All The Anime I’ve Watched Ranked

So I’m not going to do a write-up on all of them. But you can see the top 10 here, and for those, I’m going to be doing a little bit of a write-up. And I’ll probably do something even faster for the top 25 or so, so you know why I like them.

1 Dan Da Dan

Dan Da Dan is a really fun and silly anime, though one that isn’t just all gags and nonsense. The story is what drew me into it from the start. A girl who believes in the paranormal and not aliens, and a boy who believes in aliens and not the paranormal. What happens when they both realize the other one is right? That’s the premise of it, but there is great character development, romance, and a lot of odd situations in the show.

2 Sword Art Online

I know that Sword Art Online is popular to hate on, but I really like it. I think that the characters and stories are generally interesting. And the topics around AI, really, are relevant right now. It also had a chance to do something different with how it handles the start of the anime and the “trapped in a game” trope, and I like how it did that. Is it perfect, no, but I really like what it tries to do and the grandness of the vision.

3 Shangri-La Frontier

I think that Shangri-La Frontier could pass Sword Art Online as time goes on. This is another anime about a video game, but the main character isn’t trapped in it. Instead, he is someone who loves the most garbage games out there, the ones where the mechanisms are janky and the story is annoying. But what happens when he plays a “god tier” game like Shangri-La Frontier? How are his skills going to translate over and is the experience going to change him?

4 Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki

Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki is one that has stuck at the top of my list of anime that I just love. And the new season of it has really helped solidify that. The story of a boy who feels like life is an unfair game feels real. And then him learning about how life can be a god tier game and how to play it is really well done. And I like how it isn’t just this simple story of treating it like a game, but how to treat life with respect. Plus a great cast of characters really make the show.

5 The Apothecary Diaries

This is another anime that could go up, I really loved the first two seasons and immediately after watching them I went to read the manga. This is a slow burn romance story of Mao Mao and apothecary, kind of, and Jinshi who runs the Emperors inner courts. But while there is that slow burn romance, it is also has great mystery elements as Mao Mao is trying to figure out different events that happen in the court and help unravel the mysteries. It’s just brilliantly written and paced wonderfully well.

6 Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Another slow moving anime, Frieren is just a standout in storytelling. Frieren is an elf who, after the heroes party with her in it has driven off the demons and defeated the demon king, just goes on her way. She doesn’t think about how her life, being so long, compares to those of her fellow companions. And only too late does she start to realize what she has been missing out on. It’s heartfelt and well done with characters that are great again.

7 Kaiju #8

Kaiju #8 is back to a much goofier anime. I love kaiju, they are fun, but what happens if a human becomes part kaiju, and one who has flunked out of the defense force training program multiple times. This is an anime with a lot of humor and heart to it and that combination just makes it a ton of fun. Plus the music in it is great. That moment when the music hits and you know the main character is going to do something awesome just stands out in my head and is so much fun.

8 My Dress-up Darling

This one is another romance anime but it is an anime that is doing a whole lot more than that. Gojo and Marin are from two different worlds, reclusive and popular, but sewing and cosplay draw them together. And their romance is so cute and wholesome, all while centering around cosplays that are generally neither of those things. But the story is just amazing and like I said, the anime is more than just a romance. It is a story about normalizing hobbies that maybe aren’t considered as acceptable and showing off the diverse and wonderful cast of people in them.

9 Kaguya-Sama: Love is War

I like romance anime a lot. A lot of them tell really interesting and fun stories and Kaguya-Sama: Love is War tells it in a unique way. How do two characters who vie for power on the student council fall in love. And in this war for power in the relationship and student council, who will confess their love first, because whomever does is going to lose the war? It’s very humorous, very cute, and Ian Sinclair’s narration is simply amazing as he goes crazy with it in a perfect over the top way for the story.

10 Assassination Classroom

This is another one that has stuck around my list for a long time. I just remember it being so interesting while I watched it. Assassination Classroom has a super goofy premise, an alien who destroyed the moon is practically impossible to kill. So he takes up teaching a class of misfits and one of their goals, for the class is to kill him. But it’s really about the students, what they’ve been through in their lives, and how the teacher, before they kill him, can help them grow and become better people.

11 through 20

11 Trapped in a Dating Sim – Silly fun trapped in a video game, but this time it’s a dating sim.

12 A Returners Magic Should be Special – What happens if you know the future because you’ve lived it? It’s a trope I love.

13 To Be Hero X – Superheroes, but you get your power from how much people trust you and that can control you or erode.

14 From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman – Old man sword fighter who has just trained folks his whole life, doesn’t think he’s that great, but maybe he actually is.

15 Dealing with Mikadono Sisters is a Breeze – A pretty nobody joins the family of three supremely talented sisters, how can help them and bring them back together as a family?

16 The Ossan Newbie Adventures Trained To Death By The Most Powerful Party Became – Old dude adventurer just getting his start, the trope of he doesn’t think he’s great, but he really is.

17 Monthly Girls Nozaki-Kun – What it’s like to create a manga and all the work that goes into it in a cute romance done in vignettes.

18 My Senpai is Annoying – My boss is annoying, but maybe he’s kind of sweet too, fun comedy romance.

19 Space Dandy – He’s a dandy guy, in space, and his adventures are absurd but so much fun.

20 Steins;Gate – An amazing and heart felt time travel story that does a great job with the time travel and the emotion in the story.

21 through 30

21 Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill
22 The Gorilla God’s Go-To Gal
23 Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie
24 Saiki K
25 Horimiya
26 Mashle
27 Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister
28 Spy X Family
29 The Shiunji Family Children
30 The Water Magician

31 through 40

31 Komi Can’t Communicate
32 New Saga
33 Delicious in Dungeon
34 Food Wars
35 Ghost Hunt
36 I May Be A Guild Receptionist, But I’ll Solo Any Boss To Clock Out on Time
37 I Left My A-Rank Party to Help my Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths
38 Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches
39 Tsukimichi
40 My Love Story with Yamada-Kun Lv 999

41 through 50

41 My Roommate is a Cat
42 Witch Watch
43 More Than A Married Couple But Not lovers
44 Summer Time Rendering
45 Suppose a Kid from the Last Dungeon Boonies move to a Starter Town?
46 Dagashi Kashi
47 Our Last Crusade
48 Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything with Low Level Spells
49 The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World
50 Beast Tamer

51 through 60

51 Bofuri
52 Cowboy Bebop
53 Fruits Basket
54 Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
55 Lord of Mysteries
56 Cultural Exchange with a Game Center Girl
57 Once Upon a Witches Death
58 Little Witch Academia
59 Toradora
60 Is it Wrong to Try and Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?

