Anime I Watched in 2025 Ranked

1. The Apothecary Diaries

This is an easy one to top off the list. The show is just great and I can’t wait for more of it come out. The blend of mystery with the aesthetic stands out among a lot of shows. And the character development and growth as the romance slowly burns is amazing as well. I’m tempted to watch it again because it’s that good. And I’ve read the manga, even though I’ve watched the anime, but The Apothecary Diaries stands out.

2. Frieren: Beyond Journey’s End

Now, this is one that was obviously out before last year. But I didn’t get around to watching it until the start of last year and it’s wonderful. The story stands out as something different. Yes, there is this element of fantasy and adventure, but seeing Frieren as the world and those she cares about pass her by as she’s an elf and they are not is interesting. And the revisiting of parts of her past are great as well. It tells this complete story that feels unique.

3. From Old Country Bumpkin to Master Swordsman

You’re out in the countryside living a nice normal life. You run a school that teaches swordsmanship, but overall, it’s a simple life. Turns out you are a master swordsman and you need to heed the call to come and train those at the royal city and take part in that life. That’s the plot, it’s a bit dumb, but I like the I’m really overpowered characters, especially when they are an older man who really just wants to live a simple life. It’s tropes, but with a twist.

4. Dealing with Mikadono Sisters is a Breeze

There are a number of romance anime on the list and Dealing with Mikadono Sisters is a Breeze is my favorite. This one follows a boy who is the son of a famous actor. She passes away and a connection, the Mikadono Sisters’ father, gives him a spot in their house. Of course, they are all elites in their own area, and they expect him to be the same. But he’s not great at anything, he just looks pretty. So how can help help the Mikadono Sisters be sisters and join into their family?

5. To Be Hero X

I wasn’t sure about this one at the start, mainly because watching the trailer it looked interesting, but didn’t blow me away. To Be Hero X is a story of a world where superheroes are a thing. And the more people trust you the more powerful you can become. It’s a cool concept, and creates a lot of interesting situations of people gaining and losing powers. The aesthetic is something else with 3D animation and 2D as well blended together depending on the story. Highly recommend this one for that superhero storyline.

6. The Ossan Newbie Adventures Trained To Death By The Most Powerful Party Became

I’m tempted to say this one should be higher. But it’s also in the Top 10 of 59 different anime, so that’s a good thing. Another older protagonist, and this one who has been trained by the most powerful party and he’s now an old adventurer. But because he was trained by insanely powerful people, he himself is overpowered compared to everyone else. It’s that different perspective of the older character that works well in this one.

7. Campfire Cooking in Another World with My Absurd Skill

I think this is the first Isekai on the list. It won’t be the last. But this one is more of a slice of life Isekai where the main character ends up in another world but still has access to an online shop. So he gains familiars and generally goes on standard fantasy adventures. Again, it’s the overpowered character, and one who just wants to explore and enjoy his life, not become some great hero. Also, a lot of the food looks really tasty, anyone know where to get some orc meat?

8. Shikimori’s Not Just a Cutie

Another romance here, and this one has a bumbling main character. No, it’s not Shikimori. She is, in fact, awesome at basically everything she does. Her boyfriend is a bumbling disaster magnet. It’s a really cute romance with characters who just love each other no matter what. And both of them are worried about losing the other, Shikimori if she doesn’t act girly enough, and Izumi because he’s a walking disaster magnet.

9. Witch Watch

We go from a bumbling male protagonist and now we flip it kind of back around. A strong ogre is set to be the familiar of his childhood friend, the witch. Of course, he’s very serious about everything and she’s a ditz and doesn’t really have great control on her abilities. This is a harem anime, but instead of him collecting girls, she’s collecting a lot of different supernatural creatures around her. There are slice of life episodes and then more serious storylines that happen, but as a whole, a fun and funny show.

10. The Gorilla God’s Go-To Gal

This one has an interesting premise, one that I actually think is cool and could have a fun RPG built around it. When you reach a certain age you draw a card and that card determines what animal deity’s powers you get. The main character gets a very rare one, but not one that is going to make her standout in a way that she wants. That story element is a lot of fun, and the main characters just have good chemistry through some of the plotlines are a bit standard.

11. Tying the Knot with an Amagami Sister

Another romance anime, this one about a boy who wants to get into medical school, that is his goal. But he’s given the opportunity, one that he doesn’t want, to live at a shrine where three shrine maiden, the Amagami Sisters (not related to each other) live. The interesting thing about this one besides the romance, is the idea of this red string that can cause events to get replayed. It allows for him to grow closer to all of the characters and creates interesting moments as they try and break the loops.

12. The Iceblade Sorcerer Shall Rule the World

I originally read this manga and I had a bunch of fun with it. This is another overpowered main character. He’s the iceblade sorcerer, one of the great sorcerers, but he just wants to go to school and lead a normal life. So he is trying to hide that fact from everyone. But things keep on coming up that make him need to show off his overpowered skills, even as much as he tries to hold back. It’s a good story about trying to lead a normal life when you don’t feel normal.

13. The Water Magician

This anime came out this year, and after the first episode I was hooked. Another isekai, but you go to another world you want to lead a pretty normal life. Turns out that your abilities as a water magician are not normal. But you don’t know that because you honed them out in the boonies before you realized you probably needed to find people and live a more normal life. It feels like it should then turn into a harem anime, but it doesn’t, there is a romance but it just works really well.

14. I Left My A-Rank Party to Help my Former Students Reach the Dungeon Depths

What do you do when things in the great A-Rank adventuring party aren’t actually great. They really don’t want you there. so you leave and then you join up with your former students to help them. It’s a fun anime, again a pretty overpowered main character and a typical fantasy world. But there are fun elements like the fact that they can live stream their dungeon crawl adventures and gain popularity. Like The Water Magician, just a fun anime.

15. Lord of Mysteries

I think this could go higher on my list. Mainly because I haven’t finished up the first season. But this is a highly complex mystery series about someone who transports into another world. There he can level up his abilities, but of course, there is a risk that you turn into a monster. Aesthetically this is a stunning show. And the story has so many layers that you kind of need to keep watching it again and again to fully understand everything that is being set-up.

16. Once Upon a Witches Death

Another one I feel could be higher, but it’s here because I watched a lot of great anime this year. Once Upon a Witches Death follows a forty-year-old horny man… wait, that’s not right, it’s a teenage witch who often acts like a forty-year-old horny man who finds out that she is going to die. There is a chance to save herself, so that’s her mission, at the start. She’s not good at staying on task, that lecherous old soul, but she has a lot of meaningful growth in the series. So two thirds fun and one third serious, the series shines.

17. I May Be A Guild Receptionist, But I’ll Solo Any Boss To Clock Out on Time

The title says it all. All the main character wants to do is live a normal life. In fact, it should be a pretty easy life as the receptionist for the adventurers guild. Of course it’s not though because the adventurers are so bad at taking down the dungeon bosses that it’s creating a pile of paperwork for her and that means overtime. Is she able to balance her life and her powers to deal with these monsters and get to the point where she doesn’t have any OT.

18. New Saga

This is a trope that I love. You know what it is going to happen at the end because you’ve been there. You know you lose, and now the question is, how do you keep that from happening? Plus, the stakes can’t just be you lose, it has to be that everyone loses to make it even grander. I love that story trope and with some fun characters and interesting developments in trying to change the world it’s a very good series.

