, but how you manage your hand makes it a fun filler game. You only have a hand of five cards and you play all of those cards out. Some of them could be either a + or a – but they tend to be big numbers. Or it could be an equals, so you just equal the value of the last card played.

It’s really the simplicity of the game that makes it work for me. And again, it’s another one is a really small box. So it’s easy to take with you in a pocket and it doesn’t take up much room.

3. Trinket Trove

Trinket Trove is going to be one of the bigger of the smaller games on the list. Mainly just in terms of some of the space needed. But also in the fact that this is a bidding and set collection game. A lot of small games do one thing really well, and in this case, I think that Trinket Trove does two things in a fun way.

The game is pretty simple when you get down to it. You have a hand of cards. Those cards are going to score you points at the end of the game as part of sets. But those cards are also the cards that you bid for turn order. You can bid with as many of them as you want. The bids are pretty simple with how they work too. The first thing you look at is number of cards bid. The more cards you bid the higher you pick. Then the value of the cards, so if you and I both bid one card, the first card of the higher value goes first.

Then you pick cards to add to your hand. That can be cards the were flipped out, which is what you’re bidding to take. Or cards that other players bid. And I like that because sometimes you look at cards in your hand and you want to bid with a crayon, for example, but that crayon might give someone else a big bump in points if they get it.

Then all the cards go back to your hand and you do another round. You do a few rounds building up your hand and bidding each time. But the tension between, do I keep this card and hope to get more of it, or do I bid with it is a lot of fun.

2. Otter

Otter is another game that is probably a bit more complex than you’d think with a small box. In this game you are trying to get rid of your hand of cards. Not that uncommon the mechanism is known as card shedding. But how it does it, it’s a lot of fun. You are playing cards to three different otters and each otter has a specific rule to it. It might be the numbers must ascend, or be between 4 and 8. But not only that, they need to be a type of creature that otters like to kill, I mean hug.

Now, what happens when your cards don’t match that, or maybe they do. If they match both things, good news, you can keep on playing on that otter. And as long as what you play matches both those things, you keep going. But if it only matches one of those things, mainly it needs to match what the otter wants, so let’s say higher but not the right snack, then your turn is done.

But what if you can’t match anything, or it’s just going to get rid of a card but if it were descending you could get rid of more. Well, you can always draw cards to change the snack, or flip the ascending to descending, but you’re giving yourself more cards.

The game seems simple as you get started. But it’s got good strategy to it and just a whole lot more than I expected when I picked up the game. And while it’s not a wide release game, if you can get your hands on it, I think a lot of folks will like it.

1. Symbiosis

Finally is Symbiose. I think that this game will hopefully take off, especially if there is some solid word of mouth and it’s at Gen Con in just over a month. This is the type of simple but fun game that I think a lot of people are going to like.

In this game you have a two tall by four wide grid of cards in front of you. On your turn you take one of four face-up cards, and replace one of your cards. And you are trying to get the best scoring grid possible.

The twist to this game that I really like is that you score off the grids next to you. So when you look at your grid, the two cards on the right score based off of the player on the rights grid. Two on the left, the player on the left. And the four in the middle, that cares about your grid.

So there is this nice extra element of looking at what your opponents have and determining, do I want to score this card I’m adding off of their grid or mine. Or maybe, if I take this card is it going to give them more points than it gives me. All of this is done in a fast game that you’ll probably want to play multiple times in a sitting.

Final Thoughts

There are a lot of great small box games. And a lot of games that fit into this category of different types. I skipped over trick taking games, I might do a list of that, though a lot of them a relatively well known now. And I skipped over roll and write games. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t overlooked games on both.

But let me know what is your favorite small box game that you think is overlooked?

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