61 through 70

61 Let’s Play
62 Restaurant to Another World
63 My Hero Academia
64 Fire Force
65 Edens Zero
66 Bleach
67 Gurran Lagann
68 Rascal Does Not Dream
69 The Devil is a Part-Timer
70 The New Gate

71 through 80

71 After School Dice Club
72 Time Travel Girl
73 Ultraman
74 Soul Eater
75 Kill la Kill
76 The Dreaming Boy is a Realist
77 Berserk
78 The Brilliant Healers New Life in the Shadows
79 Rent-a-Girlfriend
80 Masumune-Kun’s Revenge

81 through 90

81 Don’t Toy with Me Miss Nagatoro
82 Dr. Stone
83 My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds The Heroes
84 The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest
85 Bogus Skill <> – About That Time I Became Able to Eat Unlimited Numbers of Skill Fruits that Kill You
86 Full Metal Panic
87 Shy
88 Jujutsu Kaisen
89 Tokyo Revengers
90 Demon Slayer

91 through 100

91 Management of a Novice Alchemist
92 Ancient Magus Bride
93 Love After World Domination
94 I Got a Cheat Skill in Another World
95 A Couple of Cuckoos
96 Rising of the Shield Hero
97 Isekai Cheat Magician
98 Secrets of the Silent Witch
99 My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom
100 Inuyasha

101 through 152

101 Blood Blockade Battlefront
102 Fairygone
103 The Unaware Atelier Meister
104 The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made
105 Fairy Tail
106 Akame Ga Kill
107 Magmell
108 The 100  Girlfriends Who Really Really Really Really Love You
109 Konosuba
110 Tokyo ESP

111 Laid Back Camp
112 Neon Genesis Evangelion
113 Code Geass: Lelouch Rebellion
114 Reborn as a Vending Machine
115 That Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime
116 My Darling in the Franxx
117 A Certain Magical Index
118 Kakuriyo – Bed & Breakfast for Spirits
119 How Not To Summon A Demon Lord
120 K-On

121 The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a Typical Nobody
122 Death March To The Parallel World Rhapsody
123 Gamers
124 In Another World with my Smart Phone
125 Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear
126 The Detective is Already Dead
127 I Was Reincarnated as the 7 th Prince so I Can My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability
128 D. Gray-Man
129 Cells at Work
130 Sky Wizard Academy

131 Pokemon
132 Why The Hell Are You Here, Teacher!?
133 Blue Exorcist
134 Cautious Hero
135 Overlord
136 Love Tyrant
137 Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero
138 Eureka Seven
139 The Genius Prince’s Guide to Raising a Nation out of Debt
140 Cardcaptor Sakura

141 Is This a Zombie?
142 The Strongest Sage With the Weakest Crest
143 Raven of the Inner Palace
144 Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles
145 Aria the Scarlet Ammo
146 Am I Actually the Strongest
147 Magi: Adventure of Sinbad
148 Gun Gale Online
149 No Game No Life
150 The Silver Guardian

151 Domestic Girlfriend
152 The Wiseman’s Grandchild

Missing: Chained Soldier and Wandance

Final Thoughts

This is a long list and for the most part, I like these anime quite well. It’s interesting, to me, looking at my list, that a lot of them higher up have pretty strong romance elements to them. I do enjoy a good romance and the storytelling in a good, more serious than comedy, anime romance can be done quite well.

Also looking at the list, and in particular at the top 8 or so, they are all neck and neck. I think in the Top 5, all could easily be #1. And any of those Top 8 could fall into that Top 3 depending on what I’ve watched the most recently or what mood I’m in. Dan Da Dan is one that just really has grabbed me since I started reading the manga and the anime adaptation is just as good.

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Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41
40 through 31
30 through 21
20 through 11

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 10 through 1

10. Rebel Princess Deluxe Edition

Published By: Bezier Games
Designers: Daniel Byrne, Jose Gerardo Guerrero, Kevin Pelaez, Tirso Virgos

Buy Rebel Princess Deluxe Edition

The top trick taking game on my list is Hearts. Well, not completely Hearts, it’s Hearts with shenanigans and that is the element that makes it amazing. If you are familiar with Hearts, you know you don’t want to win the hearts because they are worth points. In this game, you are doing the same thing, but as princesses trying to dodge the proposals of the princes and of course the very dangerous frog princes.

But let’s talk about the shenanigans because that is where the game separates itself from Hearts. In Rebel Princess you each get a princess with a special power. It might be to force someone to lead a suit, or you take over the lead of a trick even if you didn’t win the previous one. They are once per round. The bigger shenanigans comes from the rule for each round. It tells you how to pass cards, but also then something special that round, like the number furthest from the led card wins the trick, to make the trick taking different.

9. Zenith

Published By: PlayPunk
Designers: Gregory Grard and Mathieu Roussel

Out Of Stock Currently

Zenith is the new one on the list, and it blew me away on BGA so much that I knew I needed to pick it up when it came out. Zenith is a two or four player, but really two player game where you are having a tug of war over different planets. When you get influence on a planet all the to your side, you get a token, and you win with three from one planet, four different ones, or five total.

But let’s talk about winning influence. The simplest way is to play a card down on your side of the table, that’ll move it one towards you and give you some other bonus. But to do that you need to pay the cost, so sometimes you need to do other actions to get more money. One of them is to discard a card for a bonus. Depending on the type of card, you get a different bonus for it, and you gain the leader token which means you get an extra card in hand. Finally there is technology which you use to gain bonuses but also move influence on planets.

8. Slay the Spire: The Board Game

Published By: Contention Games
Designers: Gary Dworetsky, Anthony Giovannetti, and Casey Yano

Buy Slay the Spire: The Board Game

You know that I love Slay the Spire the video game and the same is true for the board game. In the board game it’s the same thing as the video game, but everything is scaled down. This is a very smart decision because I don’t want to do a lot of math, but I still want to play the same game I love. So you climb the tower, you fight normal and elite monsters, and you rest and add cards, everything that you love about Slay the Spire the video game.

But there is an extra twist for the board game as well. In the board game you also can play it cooperatively. And I love that for the game because there is no reason that you shouldn’t be able to. It levels up how much health the boss has, and each character gets their own row of normal monsters to face. The cool thing about that row is that I can help you attack your row if your monsters are attacking for too much. Or you can help with mine, but whichever row you attack, you get attacked by your row. So there is a strategic puzzle to figure out as a group.

7. Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

Published By: Portal Games
Designers: Jakob Lapot, Przemyslaw Rymer, and Ignacy Trzewiczek

Buy Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game

I might be the person in the world like Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game the most. But I think it is worth talking about and I think at least the core box is one that more people should play. The core box is a series of intertwined cases that you need to figure out the leads and what to track down. The best way, and I mean this as compliment, I can describe the game is that it’s like NCIS or CSI but fun because you are the detectives.

The game has so much going for it. You need to figure out what lead you want to track down, you need to take evidence to the lab and get your results, or you need to spend resources pressing people for more information. All of that is going to cost time, so you need to get it done before time runs out.

And all the cases are different. Even in the core box where they link together, they are all unique. And the one off cases are all different as well and set in different time periods or different locations. Even the Batman version of the game is a ton of fun.