19. Delicious in Dungeon

Another one I want to be higher. I’m going to keep on saying it, a lot of these I love. Delicious in Dungeon is a dungeon diving anime where they need to get down there, figure out what is happening with the dungeon and try and get a party member back. Of course no time to gather any food so you need to make a meal from what the dungeon is giving you. It’s silly and series and sometimes a bit gross but overall a really good anime.

20. The Shiunji Family Children

You grew up with your whole life thinking you had siblings. The fact that you look nothing alike wasn’t a giveaway apparently. Then when the youngest becomes a teenager your dad surprises you with the story that you are all adopted. The oldest is now the heir to the family’s fortune and everyone will be well set-up, but could you fall in love with the person you thought was your sibling? Apparently in this anime the answer is yes. It sounds dumb, and it is a dumb premise, but the writing makes it work.

21. Summer Time Rendering

There aren’t enough horror anime out there. Summer Time Rendering is a great one for that. You get stuck in a time loop but whenever you die you get closer to the point in time where you died, so the loops get shorter and shorter. Can you unravel the mystery that is happening on the island and maybe understand why you are the person who is looping. So good and creepy and a really good mystery.

22. Yamada-Kun and the Seven Witches

Firstly, I want to commend this anime for being one season, telling a complete story, and then it’s done. Yamada-Kun has the power to steal the power of witches, or at least swap with them. He’s a high school student who finds it out by accident. There are always seven witches at the school and now it’s a mystery as to why. Of course, it’s not going to be easy to find them all and not everyone is using them for good. So how is this mystery going to end?

23. Failure Frame: I Became the Strongest and Annihilated Everything with Low Level Spells

Long name and fun anime and manga. This is one that I’ve read as well as watched. The deity who summoned the main character to this world sees that he didn’t get any good powers. So like she does with all of them who don’t get good powers, she dumps them into a dungeon and they can die there. Turns out that his basic powers can level up and soon he’s extremely powerful and kind of on a revenge tour, though that is generally more of a background plot part.

24. Cultural Exchange with a Game Centre Girl

Another romance one and this one is a bit awkward. That is mainly because there is an age gap between the two main characters. It all revolves around a kid who works at a Game Centre. When a foreign student comes in her befriends her not realizing their age difference. And they kind of fall for each other. Once they realize, it becomes a waiting game and trying not let others know. It’s a goofy romance show, but one that I enjoyed.

25. My Status as an Assassin Obviously Exceeds The Heroes

You want the plot or at least some of it, you got it. But the assassin is in an interesting spot. He is the most powerful, and the summoning to this world isn’t on the up and up. He starts out wanting to go home, but is that going to work and what about the characters he meets along the way in the world, can he leave them? Also, does he care enough to help his classmates get home?

26. Let’s Play

Based off of a web comic, this one might move higher as more comes out. Though it’s getting close to being done for this season, I think. It’s about a shy girl who creates a video game and the people in her life. The story is a solid romance where she has a bit of group of boys who like her. And it does a good job dealing with some heavier things that the characters are dealing with. The one thing that does disappoint me a bit about it is that the animation is not as good as it could have been.

We’re going to start going through them faster now.

27. Masumune-Kun’s Revenge

Masumune is rejected when he’s young so his plan is the get in shape become awesome and then break the girls heart back.

28. The Banished Court Magician Aims to Become the Strongest

Following in the footsteps of his mentor the main character wants to become the strongest and a court magician. But when he skills aren’t used as they should be he’s kicked out of the party and is now on his way to being the strongest with his old party.

29. The Fruit of Evolution: Before I Knew It, My Life Had It Made

Imagine you could eat a fruit and get super abilities. That’s what happens to the main character who is dumped into a fantasy world. It’s pretty fun but doesn’t blow me away.

30. Dr. Stone

The world is petrified and Dr. Stone, a highschooler, is the first to awaken. How can he rebuild the world with science and who should he awaken?

31. Shy

Shy has superpowers but she is also really shy. How can she overcome or work around her shyness to be the hero she wants to be?

32. The New Gate

I’ve read this one, but trapped in a death game the main character beats the final boss and everyone logs out except him. He gets a gate into a new world, but really the world he’s been in in the future. What is his new adventure.

33. Rascal Does Not Dream

A surprisingly good show with romance and characters who struggle with puberty syndrome, this being something that makes people forget them and the struggles of why it happening.

34. The Brilliant Healers New Life in the Shadows

Overpowered main character, check. Kicked out of his party, check. Now he’s setup shop in the slums and just wants to help people like he couldn’t before.

35. Bogus Skill Fruit Master – About That Time I Became Able to Eat Unlimited Numbers of Skill Fruits that Kill You

He wanted to be the hero, too bad, he only got the skill fruit master from the fruit of mastery. And you know if you eat two, you die. Turns out, maybe not the case for him.

36. More Than A Married Couple But Not Lovers

Let’s go to an absurd world where high school students are asked to live together to learn how to be couples. But the main character doesn’t end up with who he wants to and someone who actively bugs him. How can they make it work? It’s actually pretty cute considering the absurd premise.

37. Secrets of the Silent Witch

The witch is really shy but extremely powerful. In a world where you can’t normally cast spells without speaking she can. But then she gets an assignment that puts this shy character into a school setting to protect a prince.

38. Management of a Novice Alchemist

She’s an alchemist who is learning. And now she has her first shop set-up out in the boonies. How is she going to help the people out there?

39. Isekai Cheat Magician

Isekai, check. Massive powers, check. Still a lot of fun, yeah. Doesn’t stand out, but you get the picture.

40. My Next Life as a Villainess All Routes Lead to Doom

Isekai, yes. No massive powers because the main character is reincarnated into a video game as the villainess and her main goal is to avoid all the bad endings her character gets in the otome game.

41. Love After World Domination

What happens if the two main powers from rival factions fall in love? Can they keep it hidden? This is an absurd but fun story.

42. The Unaware Atelier Meister

Kid is super powerful, don’t convince him of that, instead let him just use those powers to help others.

43. Kakuriyo – Bed & Breakfast for Spirits

You can see spirits and when your grandfather passes away you inherit his debt in the spriti realm. It’s an interesting story but doesn’t quite make it.

44. In Another World with my Smart Phone

Could and maybe should be lower, but isekai but with your smart phone.

45. The Dreaming Boy is a Realist

Should be higher, the main character has a love of his life. He professes it every single day and gets shot down. So one day he stops and just wants to help his love live a happy life, but does she happen to actually have feelings for him.

46. Cardcaptor Sakura

Kids show about a girl who has to capture cards that escaped her basement and only she has the power. Silly fun.

47. How Not To Summon A Demon Lord

Video game characters summon and try and bind a player character bringing him into the game. But the spell bounces back on them and now they are bound to him. Kind of like In Another World with my Smart Phone, doesn’t stand out.

48. Why The Hell Are You Here, Teacher!?

Students keep on finding themselves in compromising situations with teachers. It’s a comedy and not that great.

49. I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability

Not an isekai, the character is just brought back to his same world. The main character is a bit annoying, his sidekick is more annoying, and the story doesn’t stand out.

50. Seirei Gensouki: Spirit Chronicles

Reincarnated in another world and into someone who wants revenge. It feels like many isekai before.

51. Aesthetica of a Rogue Hero

You can get pulled into another world, get powers and return. It’s honestly very forgettable for having a different premise.

52. The Greatest Demon Lord is Reborn as a Typical Nobody

Maybe should be higher, but the Great Demon Lord is reborn in the future, a last ditch effort to save himself. Now he’s a new person, or is he, in a new body.

53. Reborn as a Vending Machine

Isekai, check. But this time it’s as a vending machine that can level up. It’s probably too low because it is something different, but also mainly is just okay and fun most of the time. I think it’s that the novelty wears off.

54. Death March To The Parallel World Rhapsody

Isekai, check. But this time into a game that the person created, or something close to that. Doesn’t feel that interesting.

55. Love Tyrant

Your name is put in the Kiss Note (not Death Not) you need to kiss someone or you’ll die and then you fall in love. It’s an okay comedy, romance, harem anime.

56. The Silver Guardian

You’re in love and also in a video game. This anime is just a mess as it’s about a video game that’s going to be shut down and needing protect the person you love. Sounds simple enough, but the anime doesn’t do anything that well.

57. Domestic Girlfriend

You love your teacher, you bang her sister (unknown to you) and then they become your step siblings. It’s erotic and romantic and generally garbage. I’m glad they made a season of it because the actual ending sounds worth than the one season was.

58. Raven of the Inner Palace

This should be higher, but it’s this low because it’s the if you watched The Apothecary Diaries watch this. This, however, has none of the heart, little of the mystery and animation that is flat and lifeless. It’s probably better than some, like I said, but the gap is so huge and it feels like a disappointing anime more than the others.

Final Thoughts

Great year for watching anime for me. And I should say, this is not all I watches. I watched Sangri-La Frontier again. And then there were season two of My Dress-up Darling, Kaiju #8, and Dan Da Dan. Plus I rewatched some anime as well like Solo Leveling and Bottom-Tier Character Tomozaki. And of course I’m watching My Hero Academia now. It’s one that I’ve watched before, but with the final season out now, it’s time to watch the whole thing.

What’s your standout anime that you watched this year?

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

Top 10 Anticipated Board Games in 2026

The Games aren’t listed in any order. And I’ll call this out, but a lot of these are crowdfunding games, but ones supposed to be coming in 2026 in terms of delivery and ones that I didn’t back.

10. Forsaken

So the first game on the list is a crowdfunding game, but it’s okay to be on here because it’s not crowdfunding in 2026 and it’s not one that I backed. But it is one that I was tempted to back. This is a sci-fi/western sandbox style game. And all of those elements are things that sound interesting to me. It is a long time coming, so I hope that the game is still good and hasn’t been overworked or changed too much from the crowdfunding plan originally. If it hasn’t been, then I think with that theme it sounds like a lot of fun.

9. Sail Legacy

This is another crowdfunding game, but again another one I didn’t back. I love legacy games, so it is surprising that I didn’t back it. But I wanted to play some Sail first to see if I even liked the game. And I really like Sail as a two player trick taking game. You are always trying to complete missions and challenges and they get harder as you go.

I think there is some interesting room in the game to make it a legacy game. In particular, how the board might change as you sail could be one way or introducing new monsters. Also, the pirates that you have access to, there is room to let players tweak the powers, or maybe to have one of the pirates die.

8. Restart

Travel back in time to save the future is the tagline and I like that sort of story. Time travel is always interesting, though, games often struggle making it work. I think that T.I.M.E. Stories does some interesting things with it, but I want to see how other designers can make it work. I believe, though, that this is a crowdfunding game from 2025, so I don’t actually expect this one to come out in 2026 just with how crowdfunding board games are generally delayed.

7. Winnie the Pooh: Serious Detective

Just a reminder that Winnie the Pooh and other works, like Alice in Wonderland are public domain now. So while there hasn’t been an influx of board games around that theme, people are having fun with it. This is a cooperative deduction game with some fantastical settings. So three things that I really enjoy. Can you figure out what is happening in the different narrative driven cases that might be in the Hundred Acre Wood, Wonderland, or the court of Camelot?

6. Hanami

The cover of the game just draws me in. And it’s about having a picnic under the full bloom of the sakura blossoms. That sounds just nice and relaxing. The game mainly sounds like a set collection game, so I’m guessing you are gaining tiles, and placing them in ways to score points. That is a pretty common thing for games, but one that I find that I really enjoy. Especially if you can make it really pretty to look at. And Hanami definitely seems like it is going to be doing that.

5. StarDriven: Gateway

The game on the list that I’ve played. This is a competitive game of space exploration, fighting aliens and other players all while managing your crew. That crew management aspect is the part of the game that really shines for me. I love figuring out where to place the crew to take stronger actions and really optimize what I’m trying to do in the game. I believe that there is a solo mode as well for the game, which I only played at four players, so that is also tempting about the game.

4. Zombie Princess

This is the follow-up to Rebel Princess. Apparently things didn’t go well and now the princesses are zombies. Honestly, with the lore I created, it sounds like Pride, Prejudice and Zombies if you combine the two games. But this is going to be Spades. But we already know what to expect. I am expecting special powers and whacky twists on rules like we got in Rebel Princess. If that is the case, it’ll be time for me to learn how to play Spades.

3. Bagged & Boarded

The term bagged and boarded probably isn’t one that people are familiar with, but it is one that I know really well. It’s what you do when you get comics. Well, generally first I read them and then I bag and board them. This allows you to store them well because otherwise comics just become piles and like to slip all over the place.

But that’s just the theme of the game. You are kids who are trying to get the most valuable comic collection. This is really going to be a stock type of game where you are trying to buy and sell comics at the right time to build up your collection. And while normally stock market games don’t interest me that much, this game sounds like a ton of fun because of the theme that I love.

2. Viking Route

I’m pretty sure this has been on my list previously. I’m not sure if it was a crowdfunding one or something like that. Or if it is one that has been on my board games anticipated list before. But the reason for my interest in this one, the answer is magnets. You are sailing your Viking ship around and you are using magnets to control the ship. Now it’s not like a proximity thing, it’s more like a how you can affect a compass as you need to navigate through the treacherous seas.

1. Cozy Cat Cafe

I’m not sure how I missed this game on crowdfunding original. It seems like the type of game that I would enjoy and my wife would enjoy at least from the theme perspective. The game is about building up your best cat cafe and the artwork on it is great. You need to place the elements of your cafe to get customers in which are going to give you money and points that let you win the game. It seems like a pretty simple game, but one because of the them I hope has that cozy feel that the name says.

Bonus Expansions

5. Even Deeper Regrets

Mainly I’m interested in this one because it looks like a little expansion. I need to play Deep Regrets sometimes to make myself more interested in this. I really do love the theme of deep sea fishing and then horrible beasties down there that you need to contend with.

4. Galactic Cruise: Achievements

I have played Galactic Cruise once on BGA. That was enough to tell me two things. Firstly, that it’s a tough game to learn on BGA. There is a lot going on with it. Also that even with that tough time learning it and optimizing my playing, I really enjoyed it. From what I can tell Galactic Cruise: Achievements is going to add that, achievements to the game. But it doesn’t look like a massive expansion that is going to make an already complex game even more complex.

3. Andromeda’s Edge: Genesis Expansion

This is for another game that I own and I need to play. Andromeda’s Edge is the space version of Dwellings of Eldervale which I’ve played and I like. So if I get Andromeda’s Edge played and I like that better, I’m interested in an expansion for the game.

2. Slay the Spire: The Board Game – Downfall

This one is tricky to put on the list. I hope that it comes out next year, but I believe it is crowdfunding next year. This is going to give you four new characters to play, more bosses, and more rewards. I already love the base game, see my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 edition to see how much. So giving me more, I am going to be very happy about that.

1. Tag Team Expansion

It isn’t up on BGG yet, but I am very excited for this expansion. I love Tag Team, it’s one of the games I’m playing a ton of board game arena, but it’s also one that I’ve had a lot of fun with in person as well. The game is simple, you just take two characters into battle and the auto battle. Your big decision is where you add in a new card to the deck. And that seems really simple, but the characters are all so different and the out thinking your opponent is great.