6. Dice Throne

Published By: Dice Throne Inc.
Designers: Nate Chatellier, Aaron Hein, and Manny Trembley

Buy Dice Throne

Dice Throne is probably always going to be game in my Top 10. Mainly because they keep on coming out with more Dice Throne and I keep on buying it. But the game is a great plug and play game that can be described as battle Yahtzee. But that is not fair to the game because Dice Throne is more than that. Yes, it uses the Yahtzee style rolling to deal damage to your opponent, but the cards, and dice manipulation and how you work that together is where the game is so fun.

Plus, each character in the game is unique and does something different. Whether that is with Marvel and Gambit who has his aces that he can play, Doctor Strange who has spells that he can cast, or Scarlet Witch who can swap out the dice that her opponent roles. Or it is unique for the non-IP characters as well with the Gunslinger having a showdown type of defense, the Treant having sapplings that do unique things, or the Pyromancer building up their flames.

5. Aeon’s End

Published By: Indie Boards & Cards
Designers: Jenny Iglesias, Nick Little, and Kevin Riley

Buy Aeon’s End

I love deck-building and Aeon’s End is my favorite mainly deck-building game. I put it that way because I have another game that uses deck-building, but it is less of a deck-building game. This one is great because it gives you a boss battler as well as you play the game. You need to cast spells to deal with the bosses actions, minions, and hopefully knockdown the boss, the nemesis, if you can.

The game does a couple of fun things. Firstly, I like the turn order in the game, though I will say, I think that it makes it a two player game. The turn order is randomly drawn from a deck, so you might go twice in a row, if you have two of your number in there, or you might have the nemesis get multiple turns in a row. It keeps the game feeling tense and stressful. But I think it works best as a two player game because otherwise you might have a long time between turns.

Then the deck of cards. As you add cards and you need to draw again, you don’t shuffle the deck. Instead you just flip it and you draw from that. If you are smart, you can set it up so that you are drawing a strong hand. It is tricky, but it’s also a ton of fun when you get it right.

4. Lost Ruins of Arnak

Published By: Czech Games Edition (CGE)
Designers: Elwin, Min

Buy Lost Ruins of Arnak

This is the other game that has deck-building, but it’s less of the game. Lost Ruins of Arnak is a deck-building, worker placement and resource management game that I just love. The theme really helps sell me on the game where you are exploring the jungle and trying to become the most famous explorer. Yes, that theme is hiding behind the mechanisms in some ways, but it’s there.

The game is really a great puzzle as you need to figure out how to explore new locations, defeat those monsters, and go up a research track. But they do it thematically in some areas, and I love that. You can buy new gear with money, but when you do that, it goes to the bottom of your deck of cards. Why, because it needs time to ship over. But if you buy a relic, that’s there, and you can use it immediately. Or on the research track as you advance, you need to discover, magnifying glass, before you can write about it, journal.

And the Expedition Leaders makes the game even better. It means that each player is starting at a unique spot. And it helps shape how you want to solve the puzzle. I thin the game is a 9 for me without this, but with it, and it’s an easy addition, it’s an easy 10 and in my Top 10 of all time.

3. Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon

Published By: Awaken Realms
Designers: Krysztof Piskorski, Marcin, Swierkot

Buy Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon

Now a game that has been in my Top 10 for a long time with Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon. I still think this game has the best story and writing of any game that I’ve played. It does an amazing job of weaving together a narrative over three different campaigns. And you want to explore and read all the story. It’s so good and the storymode fixes the issue, that even though the regular game is a grind when it comes to resources, this is still a game that I love.

I think that the game works so well too in what you are doing. The combat and diplomacy checks you come across offer interesting puzzles of card play. And then when you go to a new card and you find new choices, it’s really interesting. I also should mention with combat, I like how you sometimes just want to runaway. A combat is going to be too hard for you and instead of taking a ton of damage, if your draw bad cards, you should just run.

As an aside, I can’t wait to play the new game in the series. But it’s being waited on because of other campaign games to play. I’ve heard it is less grindy, so if you are worried about that in the base game, maybe check out that version.

2. Arkham Horror: The Card Game

Published By: Fantasy Flight Games
Designers: Nate French, MJ Newman

Buy Arkham Horror: The Card Game

At number two is a return to glory in some ways. I think that Arkham Horror: The Card Game was in the Top 3 or so when I first started the list. But it is back here because I’ve gotten to play more over this past year. I’ve done the story in the core box and started on another one. And I built my own character for that which is fun to do as well.

The game is just impressive with how it uses cards in such an interesting way. I love how they become a map for the house, city, or whatever you are in. And how they use simple symbols to help you know what connects to what in the game. And each campaign feels different. I played the Arkham Nights one at a game store, and that was super unique and fun, while the base box felt like a great introduction, and the Scarlet Keys is already shaping up to be different.

I also like that each character you build is going to be good at different things. So you need to balance the party. But you might want a challenge and create a different and unique combination of characters to go with as well.

1. Frosthaven, Gloomhaven, Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion

Published By: Cephalofair Games
Designer: Isaac Childres

Buy Frosthaven

The final spot on the Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition is the same as it’s always been. This is Gloomhaven, or Frosthaven, or Jaws of the Lion. They are all the same game, though Frosthaven does add in a city management phase which is very fun for the game as well. This is an amazing dungeon crawler game and very worth checking out if you haven’t played a dungeon crawler before. Especially Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion as a starting point for the game.

In this game you play different scenarios and you need to figure out with your unique character how to defeat the enemies and complete the objectives. In Gloomhaven a lot of the objectives are defeat everyone. But Frosthaven adds in more variety, so you need to figure out the puzzle.

And how do you do that? You do that with playing cards from your hand. Each card has a top action, a bottom action, and an initiative on it. You pick one of the two cards to set your initiative and then generally you have a plan of which top of a card and which bottom you want to use. But, if the board changes, maybe the enemies move on you, you can adjust which top and bottom you want to use from the cards you play. And did I mention that each character is unique and feels different in how they play, because they do. And you get a try a lot of them.

Thank You For Joining The Journey

I hope that you’ve had fun with my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition. I always have fun putting together this list. And I apologize for it being a bit delayed in when the article came out as compared to the video on Malts and Meeples YouTube channel. My schedule has been weird as of late.

So with that, be aware I will be streaming as I can. I still want to go through my 101 through 200, aka the games that I still love but couldn’t crack the Top 100. And really, I love a lot more games than just 200. But that video is going to come out when it can. And it might not come out live depending on what my potential filming schedule looks like. The same with other streaming like Legendary Kingdoms and Baldur’s Gate 3. And then I have other games I want to play too, like Regicide Legacy that are going to stream well.

So all of that is to say, thank you for watching. And subscribe and click the notification bell to know when new videos come up on the Malts and Meeples channel.

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Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

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) 2025 Edition – 30 through 21

30. Space Base

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designer: John D. Clair

Buy Space Base

This is a game that I should have played a long time ago. But it is one that left my collection and then I played it on BGA. Once I played it on BGA, I knew that I needed it back in my collection. Much like other games like Valeria and Mochi Koro this one is about activating spots based off of dice rolls. And then building up those spots so that you can activate more things. Space Base just ramps up in a much better way than those and offers some interesting choices and an interesting moment of when you change from money to points.