Final Thoughts

Like I said, the list is hard to make without it being mainly Kickstarter and Gamefound board games that are hoping to be delivered in 2026. The games that are going to make my Top 10 of 2026 at the end of next year, those are going to be different games. But it’s fun to look at BGG and determine what games might make the list. And let’s also be fair, I don’t make it through all the games listed for 2026 because that is 18 pages of games and expansions. So maybe I’ll do a next 10 list sometime as well.

Is there a game that you are excited for that is coming out in 2026, let me know that.

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

Top 20 Crowdfunding Projects for 2026

There’s no order to these, mainly because some of them I just don’t know enough to put an order to them. And it’s really about letting you know what is coming.

Grassfed

This is a farming deck building game. If that sounds both unique and not unique, I think that it’s right. Deck building is a really common mechanism in a board game. But farming, that it’s all that common, it might be part of a game but this game is all about farming. So I want to know how that’s even going to work in a deck building game.

Follow Grassfed here.

Catacombs

There are games called Catacombs out there, but none of them have cats as the heroes and the villains of the game. This is a cooperative adventure game where you as cats are exploring and having to deal with the villains out there. It sounds silly, but it’s on my radar because the artwork is not silly and it is cats, which again is silly.

Follow Catacombs here.

Labyrinth Chronicles

Labyrinth is a board game that I haven’t played. But when Labyrinth Chronicles was announced it was more interesting to me. Mainly because it seems to give a bity of story to the game. And if it still keeps it as a simpler game, it’s one that I could see playing with my kid often now because of the complexity level of the original game. I just want it to be something that can keep myself engaged as well. Of course, by the time it comes out actually, he’ll be a little bit older, which might be better.

Follow Labyrinth Chronicles here.

The Void Unveiled: Echoes of Arkham

I love Lovecraftian themes. Mainly because with Arkham Horror and the games that Fantasy Flight has put out, they tend to be mystery games as much as horror games. This one is going to be a cooperative story-driven Lovecraftian game. Both of those things I really love. I hope that it is replayable, but even if not, sounds like you play through a few chapters of it with a lot of narrative in it, so it won’t be a one off or limited shelf.

Follow The Void Unveiled: Echoes of Arkham.

Terraforming Mars: The Legacy of Mars

How do you turn Terraforming Mars into a legacy game? I’m not 100% sure on that, because I don’t think that you can terraform it all each game, that doesn’t make thematic sense. But if they can create a clever way to do it, it’s going to be great. Ways that Mars can be built up over time, ways to improve projects or improve the funding you get from your corporation. And I love a legacy game, so this one is very interesting to me, also interesting that it’s a part 1 though that’s less good.

Follow Terraforming Mars: The Legacy of Mars here.

Gothic – A Shadow’s Quest

This is an RPG esque board game, so I definitely have a type of game that I’m most apt to put on the list. This one was one that stood out to me on one of the Gamefound Feasts for upcoming crowdfunding projects. In particular, I think that it’s an already established world, the Gothic games are video games, so I am curious to see how it’ll get translated over to a board game.

Follow Gothic – A Shadow’s Quest.

Jurassic Crisis

Like every good child at heart, I also like dinosaurs. This game is interesting to me because it’s a one off game, first of all, but it’s a PvPvE game. So they describe it as semi-cooperative. I take it to mean in this game that you all need to deal with the events (or the game) because the game can win. But at the end of the game if it doesn’t win, there is only one winner. My big concern about this one is when you look at the component picture there is so much stuff.

Follow Jurassic Crisis here.

Towers of Yoma

The game calls itself a maze tower defense game. And one of the first kind of app or flash game that I really enjoyed was tower defense, Monkey Bloons. This one is going to give you that tower defense, I think also creating pathways for the enemies to go to optimize how that works. And then you are also doing deck building as well as a mechanism for the game. It feels like the type of game that I’d enjoy and while I’ve found some tower defense board games to just be okay, I hope this one offers interesting and robust play.

Follow Towers of Yoma on Gamefound.

SHANGHAI The Nevernight City

Detective/mystery games always interest me. If you watched my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition, you know that Detective: A Modern Crime Board Game is way up there for me. This game, I hope, is going to offer really deep and interesting mysteries like that one did. It might mean that it’s a bit less replayable but that’s okay if it offers an amazing experience. And the aesthetics of the game look on point.

Follow SHANGHAI The Nevernight City.

Demon Castle Mononoke

The theme of this game is what interests me right off the bat. I think that the cover is okay, but this is a survival game set in Japan where the yokai and spirits are real and you need to survive in this castle. I hope that it’s an interesting game, as it looks like one that is going to be smaller and maybe simpler. I find that survival is a good theme for games or good mechanism in some ways because the impending dread of losing or dying works well to creation tension.

Follow Demon Castle Mononoke on Gamefound.

The Malice of Light Adventures

There are a few things that interest me about this game. It’s a roguelike boss-battler, so that is interesting. It’s from the Saddler brothers who have made some very solid games, and some slightly overdone games. And it’s based on a book series of which I have the first that I need to read which is written by one of the Saddler brothers. So I hope that this is a good game because the theme interests me and I like a good roguelike game.

Follow The Malice of Light Adventures.

The Horror Possession

I doubt most people remember Clue the VRC Game. It’s not a great game and you needed a VCR to play it, it was the thing before DVD’s the thing before Blu-Rays the thing before everything being digital, for those who don’t know. That concept is intriguing as you try and and save someone from demonic possession. So, is this going to be a good game or is it going to be a bad game and a bad movie, who knows. But it feels like something a bit old school while trying to do something new and different.

Follow The Horror Possession here.

Shattered Divinity: The 7 Fragments

I don’t know a ton about this one, but it’s a JRPG anime themed board game. And that is interesting because as popular as anime is, there aren’t a ton of board games that use that style of theming successfully. Information is limited on how the game is going to work, but sounds like they are going for a short campaign, which is nice for the game as well.

Follow Shattered Divinity: The 7 Fragments.

Jisogi: Anime Studio Tycoon

This is a reprint of a game that already had a crowdfunding campaign. But I totally missed it first time that it was out. This is a game all about building up your anime franchise. And it looks like you’re building everything from plot, following the trends, and adding unique characters into your anime so that you can run the most successful studio. And the artwork looks great for the game as well which is fun and really sells the game.

Follow Jisogi on Kickstarter.

Final Girl Series 4

I don’t need more Final Girl. I’m actually pretty unlikely to back this one, but I wanted to call it out. Final Girl is back with another series. That means more final girls, more monsters and more combinations to play with. If you like the game, it’s a chance to grab even more scenarios to play through. And the game is great, I like the hand management, I like the time management, and I like how it nails the best and most B horror movie tropes.

Follow Final Girl Series 4.

Flame & Forge

This seems like a lighter game than some on the list. But it’s going to be one that has a bunch of things in it. You need to play workers, gain games, and slay the dragon to save the throne. This seems to include deck building as well which is something I like. And with a modular board, it’s going to set-up different scenarios and challenges for you to play through. The artwork is pretty app-like, which is so so for me, but hopefully it aligns with a lighter fun and funny game.

Follow Flame & Forge on Kickstarter.

A Dragon’s Gift

This I believe is a little solo Button Shy game from Scott Almes. And I think that a lot of his little designs are good. Not all of them are great and make me lover the game, but I enjoy a lot of theme. This one immediately caught my eye because of the artwork. But it’s also a solo only game and it’s about collecting goods and getting them together as a gift for a cute and grumpy looking dragon. So the them sounds interesting, though I’m sure it’ll mainly be the cute artwork and mechanisms.

Follow A Dragon’s Gift here.

Mythwind: Herbalist and Shepherd Expansions

This is more for a game that I already enjoy. And I think that it’s fun that they can continue to build on this game by just adding more characters you can play. The cozy story of the game already works. So to add in more characters with their own puzzles is a smart way to do it. Mainly because it’s plug and play and doesn’t add that bulk of getting more to the table. Yes, there is more, but you still only have the main board and cards plus your character. And two fun sounding characters.

Follow Mythwind: Herbalist and Shepherd.

Here to Slay Dungeons

Here to Slay is a cute little card game, but Dungeons is going to give you that same cute package and put it into a dungeon crawler experience. I’m not sure that this is going to be a game for me, but I want to learn more about it. I think for a lot of people it might be a nice and easy entry point into something like a dungeon crawler without it feeling too expansive or too generic fantasy because of the artwork.

Follow Here to Slay Dungeons here.

Dungeon Crawler Carl: Unstoppable

Firstly, I just bought and I need to read the first Dungeon Crawler Carl book. I’ve heard mixed things on it, though no one with a mixed opinion on it. Either people like it for they don’t. But it’s a solo or two player deck building game based off of a system that already exists. And it’s a world that already exists as well, so I think that it’s going to be an interesting game and interesting theme for a game. My opinion might change once I’ve read the book, but either way, I’m interesting.

Follow Dungeon Crawler Carl: Unstoppable on Backerkit.

Final Thoughts

It’s always so hard to know with crowdfunding games this early what is going to be interesting and what isn’t. You can see how I wrote up about different things how little information there is at times. But all of these games on Gamefound, Backerkit, and Kickstarter have something that interests me about them.

I think the closest for a must back for me from all these crowdfunding games is going to be the Terraforming Mars Legacy. I enjoy Terraforming Mars and Terraforming Mars Ares Expedition. So I want to know how they plan on making it a legacy game. The thing that worries me about it is that it’s the first four chapters, so is it going to feel incomplete as a game, most likely yes, and is that just FOMO to get me to get the next one, also likely yes.

Is there a crowdfunding game coming in 2026 that you’re most excited for? I’m sure I probably don’t even know the one that I’ll look back at, at the end of the 2026, and have been the most excited about.

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

The other way, and this will happen at the end of the year, so soon, or start of next year, are the crowdfunding campaigns that I’m looking forward to in 2026. Generally I put together a Kickstarter list and a Gamefound list for that. So look for those coming up, if that’s what you hoped this was.

Top 10 Anticipated Crowdfunding Games – Delivering in 2026?

The order on this is pretty loose. I think that there are probably some higher on the list that I anticipate less than lower, but I’m excited for all of these.

10. Werewolf: The Apocalypse: RETALIATION

Let’s kick it off with a big old campaign game. This is set in the World of Darkness/Vampire the Masquerade setting. Just on the werewolf side of things. This one definitely had some cool elements that I remember when they were crowdfunding it. Mainly the different forms that your characters can take, wolf form, hybrid, or human form. And I think that element is going to be fun to play around with.

Plus, I’ve liked Vampire: The Masquerade -CHAPTERS that they’ve come out with. Yes, this is going to be a different game. And I like that it’s not just a reskin of something they already did. But with the work and detail they put into that game, I think they can do the same with werewolves which I generally prefer to vampires.

9. FLOE

FLOE is a different type of game on the list. This is an action selection/worker placement game. So, no, everything is not just massive campaign games. This one I was drawn to because of the great artwork on the game and, I’d say, almost a Lost Ruins of Arnak feel of mixing exploration into a game that is about optimizing your strategy. I really enjoy that feeling in a game and FLOE looks like a fun one for that.

Now, they have reworked a bunch of it. This is always a concern with crowdfunding games. It’s possible that the game is still pretty early on in design, and even though they had prototypes, seems like issues were found. So, I hope that it’s still a game that is going to give me what it promised.

8. RoboMon

RoboMon could echo the last paragraph about FLOE. This is basically robot Pokemon. And that sounded fun to me. Give me that tabletop solo (and I think maybe cooperative) version of a game where I’m out collecting different creatures. Now, I also own Dragon Eclipse that does this as well. But RoboMon promised that in a smaller box.

I hope that the changes, and they seem to be relatively extensive, are good for the game. But I’m glad that it isn’t a giant minis game that had a massive overhaul or something like that. I think that gives me more hope that the game is going to have a similar feel to what I backed. And I think that it should based off of what I’ve heard as it did keep the theme.

7. Enormity

Now back to another big campaign game. RoboMon is a campaign game too, just not a huge one. Enormity is going to be that big campaign game with a lot of plastic minis in it. But this one drew me in because it’s not just a campaign game but it’s one that’s set in space and has that horror element to it. I own so many fantasy campaign games, so when you give me something different I like that.

The last updates make it sound like it’s getting close to those final stages of playtesting and development where it’ll soon start getting proofs of things. With a big game like this, I don’t mind if there is a delay because I want you to get it right and give me the best game possible.

6. Camp Grizzly

Do you want to own Camp Grizzly now, you can do that for a large sum of money. Thankfully it got a reprint. This is game that was on my radar as a large chunk of money, but I certainly couldn’t justify it. Camp Grizzly is going to be a horror themed game where you play camp counselors who need to escape the serial killer. Got to love that classic trope of the 80’s horror films.

That theme is my sort of theme. And I hope that with the crowdfunding campaign and this coming back, they’ve taken the time to trim off the right rough edges and fat of the game. It’s a new company putting it out too. But I’m really excited for this horror game to show-up, I’d think maybe by the end of 2026.

5. Horror on the Orient Express

Another horror game and this one has been a bit since I backed it. I think I saw the prototype at GenCon in either 2023 or 2024, but I didn’t get a chance to demo it. You play on a train trying to find the cultists and deal with the Lovecraftian monsters that are attacking the train. The theme is fun, the game looks really cool, so there is just a lot to like about this one.

Plus I always enjoy a good cooperative experience. I hope that this one gives a unique flavor to what it doing and that the horror theme comes through. Lovecraftian settings are great for mysteries, the Arkham Games demonstrate that, but I also want to have enough horror in it.

4. Lands of Evershade

Awaken Realms games almost always make the list for ones that I want to back and ones that I anticipate. At least their big campaign games do. Lands of Evershade is a very ambitious big campaign game where it is meant to be mimic elements of an RPG setting. But instead of having that DM/GM running the game, instead have that narrative book. Then I assume that you get down to the table for tactical combat with minis like Awaken Realms always makes.

But this game just sounded right up my alley. I love a huge story and I want to explore a unique world. The world of Lands of Evershade definitely seems like that. And I think this sort of game is also ripe for expansions if I get through the how story so I can explore even more.

3. Witchbound

I think Witchbound has been on the list for a couple of years now. But I’m still so excited for it. And it and #2 I know are both coming soon. Now, Witchbound is going to be a bit slower, the creator had their shipping partner fall through and is doing it themselves. But let’s recap what Witchbound is.

Witchbound is a point and click adventure board game. You remember those games where you select something, combine another item with it and see what happens, that is this game. All of it is set in cool scenes and an interesting world. The different items you have the more story will unlock. Same with true with interactions, the more you have, the different things you unlock. I love how simple the game is to play and the story of a new witch in a land where there had been witches finding her power is great.