29. Symbiose

Published By: Subverti
Designers: Jeremy Partinico and Christelle Partinico

Not Available Yet

Symbiose is one of the new games on the list, in fact, I’m not sure you can get it in the US yet. But this is one I’ll be getting for sure. It’s a simple game where you try and get a two tall by four wide grid full of cards. And those cards are going to score you points based off of the other cards in the grid. But there is a simple twist that makes this work. You score your grid with the central four cards. But the ones to the left and right score your opponents to the left and right. And that is enough to make this a very fun game.

28. XenoShyft: Onslaught

Published By: CMON Limited
Designers: Keren Philosophales and Michael Shinall

Out of Print

I love cooperative and deck building games. XenoShyft does both of those things really as well as you build up your deck to fight off monsters. On the deck building side I like how you always get money to add to your hand. That means that you are always able to buy something which is good and rewarding. The other part is I can just give you a card, you need more troops, I can give you one. It is now part of your deck, and it’s not to the discard, it is straight to your hand. A very tough and rewarding game.

27. One-Hit Heroes

Published By: Wiggles 3D
Designers: AC Atienza and Connor Reid

Buy One-Hit Heroes

This one is a theme that I like a lot with super heroes, but it is doing something different. You are heroes who are glass cannons, kind of. By that I mean if you take a hit you are out, but the game gives you tons of ways to avoid them. So you need to manage your hand and what the enemy is doing. And each enemy is different and each hero is different, so there is a ton of replayability in the box. Plus you level up, so to speak, as you play and get to add in new cards to your deck.

26. Planet Unknown

Published By: Adam’s Apple Games, LLC
Designers: Ryan Lambert and Adam Rehberg

Buy Planet Unknown

Planet Unknown is one of my favorite planet terraforming games. In this one I love how you are covering up the planet and activating locations to move up on tech, and other tracks. The tracks are such a fun part of the game. And as you play the game more you play not with the starting abilities but with special ones. They make you unique, and of course there is the lazy susan. Being able to spin that and then pick where you want to pick from is great. You can set yourself up well, or you can try and mess over your opponents plans or ideally both.

25. Paper Dungeons

Published By: MeepleBR
Designer: Leandro Pires

Out of Stock

I think that this is the highest roll and write game on the list and one of the most complex that I play. Paper Dungeons is a “Dungeon Scrawler”, as they call it, where you level up heroes and explore the dungeon fighting monsters. But there is more than that, you need to manage your heroes health, make adventuring gear and find treasure. Of course, if you make it to the boss monsters that is another way to get even more points, but hopefully not at the expense of too much health.

24. Kingdom Legacy: Feudal Kingdom

Published By: FryxGames
Designer: Jonathan Fryxelius

Buy Kingdom Legacy – note, there might be an additional tariff related shipping charge in the US.

I was not sure about Kingdom Legacy the first time I watched a video on it, but the more I watched the more I liked it. This is a legacy game of managing your deck of cards by destroying cards, leveling up cards, or even adding new cards. And as you go through, you need to decide which cards are best used for upgrading and points and when to use cards for resources to level up others. It’s a nice balance of multiuse cards, and a challenge to optimize your score.

23. Ready Set Bet

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designer: John D. Clair

Buy Ready Set Bet

I like betting and I like racing when it comes to games. Ready Set Bet somehow combines the two of them into real time fun and stand-up moments. Personally I like both parts of this game betting and being the person calling the race. As you call the race, it’s just to get into it and keep the race moving and watch everyone else stand-up. As a better it’s all about trying to make the right bets the fastest. If you wait too long the best spots are gone, and if you bet too quickly you’re more apt to make bad bets. It sounds chaotic, which it is, but it’s also so much fun.

22. Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Published By: Stronghold Games
Designers: Sydney Engelstein, Jacob Fryxelius, and Nick Little

Buy Terraforming Mars: Ares Expedition

Another game about terraforming a planet, Ares Expedition is a big engine building game of, well, doing a better job terraforming Mars. In this game it’s all about the action selection and how that works. I pick an action, everyone gets to do it, but I get a bonus for it. It might be a bonus of drawing more cards or a discount on building something. But then again, if my opponent(s) pick the same action, we all only do that action, and the other possible actions are skipped. So it’s always trying to guess what your opponent(s) will do to optimize your actions.

21. Hanamikoji

Published By: EmperorS4
Designer: Kota Nakayama

Buy Hanamikji

Finally is one of my favorite two player games. Hanamikoji is a game of trying to win the favor of Geisha by giving them gifts. Each one wants a certain gift and there is a limited number of them. You want to win the favor of four or eleven points worth.

But the biggest draw of this two player game is the action system. You only have four actions and you do one per turn and only once per round. They are simple actions like discarding two cards that won’t be used facedown, or putting one facedown that you’ll score. The other two offer a bit more with the “I Split, You Choose” mechanism in play, and makes you think about what cards you show your opponent for that.

Join Next Week

Just as a reminder, I am streaming my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition every Wednesday night at 9 PM Central Time. The next few videos have their links up, so you can click notify on them to know when I go live. Or you can subscribe to the channel and click notify to know whenever a new video comes out. Currently I am playing through Legendary Kingdoms on Monday and then my wife and I are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Fridays. So join us for those videos.

And thank you for checking out the video and articles. Let me know what your favorite game from this chunk of 10 is and which one you would love to get played.

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Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51
50 through 41

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 40 through 31

40. Sushi Go Party!

Published By: Gamewright
Designer: Phil Walker-Harding

Buy Sushi Go Party!

Sushi Go and Sushi Go Party! are classic drafting games at this point. And I think with the fun theme and artwork more welcoming than other bigger group drafting games like 7 Wonders. In this game you draft a meal over three hands of cards. You score points for the sets of cards you get, depending on how those cards score. So an example is for each pair of tempura shrimp you score five points. Some might not score you points, though, if you get too many or too few of them. So it’s a fun changing strategy with lots of cards drafting game.

39. Ninjan

Published By: Helvetiq
Designer: 6jizo

Buy Ninjan

This little game I thought wasn’t going to be that interesting, but I really enjoy it. It’s rock paper scissors. But you don’t play against the other players, you play against a central set of cards. And if you beat a card you take that one and those are the points you get. The trick is that some points are negative. So if all the cards are negative in that middle display, you don’t want to beat them and take a card. It makes some some interesting choices and a lot of fun moments of trying not to get points.

38. First Rat

Published By: Pegasus Spiele
Designers: Gabriele Ausiello and Virginio Gigli

Buy First Rat

The moon is made a cheese, you’re rats so of course you know that to be true. And you want to get there. You do that by collecting resources to build up rocket parts and get your ratstronauts ready to go to space. This game is all about figuring out how you want to score and then optimizing that as you move your rats up tracks gaining resources and other things. I like how there is a variety of ways you can go about it in the game, and the theme is just great.