2. Stonesaga

Stonesaga I believe is on the boats or will be shortly. If I remember correctly, the hope is to start shipping by the very end of the year or very start beginning of next year. This one I have a special spot in my heart because I know the designer. But it’s also a very fun game. It’s a campaign game where it’s less about that story but more about a living world that you build and create.

You are stone age people who are building a society. You need to figure out how to do everything through different actions. And you take actions like mining, foraging, fishing and more. And then as you build things up, the world opens up more for you. So there is this survival element to it, but then story elements for the world itself. I want to dive into this game and see what there is to offer after the first few learning games.

1. Rogue Angels

Finally, and this one has been my number one for a few years, we have Rogue Angels. I love this game. I already know I love it because I have a prototype of it which I played on the Malts and Meeples YouTube, and you can see that first video below. Also, I played it with the designer several times on TableTop Simulator.

This is an epic space campaign game. You explore story, make decisions, fight bad guys, puzzle your way through scenarios where you really shouldn’t fit. It’s great with how it works. I like how the enemies activate. I like how there is cooldowns on cards that you play out for actions. Then the story, itself, is a lot of fun as well. And there is a lot of story written in a way that feels like video game dialog happening.

I’m going to be so excited when this one shows up. And I need to get a group ready to play it when it does. Of course, my main campaign group is the midst of Frosthaven, so it might be a minute, but I might spin up another group.

Final Thoughts

There are more crowdfunding games as well on the list. More Dice Throne characters, a new game, Song of Silverant from Red Raven games, and even more. I did skip a few where I think the odds of them coming out in 2026 are low. And I suspect that half of the list of crowdfunding games I created will only be delivered in 2026.

Is there a crowdfunding game that you are most excited to be getting in 2026?

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

Top Games of 2025

29. Digit Code

This game wanted to be like Turing Machine where it was a puzzle and race to figure out a code. And it works on a digital clock style face. But it’s just kind of a dud for me, the game doesn’t feel that clever in what it does.

28. Gatsby

Gatsby I think is a game that more people are going to like. But for me, Gatsby is very much a miss. It was meant to be a tense two player experience and often times felt like that control in what you did was lacking.

27. Paper World

Paper World is a game that has some stuff going for it, it maybe should be higher. But it’s very simple, and not that unique of either collect all of a color or number and then creating piles and patterns. Again, felt like it was lacking.

26. TacTile

A very abstract game where you move pieces to try and get to your opponents side of things. The game just didn’t do anything for me in terms of interesting decisions.

25. Sir Ocelot’s Cave

This is one I was hoping I’d like. These animals who are delving into a cave to get treasures. And you play out different tokens to create overlapping spots to gain those treasures. But after two plays the game really felt the same, and the core loop of the game is not interesting.

24. Garden Rush

Garden Rush is another game that I gave a good shake to and realized there is one thing I don’t like about the game. The game is just too long. It is fun drafting tiles and putting them in rows and columns to make patterns and get points. But the game just goes on and on and does the same thing every time.

23. INK

INK is another one that does some interesting things. You create connections of colors and when you complete a large enough area to score, you get some bonuses. But in this game you can move as far around a loop as you want to pick a card, but the game then penalizes you for doing that too quickly. So it’s just a miss for me.

22. Verso

Verso is a set collection game, but one that doesn’t do that much in it’s set collection. It tries to be clever, but most of the time the move is obvious. It’s not a bad game as the push your luck aspect to it isn’t too bad, but overall it just didn’t keep my attention.

21. The Hanging Gardens

The Hanging Gardens is a fun little drafting game. You are creating the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and to do that you draft cards from columns and try and get scoring combinations in how you place the cards. The game is pretty simple, which isn’t bad, but led to me not playing it often.

20 Viva Catrina

Viva Catrina is another drafting game where you are trying to complete areas to score points. As well as then get symbols that are going to score you points as well. The drafting mechanism is interesting as you have a two tall by ten or twelve wide grid. You draft from anything that has been revealed as you work your way in from either side. Cool idea, just not that exciting in execution to play.

19. Super

Super is a superhero grid and engine building game where you place your heroes to power them up in a grid. Then if you have enough you can go after missions and complete them for points, but it uses up the hero. I like it in concept, but a game where it’s about that grid building and you destroy the grid really fast.

18. Crafting the Cosmos

Now we are into games that I really enjoyed. Crafting the Cosmos is a game about gaining planets and getting resources to then score those planets. But it uses a really cool marble movement mechanism where the dice end up determines the action that you do. Each player has a marble of their color and shared use of the neutral colored marbles. So you move the neutral marbles and is going to change up what options your opponent has for moving the marbles around.

There are also special powers that you can get in the game which is going to drive the replayability of the game. Overall, I like this one a lot, but it’s down here at 18 because it’s one that I don’t feel the need to get.

17. Moonshine

Moonshine is another one of those games that I don’t feel the need to get, but I’ll keep playing it on Board Game Arena. It’s a simple engine building game where you get symbols on dice that are rolled to then get patrons into your speakeasy. They are going to give you symbols that might mean you can have more at the door, or you can see more when you pick them, or you can roll more dice on your turn. It’s simple, but it’s a lot of fun.

16. Pergola

Pergola is the first one that I’ve picked up for my collection. This is a fun action selection game where you are building up a garden. I like it in person and digitally, and I like how it’s a very free form game. By that I mean that you generally have areas to place the plants and bugs in your garden, but you can adjust as you go so you create your own tableau at the end.

But the game is really about the action selection system. You use these little trowels that have two actions you take. Generally gain a plant or gain a bug. But they are slotted over another action that you gain. As you remove a trowel, the rest shift down and you are creating new combos of actions. So there is a little bit of planning that you can in the game.

15. Toy Battle

Toy Battle is one of many two player games that I played this year. And it’s lower on the list, but it’s one that I want to buy. Toy Battle is kind of League of Legends style battler where you fight over lanes by playing out monsters. You can always defeat an opponents monster with something higher number wise. A lot of the monsters have powers as well, and that creates strategy in how can you push for a win in the game. Because you either want to make it to your opponents base, or secure enough victory points.

14. Pyramido: Forgotten Treasures

Another one that I own on the list, Pyramido is a great drafting game where you build up a pyramid and you gain treasures. One of the coolest parts of the game is that you score each time you finish a layer. So you draft a layer, score the gems in the groups that you can activate. Then you build up the next layer, but the games on the edges that you don’t cover up, those can be scored again. So you are trying to create this scoring chain that works the whole way up your pyramid.

13. Forest Shuffle Dartmoor

I think that Forest Shuffle: Dartmoor would be higher on the list if it wasn’t so similar to Forest Shuffle. It is just a different setting now with moor cards and things that make your caves unique in the game. So it’s a step up, probably, from regular Forest Shuffle, but it’s so similar.

I really enjoy the game though, the playing out of cards and having to spend cards from your hand to do that is a lot of fun. And by playing Dartmoor, I get to try new strategies versus the more common strategies that you get in Forest Shuffle after you’ve played it a number of times.

12. Scratch & Catch

Scratch & Catch is a simple game, but a fun game. You are trying to get rid of your fleas and gain points as a cat. And you are just doing that by playing out two cards. If your second card stacks on another one, you gain the cards adjacent to it which give you points. If you create a run with that card, you are getting rid of fleas which are negative points. Simple, but fun. It reminds me of Parade where it gives you really thinky moments but it is easy to play.

11. Duel for Cardia

Another one of the two player only games on the list. In this one you are trying to outsmart your opponent as you have a wizard battle. Each wizard is going to have a power. But, here’s the twist. If you play the higher numbered wizard, you gain the point. If you play the lower numbered one, you get the power, and that power can manipulate your opponents hand, cards already played, or if you can pull it off, just win you the game.

That little twist of who gets the power makes this an intense back and forth game of keeping track of what your opponent has played and trying to figure out what they have in their hand and are going to play next. It’s fun that sometimes losing a final match-up can give you the power to win the round.

10. One-Hit Heroes

This one dropped a little bit from my Top 100 Games list. But it’s still a great game. I love trying to figure out how to play your heroes so that you don’t take any damage. You know what the enemy is going to do, so how can you stop it with the cards you have to play. And each enemy is going to play a little bit different, so that’s fun. Plus, each hero is going to play a bit different, which I love because that makes it an asymmetric game. The game even lets you level up characters by giving them new cards for the decks between each boss you fight against.

9. First-Class Letters

First-Class Letters is the only 2025 roll and write game that I played this year. And it’s one that doesn’t feel like it should work. It’s a word game, you are rolling the dice to determine what letters you can, and can’t use in your word. The ones that you can are going to be the ones that give you points. But if you use the one you can’t, you get no points for that word.

There are two more twists in the game. The first is that as you fill in your words, they need to end the game in alphabetical order. Any that aren’t, no points. And before you start the game, you roll three of the letter dice and that determines what letters some of the words must start with. So that puts added stress on for getting words right.

8. Arigato

Arigato is one of the games that just surprised me this year. It’s a game of artisans and using them to create their masterwork and retiring them. What is so fun about this game is chaining together powers of the cards in play, you have a two by two grid, managing that, completing objectives, gaining resources and getting all of that work together.

Those objectives can give you a ton of points. Or you can get a ton of points from getting as many artisans as possible retired. Or you can gain points by how you use cards in your grid. And then, each hand, each round, you play a card to your grid, use two for resources and pass two. But even those two you pass can trigger things.

7. Otter

Otter is a small little game that is a ton of fun where Otters want to give all of these tasty sea creatures loving hugs. And as a player, you want to empty your hand of cards. But to do that you need to play them out to the various otters. And each otter is going to have a way to do that. It might be clams and ascending number order. Or it might be fish with a gap between numbers of greater than three. If you meet both criteria you can keep playing. Only one, you have to stop.

Now that might seem like you could get locked out of being able to play. And that is true, but in that case, you can flip a card, or whenever you want, you can flip a card, so that now it might be lower numbers on clams, or the clams for ascending order might be fish now. So you can manipulate how that scoring works. Of course there is a cost of drawing cards back into your hand to do so. Which makes for this great back and forth decision making process.

6. Trinket Trove

Trinket Trove is a set collection game, it’s that simple. But it’s really not that simple. Why, because the hand of cards you have, those which are your sets, are also the cards you use to bid to get more cards. The more cards you bid, and higher value of cards you bid, the earlier you draft. And you don’t just draft the cards that have been flipped out, you draft the ones that your opponents are bidding with as well.

Just that simple twist with the hand management makes this a great game. It is also still easy to teach, but not a simple game to do really well in. And there is an element of luck, what cards come out to set collect, who knows, but that makes you need to be adaptable.

5. Ace of Spades

This one was lower on my Top 100 List. I did have a chance to play Ace of Spades as a two player game as well as a solo game, and I really enjoy it at two as well as solo. This is kind of a Balatro like game in that you are playing out poker hands, but instead of defeating a blind, it’s a bad guy. And as you do that, they give you permanent powers, sometimes, or one time use powers to make hands stronger as the bad guys get harder.

The downside to this game is that poor decisions were made on the artwork. Because of that Devir has wisely pulled the game off the shelf and is going to be redoing it with reworked art, potentially, and changing out some of the insensitive characters. Once it is back out, it’s 100% worth playing.

4. Symbiose

Symbiose is a sleeper hit for me this year. It’s another really simple game but it works so well. In this game you have a two by four grid of cards. They are all face down, and there is a pool of four cards in the middle. On your turn you take a card from the middle and add it to your grid. You then take that card from the spot you added it and place that card in the pool. Each card is going to give you some scoring based off of the other cards you have.

But let’s talk about the scoring because that is where the twist comes in. When you place on either the left edge or right edge, you score those cards based off of your opponents grid on the left and right side. If it’s in the middle four, that scores your own grid. Just figuring out when to grab scoring for your opponents and trying to optimize the scoring in a fast game is a ton of fun.

3. Zenith

Zenith is another two player game and made my Top 10 Games in my Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition. I love Zenith which technically is a two or four player game. But in this game you are trying to gain favor from planets. You do this by playing out cards, which cost, to bring the favor to your side. Or you play cards for technologies, and that can help you gain influence, gain credits or other manipulation of cards.

There are two things I want to highlight still. The first is how tight the resources are in the game, and that means you need to be strategic about how you use the cards. The other is that the game has three ways to win, and all of them are fun to try and pull off. Win favor from a single planet three times, or four different planets, or five total favor. And the back and forth of trying to block those strategies is so much fun.

2. Marvel Dice Throne: X-Men

It’s Dice Throne, and I love Dice Throne. I almost forgot that X-Men came out this year. But I really enjoy it, especially because it has characters I love in it with Gambit and Rogue. And Gambit is fun to play with aces that you power up to add to the damage that you are doing or to heal. It’s always fun to have more Dice Throne. But I’m not going to go more into the game because I’ve talked about it a lot.

1. Tag Team

Final game is another two player game. And this one is going to be high in my Top 100 Games next year. I played it two late for this year. But Tag Team is a two player battler game where you take a team of two unique characters up against your opponents. The first player to get a knockout wins the game.

But the twist. Of course there is a twist and that is that this game is an auto-battler game. What do I mean by that, I mean that it’s a game where combat is just flipping cards from your deck and seeing what happens. That might sound boring, but the twist does more than just mean that the game plays itself. You start with two cards, one for each character, and after you flip both of those out, you draw three and you add one of them to your deck. When you add it, you can’t adjust the order of any cards in your deck.

So now the game is trying to out think your opponent. I have a big attack, they have a block lined up with that attack. If I play a card below, it means that my attack is one earlier, kind of. But if they add theirs in below, they’ll keep it blocked. So where do I want to add it, and it’s a chance to out think your opponent, if you can.

Final Thoughts

2025 was a great year for gaming for me. I played a ton of new games, probably more so than a lot of years. And I own even more with the 2025 release date that I need to play. BGA also really helped get those numbers up and introduce me to games that I might not have played otherwise.

The additions of Tag Team and Zenith to my collection really give me a lot of fun two player games to play. And there are 14 more games that I own from 2025 that I need to get played. Of course some of them are big campaign games. Let’s just quickly list them out.

• Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread
• Vantage
• The Elder Scrolls: Betrayal of the SEcond Era
• Deep Regrets
• Dragon Eclipse
• Critter Kitchen
• The Dark Quarter
• Tend,
• Rove
• Origin Story
• Wandering Galaxy: A Crossroads Game
• Onoda
• Super Squad High
• Tricky Kids

Which game is the next I should try. Tricky Kids, Onoda, Super Squad High and Origin Story are all ones that sound like a ton of fun to play. They also aren’t campaign games so it is going to be easier to get them to the table. Especially for Onoda which is a solo only game.

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

Top 10 Games of 2024

10. Dungeon Kart

Do you want to play Mario Kart? Do you want to play a board game? Why not do both and play Dungeon Kart from Brotherwise Games. This is a racing game where you play as the characters from Boss Monster, those bosses who are trying to build up their dungeon, well, they want to blow off some steam. So hit the track and use their abilities and their cars to the best of your abilities to get around the track first. If you fall behind, don’t worry. You get spells and blast away at your opponents to slow them down so you can get back into the race.