37. Let’s Go! To Japan

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designer: Josh Wood

Buy Let’s Go! To Japan

Second new game on the list Let’s Go! To Japan is one that I backed on Kickstarter but played first on BGA. This is another drafting game, I really enjoying drafting. In this game you want to create your best trip to Japan. And each day you have a certain goal you go for. So it might be food one day or cultural events. As you draft cards and plan your days you try and line that up. As well as you try and get the best scoring for each day that you can. There are a lot of fun things with how this drafting work. And it’s just fun to see your trip when you are done.

36. Guild of Merchant Explorers

Published By: Alderac Entertainment Group
Designers: Matthew Dunstan and Brett J Gilbert

Buy Guild of Merchant Explorers

The last new game on the list is Guild of Merchant Explorers. This is a game with a roll and write feel but uses cubes for that. You are creating routes across your map and filling in areas to get points and create trading posts. I love how simple this game is, everyone has the same map and you flip a card and you place a cube or cubes on that type of terrain. But then you get special cards that make you different in each era and games start to go in very different ways. Plus the treasures which always feel like they should be better than they are, but I always want them.

35. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

Published By: The City of Games
Designer: Frank West

Buy Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw

This is one of the highest roll and write games on the list. The Isle of Cats: Explore and Draw is a really fun game where you are rescuing cats from an island before the bad guy gets there. And to do that you pick a column of cards to activate. Some of those columns are just cats and you add them to your ship trying to create groups of cats. Others might have scoring objectives, so it’s this fun balance of determining how you want to score or maybe you need more cats to make your scoring work. All this while having a polyomino puzzle on your board.

34. The Isofarian Guard

Published By: Sky Kingdom Games
Designers: Eric Bittermann, Sean Craten, David Yanchick

Buy The Isofarian Guard

The Isofarian Guard is one of two bigger story games on the list. And I think you’ll find that a lot of the bigger story games are towards the top half of my list. I love this type of game. And The Isofarian Guard has a lot of fun bag building as you level up characters. Then you explore and enjoy a big story while hopping into combats and using that bag building to battle the bad guys. It’s interesting how there are multiple campaigns with different guard members that all happen during the same time period. That is unique to the game.

33. Forest Shuffle

Published By: Lookout Games
Designer: Kosch

Buy Forest Shuffle

Some games give you a ton of points and Forest Shuffle is for sure one of those. In this game you build out a tableau that is your forest and surround the trees with flora and fauna. Every tree, every animal and every plant give you some benefit in some way. And your goal is to optimize is the best you can. Maybe you go all in on butterflies, or you get a bird card that scores more for other birds. You need to figure out your best scoring.

I need another paragraph to talk about the game because the card play and end game are so good. In the card play you spend cards from your hand to play cards, and that is always a tough decision as to which cards you might not get to play. And the end game is great with three winter cards in the bottom third of the deck. When you hit one or the second one, you know the end game is coming soon and you need to get cards played.

32. The 7th Citadel

Published By: Serious Poulp
Designer: Ludovic Roudy and Bruno Sautter

Buy The 7th Citadel

Another story and campaign game, The 7th Citadel creates a really unique world of necrodruids and monsters that you avoid, fight, and challenges to complete. With a map that you build out each time you play, you explore new areas and directions to get through the scenarios of the story.

And how you do your combat or challenges is really enjoyable. Each character has a deck of cards. And you draw from that deck trying to get the right stars to line-up. You can draw a lot of cards, but if you do, you’ll run out of cards sooner. So maybe you draw fewer, or maybe you really need to pass, so you draw a lot but then spend health to get more back. But of course, when you spend health that is putting you closer to death that way.

31. Star Wars: Unlimited

Published By: Fantasy Flight Games
Designers: Jim Cartwright, Tyler Parrott, Daniel Schaefer, Jeremy Zwirn

Buy Star Wars: Unlimited

The only TCG on the list is Star Wars: Unlimited. Though I’ve been loving Magic the Gathering again as well. But Star Wars: Unlimited is just an easier game to play. The actions being so simple and a back and forth one action and then one from your opponent is great. I also like the two theaters that you fight over, ground and space. Granted you can also just direct that damage at the base as well to try and take that down because that is how you win. And there are a lot of good synergies for building if you want to be a force user, a Mandalorian, or a Rebel, etc.

Join Next Week

Just as a reminder, I am streaming my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition every Wednesday night at 9 PM Central Time. The next few videos have their links up, so you can click notify on them to know when I go live. Or you can subscribe to the channel and click notify to know whenever a new video comes out. Currently I am playing through Legendary Kingdoms on Monday and then my wife and I are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Fridays. So join us for those videos.

And thank you for checking out the video and articles. Let me know what your favorite game from this chunk of 10 is and which one you would love to get played.

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Message me on X at @TheScando
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Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61
60 through 51

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 50 through 41

50. Welcome To…

Published By: Blue Cocker Games
Designer: Benoit Turpin

Buy Welcome To

This one is a classic roll and write style game. I really like the decision space for Welcome To… of deciding what goals to go after and what combination of cards to write down on your board. The three choices of number and bonus works really well and has been fun in other games in the system, but the classic Welcome To is the best still.

49. The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth

Published By: Repos Productions
Designers: Antoine Bauze and Bruno Cathala

Buy The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth

Now, I like this and 7 Wonders Duel very similarly, but only one is staying in my collection and that is going to be the Lord of the Rings one. But both do similar things and are great games. This one, I find, cleans up some things like no end game scoring. And while I find the end game without the win in one of the three game ends if you get them situations isn’t 100% satisfying, going for those other goals is great. And they most of the time do pull of the win with them whether that’s getting the ring to Mordor or getting support from the various groups.

48. Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Published By: Days of Wonder
Designers: Asger Harding Granerud and Daniel Skjold Pederson

Buy Heat: Pedal to the Metal

Not my favorite racing game, but Heat: Pedal to the Metal is up there. I really like how the game works pretty quickly, so it has that racing feel, but you still make a lot of meaningful decisions in it. Heat is all about managing the heat on your engine so that you can push the corners at the right time. But the more heat you get, the more it clogs up your hand and then you need to back off and let the engine cool down. It’s just a clever and enjoyable system that’s easy enough to teach and gives you a great racing feel.

47. Ohanami

Published By: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Steffan Benndorf

Buy Ohanami

Ohanami and the next game on the list are the two smallest ones. Ohanami is a great game for pulling out and playing a round or two of when you want a simple game to play. But it offers some fun with the twist that it provides on scoring and how you need to set-up the cards into the columns as you draft them. The drafting and adding always needing to be higher or lower than the top or bottom card in a column, at least if you want to play them, is fun as well. It’s not that common for someone to be stuck without something to play, but if you make that happen it’s fun.

46. Mind Up!

Published By: Pandasaurus Games
Designer: Maxime Rambourg

Buy Mind Up!

Mind Up! is another one of those games that just really works for me. There is so much luck in the game as you try and get the cards that you want, it kind of feels like it shouldn’t work. But at the same time, you always have a decision to make that matters and just enough knowledge. The fact that the order of the cards and how you want to fill in to get points changes each round while the cards in your hand don’t as much is a really fun system. Because, yes, I am guessing what is going to work to get the card I wanted, but I might remember a little what you have.

45. Schadenfreude

Published By: Studio Turbine
Designer: ctr

Buy Schadenfreude

I guess Schadenfreude is the third small game on the list. But it’s a pretty different game because it’s a trick taking game and it’s a trick taking game that does some really interesting things. Mainly it’s about not flying too close to the sun and getting burned as you try and get points. You get points and lose points based off of what is played into the trick that doesn’t match your suit. The other piece is you want to get as close as you can to 40 points. If you go over and everyone who goes over, that causes you to lose. But someone has to because that determines the end of the game.

44. The Great Split

Published By: Horrible Guild
Designers: Hjalmar Hach and Lorenzo Silva

Buy The Great Split

I like the mechanisms of “I split, you choose” in games, one of my favorite two player games has that in it. And The Great Split is primarily that in a game. Each round you are splitting up your hand of cards and then your opponent on the left picks one of them. You are doing that at the same time with the cards passed to you. Everyone is trying to optimize the contracts that they are getting the points from the various arts they are getting. But at it’s heart, the game is “I split, you choose” and it just works.

43. ICECOOL

Published By: Brain Games
Designer: Brian Gomez

Buy ICECOOL

Two dexterity games in a row and my two favorite dexterity games. First is ICECOOL, this is a game that was around my Top 10 for a long time because it’s just a simple but fun game. It’s been passed as my favorite by the other because that one has more customization.

ICECOOL is all about either being a penguin sneaking out of class to get fish or the hall monitor who is trying to catch them. The flicking works well and the ability to jump the penguin over walls is fun, assuming you don’t jump too far. Plus the box set-up and how it comes together is really fast and fun.

42. PitchCar

Published By: Ferti
Designer: Jean du Poel

Pre-Order PitchCar

PitchCar is the other dexterity game of the two and the one that I like just little bit better. PitchCar is another racing game as well,. This one is about flicking race cars, discs, around a track and being the first to cross the finish. It’s another game that is very simple to play but so fun. And this one gets the nod because of the track and how you make as hard or easy a track as you want. Do you want a loop or an overpass, you can do that, or you can just play with straightaways and some turns if you want the game to be faster.

41. Metal Gear Solid

Published By: CMON Global Lmtd
Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi

Buy Metal Gear Solid

Finally we have Metal Gear Solid a game that took a while to come out, but that is so worth it. Metal Gear Solid is a cooperative game where you want to sneak around as much as go in guns blazing. And that element is a blast for the game because it makes it feel different than a lot of games with minis. I like that the game also has a campaign, which I need to play, and one off scenarios that you can try and complete. And to add to that, while the enemy movement takes a moment to understand, the player turns are streamlined really well.

Join Next Week

Just as a reminder, I am streaming my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition every Wednesday night at 9 PM Central Time. The next few videos have their links up, so you can click notify on them to know when I go live. Or you can subscribe to the channel and click notify to know whenever a new video comes out. Currently I am playing through Legendary Kingdoms on Monday and then my wife and I are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Fridays. So join us for those videos.

And thank you for checking out the video and articles. Let me know what your favorite game from this chunk of 10 is and which one you would love to get played.

Send an Email
Message me on X at @TheScando
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Support us on Patreon here

Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91
90 through 81
80 through 71
70 through 61

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 60 through 51

60. Trinket Trove

Publisher: GameHead
Designer: Rocco Privetera

Buy Trinket Trove

I love how Trinket Trove has pretty simple rules. But it is a game that offers more than just simple game play. You collect cards in your hand that will be your score at the end of the game. There is a twist, though, as those cards you also use to bid on other cards. So you need to bid to get more cards or get cards that you want, but that means you mess up your hand. I think that little twist is clever as well as being able to take the cards others have bid to make for a really fun game.

59. Vampire: The Masquerade – CHAPTERS

Publisher: FLYOS
Designers: Thomas Flippi, Gary Paitre

Buy Vampire: The Masquerade – CHAPTERS

Now to another one of those big adventure games that I love, we have Vampire: The Masquerade – CHAPTERS. This is set in the World of Darkness/Vampire: The Masquerade RPG setting. And it is a scenario driven adventure game. Now all the scenarios chain together, so it is meant more as a GM-less RPG sort of setting. I like the simplicity in which it plays. And I think balancing things like hunger and abilities is interesting in the game. The story is the element that really gets me though, as the combat itself is pretty simple.

58. Five Tribes: The Djinns of Naqala

Publisher: Days of Wonder
Designer: Bruno Cathala

Buy Five Tribes is Not Available Currently

This mancala style game is going to give you a ton of ways to score points. And I like that tension of trying to figure out a good move on your turn. Now, I know for some that might introduce some analysis paralysis and there are people I won’t play it with. But I like that puzzle of figuring out what I think is a good move for me and dropping off workers until I get to that last spot. I also like that everything gives you points in the game as that makes even a less than perfect turn still give you something.

57. Too Many Bones

Publisher: Chip Theory Games
Designers: Josh J Carlson, Adam Carlson

Buy Too Many Bones

Another adventure game on the list, I own so much stuff for Too Many Bones. This one is about the Gearlocs that you have and leveling them up. Each one is going to play differently. Some of them might let you level up archery as you unlock new dice, others might start to build bombs that you can use in combat. But this game is one with a great flow. You do an adventure piece, you fight some bad guys, you level up and then you repeat. You do that until you feel that you are ready to face off against the boss, and if you are lucky, you are ready and can win.

56. First-Class Letters

Publisher: GameHead
Designer: Peter C Hayward

Buy First-Class Letters

I love roll and write games, and I like word games. This one is a bit of both. You roll letters and you need to come up with words that use them. But there is a twist to that because there is a letter that you can’t use as well. And of course that is going to be a common letter to make it tricky. To add to that, there are some spots where they set the letter the word must start with. And all the words at the end need to be in alphabetical order. There is a bunch going on, but not too much to ruin the fun.

55. Super Fantasy Brawl

Publisher: Mythic Games
Designer: Jochen Elsenhuth

Super Fantasy Brawl is Currently Unavailable

I don’t love all fighting games. There are a few that I find great, and Super Fantasy Brawl is one of them. This is a game of fighting against an opponent to knock out their characters and complete objectives. But what I love about the game is the simplicity of the play. I play three cards a turn and do their actions, one for each color. Or, if I use a color for a reaction on my opponents turn, then it’s two cards on my turn. I also like that you score objectives at the start of your turn. So you need to hold that spot through your opponents turn.

54. Century: Golem Edition

Publisher: Plan B Games
Designer: Emerson Matsuuchi

Buy Century: Golem Edition

Century: Golem Edition is a great hand management engine building game. Each turn is simple, but the better you are at figuring out how to create a combo with the cards in your hand, the better you’ll do. It’s all about getting games and leveling up those games to get Golems, who are points, in the game. You can get the regular version of this as well, it’s the same game, but I love the Golem artwork and the gems in this are just more fun.

53. Pandemic Legacy Season 1

Publisher: Z-Man Games
Designers: Rob Daviau, Matt Leacock

Buy Pandemic Legacy Season 1

This one is for all the Pandemic Games. I love the Pandemic System, though I haven’t played base Pandemic in quite a while. Mainly because I think that Pandemic Legacy Season 1 and Season 2 are so good. The system just works and the story that you get within the legacy games is great. I even played Pandemic Legacy Season 1 solo on Malts and Meeples early on. So you can see that there, if you want to see how it went for me. I almost feel ready to play it again. If legacy isn’t your thing, than maybe Star Wars, Warhammer, or Lovecraftian horrors will work.

52. Mesozooic

Publisher: Z-Man Games
Designers: Florian Fay, Alexander Ortloff-Tang

Mesozooic is Currently Unavailable

Back to back Z-Man Games on the list, but Mesozooic is very different from Pandemic Legacy. This one is a small little drafting game where you draft eleven cards to make your zoo. But those cards, you don’t get to decide where they fit in your zoo. Instead, you shuffle them up and then then a sliding puzzle, you race to get them in place in 45 seconds. You do that draft and slide puzzle three times and whomever has the best zoos at the end of that is the winner of the game. It’s silly fun and I like it as something really different.

51. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Publisher: Grey Fox Games
Designer: Tobey Ho

Buy Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Finally wrapping up with #51 we have Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. This is the one social deduction game that I like, and that is because there is deduction as well. You start to piece together the clues from the Forensic Scientist to figure out the murder weapon and clue. Of course the murder and accomplice are trying to keep you away from that, and the witness is trying to subtly point you in the right direction. It’s just a great time and there is always a story in this game.

Join Next Week

Just as a reminder, I am streaming my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition every Wednesday night at 9 PM Central Time. The next few videos have their links up, so you can click notify on them to know when I go live. Or you can subscribe to the channel and click notify to know whenever a new video comes out. Currently I am playing through Legendary Kingdoms on Monday and then my wife and I are playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on Fridays. So join us for those videos.

And thank you for checking out the video and articles. Let me know what your favorite game from this chunk of 10 is and which one you would love to get played.

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Message me on X at @TheScando
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Legendary Kingdoms – Part 1

Legendary Kingdoms – Part 2

More Parts to Come

What Is Legendary Kingdoms

Legendary Kingdoms is a solo, though you could do it cooperatively, RPG system. In this system you are using a choose your own adventure type of game play with skill checks. And there are multiple books in the Legendary Kingdoms. The choices you make progress the story in different ways. And while sometimes you are limited, you also hit very open world points. But that’s the basics of the system.

How To Play

Legendary Kingdoms is a game where there isn’t really a “winner” so to speak. It is an open world story driven solo or multiplayer choose your own adventure RPG, in case you skipped the section above.

Characters

To start off you start with a group of four characters in your party. I am not sure if it is possible to add more characters as you go. But it is possible to have your characters die if you are reckless in battles.

Characters use several different stats. There is fighting, stealth, lore, survival and charisma as well as hit points. These stats generally range from 1 to 5 when you start the game. It is possible during the game that they might increase. But it is not a common thing and it is driven by story. It is not an RPG system where you gain experience and level up.

Checks

The main crux of the game play is split into two parts. Story, which I’ll talk about next, and checks. When you do anything in the game you complete checks. This is even the case when you are in combat, though combat checks do behave slightly differently at times.

The basics of a check are fairly simple. They are either group checks, so a check for everyone, or an individual check. A group check you will use the stats of two of the four characters versus just one for the individual. The game often doesn’t tell you what a check might be before you make it, so you need to pick your character(s) somewhat blindly based on context.

Then you roll dice. You roll dice equal to the stat being checked against. In combat you check to see how many succeed and you get that many hits and damage dealt to an enemy which is determined by the enemy’s defense. In a skill check there is a set target number you want to match or beat like in combat. But in a skill check you want to get a certain number of success to pass.

There is a bit more for combat, but I won’t go into it here.

Story

The other large element is the story in the game. Like I said, this is a choose your own adventure style of game. By that I mean, you start with a passage, read that, make a decision and go to another passage to read from. It is interrupted by combats or skill checks, but generally it is reading one part of the story or another.

What I Don’t Like

So what is it about the game that might not work for me? I think the biggest thing I note in the game is the luck factor. Yes, the better a skill is the more dice you roll. That is a nice thing int he game, it is less swinging than maybe rolling a D20 and adding a modifier. Especially because it is the value on every individual die that matters. But it is still a luck game. In Legendary Kingdoms there is not much if any die mitigation so it is just a roll.

What I Like

Firstly, I like how simple the system is to play. When I want to get the game out, I grab some dice and start playing. Yes, you need a game sheet to use, but it is not overly complex to track that. And the checks are simple to follow as well.

Speaking of checks, I like how combat is just a bit more complex, but not too complex. If combat were as simple as it is for a skill check, it might feel way to lucky. But I like how you have armor and that armor might block attacks. And I like that as characters you get to go first and then the enemies go. There is no initiative system it is just nice and simple that way.

Another thing that stands out to me is that the writing is solid or slightly better than that. With a choose your own adventure it is very possible that it could be too generic because you don’t know how someone is getting to a situation. This one is just enough on rails that they can create a bigger story. Now it is at the point where I am in an open world point, so I want to know how the story is going to go. But I like the story a lot thus far, and I think there is some good interesting writing and plot happening.

Who Is Legendary Kingdoms For?

This is tough one to say. I think people who like a good RPG might enjoy this game. In particular maybe a video game RPG player who is looking for a way to spend less screen time. It is going to give you that RPG itch but not be too much. And it is something for an RPG fan who maybe wants to play more but can’t work it into their schedule. This is a game that is easily playable in an evening for thirty minutes and then putting it down and picking it up again.

Thoughts and Grades on Legendary Kingdoms

This game is a blast to play. Is it perfect, no, I wish there was maybe a way to add a bonus to a roll from time to time, just for those really important ones. And maybe it is the case where there might be a spell that’ll do that eventually. So there is a bunch of luck when it comes to rolling. And combat, like most RPG’s, is always a bit more time than the story. But those both are minor negatives to me.

The positives far outweigh both of those parts to me. I think that the game play is fast and fun. And I love the story elements to it. The decision of do you go further into the water or out, it is interesting. Do you spend more time pushing for treasures but potentially risking something? That is what you want from a good choose your own adventure style of game. And unlike the choose your own adventure books you might have read growing up, this one is logical. You can guess what might come next.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: C
Casual Grade: A
Strategy (out of 10): 5
Luck (out of 10): 7

Oh, and if you made it down here, leave a comment as to what direction I should go in the story.

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Impressions of Welcome To The Moon Adventure One

So let’s talk about the first important thing. I made a mistake in my game play. I play where I use the ‘x’ to cover up one of the negatives that you get. That isn’t right, instead, what you should be doing is spending ships, once you reach the top of the ship track, to cover those up. I possibly made it easier for myself, or I possibly made it harder for myself.

Simplicity

Let’s talk about this first adventure, though. This is a simple adventure. Everything that you do is clearly printed on the board and even with the solo mode added, it’s easy to run. And I like it for that. It is a solid way to gain an understanding of the game. And this map still provides a lot of combos for players to link together. I love a good roll and write game where I fill in something and get a bonus that chains to another part of the board, and that even can still chain more. And this first adventure does that.

On the flip side, this is a simple adventure. That means that the choices are pretty limited, even more so than I’d say Welcome To… So for a first adventure, I think it might be something that turns people away from the game. Now, I still like it a lot and I want to play it more and I am going to be play it more. But if you expect to play Welcome To Your Perfect Neighborhood with all the different elements of scoring, this first map is not going to give you that.

Campaign

But that is one of the fun things about the game. I know that the next chapter is going to be different. I haven’t looked into how it is played yet, but the map is completely different. The first chapter is about getting the rocket ready to launch. And there is a little bit of different flavor text depending on what you pick. But then the next map, from what I can tell the rockets have launched for the moon and now we need to navigate safely there.

I don’t know what the game is going to do differently. Even the Astra Corporation is going to behave differently. So I understand and appreciate that the first adventure is the first step to that. Also, there is a lot of text in the campaign. How much can the campaign vary as you go? I doubt a ton, but it’s already a better campaign for a roll and write game than Paper Dungeons had.

Upcoming Streams

So let’s just run through a reminder of the streaming schedule every week.

• Monday – Welcome to the Moon around 8 PM Central
• Wednesday – Welcome to the Moon around 9 PM Central
• Friday – Baldur’s Gate 3 Streaming around 9 PM Central

The best way to know when new videos are live is to subscribe and click that notification bell. You can do that here.

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Highlights of Kingdom Legacy

Let’s talk about what stands out about Kingdom Legacy. This game by Fryxgames and Jonathan Fryxelius is not a big game. In fact, it is a quite small game that is just about 140 total cards. And in that, you don’t see all of the cards in the game. Because some of them you are going to unlock.

Ease to the Table

So that is the first element that works so well in this game. It is extremely simple to pick-up and play and to put down and put away. You just put the cards you’ve unlocked in one part of the box and use something as a divider, there is a first card that I use, to keep the deck separate from what you are already using. It’s just really easy to get to the table. So easy that I actually grabbed a second copy. I know what I’ll want to play it again.

Simple Game Play

The mechanisms work really nicely as well. When you play you are upgrading cards. So you draw four cards, and you can push to draw more, but the more you draw, the less you do in the game. Because, when you upgrade a card you get rid of the rest of the cards. So the more you push the faster you get through your deck and faster that you unlock more cards. So it’s this great push and pull of asking the question, can I do anything, if yes, is it worth it to do that and not push the game along further.

Legacy Elements

And I like the legacy elements of the game a ton as well. The first element is simply unlocking the cards. That is simple, you unlock two more each time through your play deck of cards. Sometimes it is more, and sometimes it gives you choices. And these will shape how you play the game. In particular with the end scoring of the game, when you pick those, it’ll shape what you want to upgrade.

But beyond that, you upgrade cards and keep track of extra goods to improve towers or sell trade goods. As well as then some stickers to add to different cards. That can increase your production of goods, or your attack and push you forward in the game that way. I think that each element is just enough to add a bit of flavor to what you are doing.

Upcoming Streams

So let’s just run through a reminder of the streaming schedule every week.

• Monday – Board Game Streaming around 8 PM Central
• Wednesday – Board Game Streaming around 9 PM Central
• Friday – Baldur’s Gate 3 Streaming around 9 PM Central

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How To Play At The Helm

At The Helm is a hand management and deck building game where you are trying to beat three challenges. Each challenge is going to want different symbols played out to beat it. Some want a lot of sails played in a single turn. Others want a lot of sails total but it isn’t turn based, or it could be attacks or money that they want as well.

To do this you need to play out cards from your hand of three cards. Every card does some different effect and some of them might do two different ones that you choose between. But a lot are going to give you that attack, sail, or purchase/money. As well as they give you health which you need in the game.

After you play one or two cards each turn you draw back up to three. If there is a broken heart symbol on the card you take a damage (or two from some). You might also lose health from triggers on the challenges you are going after. Such as the giant squid deals you a damage if you damage it with the harpoon.

Then, if you run out of cards, you automatically get a card from the market. Huzzah, free purchase, but once all the cards are gone and you need to reshuffle you lose the game. But if you defeat all three challenges, you win the game.

What Doesn’t Work

Variety is going to be my one negative for the game. I talked about how there is some variety in the game on the stream. But that mainly comes from changing up the challenges. I think that there are good deck building strategies, but those strategies never change, at least not much. So it’s about those challenges. I think I say this a lot about the Button Shy Games, but with only 18 cards, it limits what you do, so almost all of them you probably want an expansion for it to add more variety to the game.

What Works

Let’s talk two things that I generally mention either as a negative or positive. But the game is very fast, which is good, most Button Shy Games are. And for a small solo game, I want it to be that. But At The Helm is also a consistent footprint that isn’t too large. I like that it’s a fixed footprint as well. There are some that I’ve played where the footprint can vary considerably or be dynamic throughout the game.

The hand management aspect of the game works well. I like that determination of how many cards to play because the more you play each turn, the faster you get through your deck. But if you dig for specific cards, well, you likely will find that you end up in trouble because you aren’t fully optimizing what you do.

And I think adding cards to your deck in this game is interesting as well. I did call out that one element of the game is not obvious, and I missed it, because it’s tucked in part of the rules where it doesn’t make as much sense. Not a big negative, but I like how when you run out of cards to play you get to add in a card. That is a good countdown timer and it means that you don’t always need to buy cards.

Who Is At The Helm For?

I think that people who enjoy a good puzzle of a game are going to enjoy At The Helm. Now, I think it’s less of a puzzle game than some. This one is more about reacting to the cards you get in hand and balancing that line of healing up and spending time doing that, versus working on the challenges. So people who like that puzzle but also that hand management or deck building aspect of a game should enjoy this one. And this one is better than some for people who travel as well.

Final Thoughts on At The Helm

I enjoyed this game quite well. I think that it’s one that is easier to understand the rules than some. I do think that the rules needed that tiny bit of extra work. Mainly, where do you place certain key parts of the rules would make a lot of sense. I get that it’s probably a me issue because I should have read everything better. But I suspect there are a number of other players of the game who missed the adding purchased cards to the hand rule as well.

The game is fast, and I like the aesthetic of the game. I think that it works very well and it really does feel like a tightly designed game. The theme is just there enough through that aesthetic as well which is nice. I don’t love it when a game is just all mechanisms with a theme that could be anything. But, with At The Helm, I don’t think that it’s that.

And the game play is so fast and consistent in what you are doing, it feels less lucky than some of the other games. And it feels more like a game than a puzzle than some of the other solo games from Button Shy. For that reason, I do enjoy this one more, and while I suspect that an expansion or two would make it more playable in the long run with that variety, it works really well as it is.

My Grade: B+
Strategy: B+
Luck: C-

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