I like this one because it is a fast game and a theme that people like. I like Mario Kart a lot, and I know that a lot of people do. So Dungeon Kart is an easy one to recommend. Add in that the game is simple to play, and it is even easier to recommend. There are a few things that you need to know, but overall, not a complex or difficult game to learn. And the fact that the characters and cars are different, that’s fun as well.

9. Snowfall Over Mountains

Snowfall Over Mountains is one of a few smaller games on the list, but the only one that is only solo. I enjoy this game for the solo experience because it’s one of those calming and relaxing solo games. You are drawing cards and trying to build a snowscape around you that is going to score the most points.

You score points for different things like rabbit tracks or trees. And there are a few different scoring cards for each of the elements. That is good because it means you can mix and match and get a lot of different combinations for a lot of good variety in what you are doing.

The footprint isn’t as small as some solo games, but it’s not huge. And the box that the game comes in is a nice and small box so if you are traveling and want a solo game to take along this is a solid one.

8. Star Wars: Unlimited

Next up, this game could have been higher, I think. I really like Star Wars Unlimited and I really enjoy the TCG aspect of it. As I say in the video, without the theme I’m not sure I’d be as excited for it. But being able to build a deck with clones, droids, Mandelorians, rebels, whatever factions they have thus far, that’s a lot of fun. And there are a number of aspects that also help the game.

I want to focus on one aspect here. I really like that you always have a leader in this game. The leader is going to give you an ability that you can use, even when they aren’t in play, and that ability is going to give you a focus for your deck. There isn’t just throwing your favorite cards into a deck, you need to think about synergies as well between your characters.

Okay, one more aspect that I really like, and I promise that is it. I appreciate that the game doesn’t let you run out of energy. There is no card draw and hope you get credits or whatever so you can play out cards. Instead, it uses this great system, you draw two cards and, if you want, put one into play as a resource. I love that decision space as I need to decide, do I want this card or do I want the resource, and that is often times a very tough call.

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

Now for another theme that I really like, we have The Lord of the Rings: Duel for Middle-Earth. This game reimplements 7 Wonders Duel, but it’s not just a straight reimplementation. And for me that is a good thing. I like 7 Wonders Duel a lot. But I think that I like Lord of the Rings Duel (as I’ll be calling it) more. And of course, the theme is a great reason for that.

I also like that the game doesn’t end with scoring. Yes, I’m not 100% sold on how it does end, but there are a number of ways for it. There is only one way that I have an issue with or wish there was a bit more. The first way is that the ringbearer makes it to Mount Doom and chucks in the ring, or the Nazgul catches the ringbearer. Or if you rally the support of the different races of Middle-Earth that’s another way too. Finally, if you take control or have a piece of control in every area. If none of those happen it’s whomever controls the most areas, and that’s okay.

But if you like Lord of the Rings, this is a great two player head to head game that I really recommend. If you don’t like Lord of the Rings, it’s still good. Especially if you want something with a bit of theme in it compared to 7 Wonders Duel.

6. Castle Combo

Now for a game without much theme but that’s still a lot of fun. Obviously Castle Combo is a lot of fun, it’s in my Top 10 Games of 2024 and at #6. But this is a game about building out the best scoring grid that you can. The game is simple, you play it in nine rounds, and at the end, you have a 3 by 3 grid of 9 cards.

But there are elements to the game that offer a great challenge or some good fun. I like how the cards are all divided into three things. The first element is the cost, you need to be able to pay that coin cost to get it. The next is an instant effect. It might be that all cards of a certain type cost 1 less now. Or it might just get you coins or keys. Finally there is the scoring, and that is going to happen after all your grid is full. So you need to figure out how to optimize that scoring while still getting coins and keys to get more cards.

And I really like the key mechanism in the game. The keys either let you wipe the row of cards you are on. Or you can use the key to move you to the other row so you can buy from there. But, it won’t less you do both in one turn. I really like that challenge element of the game because I could wipe, but will I get something good. Or I could move, but maybe wiping will give me something better.

5. Let’s Go! To Japan

Next up is one that didn’t make my Top 100 Games because I hadn’t played it yet. But I really love Let’s Go! To Japan. This is a game about planning out your itinerary for going to Japan. And you need to plan out three things to do each day in Tokyo, Kyoto, or both.

Each day has a particular theme that it wants you to go for as well. It might be that you want to get food one day and go to a nature sight another day. That order changes for every game, but the different symbols remain the same. The fun thing is that you need those symbols to score your cards each day, well to score the one that you can see the end game scoring on anyways. So if you need food and it’s before the food day, you probably need to get some food in a less than optimal way.

It is also a good drafting game. I like how I get two cards, one Tokyo and one Kyoto. I pick one to add to my itinerary and give you the other, or person to my left or right. But not to use right away, to collect into a hand of cards that then you’ll pick from later in the game. So I can set you up with stuff you don’t want. Or I can just focus on what is best for me. But it’s a nice twist on drafting.

4. Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game

Mistborn: The Deckbuilding Game was one of my most anticipated games for 2024, and clearly it didn’t disappoint. I really enjoy this game and of course, I love the theme and I love deckbuilding. But those two elements aren’t enough for me automatically love the game. I think the solo/cooperative play helps it as well, though I really do enjoy it as a competitive game too.

There are two elements I want to talk about that I really like. The first is the burning of the metals. I love how they make that a thematic part of the game. Pewter is going to give you more attack and healing. Things that help you sooth emotions or rile them up could heal or get people to be generous and give you more money. But they are thematic and I like that you are limited in how many you can burn, so there is a good amount of strategy in your deckbuilding.

I also like that the game has a leveling track. Each player levels up once per turn. That gives you new abilities that make you more unique and powerful in the game. And it starts to let you burn more metals. I think that combination just works well so that what could be a longer game, can’t be as long because you start to ramp and get stronger. And soon you might be buying and using cards with Atium and doing a lot of damage or leveling to win the game.

3. Rebel Princess Deluxe Edition

I never thought that I’d put Hearts on my top games list, but here it is, Hearts, albeit with shenanigans is my #3 game for 2024. I really like this one because it’s a familiar trick taking game. Instead of avoiding hearts and the queen of spades, you avoid the princes proposals and the frog prince and his proposal. That element is very much the same.

But it’s very different in a lot of other ways. You each have a princess and they have a power. You can use that power once per hand of cards. And then you, instead of passing left, right and then across, you pass however a flipped card tells you to. And that flipped card also has other things on it, like some special rules for that hand. It might be that the person furthest from the card that led the trick, numerically, is going to be the winner of that trick. It causes chaos but is so much fun.

2. Slay the Spire: The Board Game

The last two are ones that I’ve played on Malts and Meeples. First off we have Slay the Spire. I love the video game and the board game works just as well. In fact, it offers something that the video game can’t, you can play Slay the Spire: The Board Game multiplayer, and it’s amazing. In fact, I think I prefer it multiplayer, or maybe multihanded better than purely solo.

The game does a few things to make it work. While the core of climbing the tower, and adding cards to your deck, is the game, there are elements that are different. Firstly, it scales down the health and attack levels. I love this because it makes the math easier. Next you roll a die to determine the enemies attack and what relics that you have activate. This makes it simple as compared to keeping track that something goes off every seventh round or anything like that.

And I want to talk about multiplayer. Each player gets their own row of enemies that will damage them. But you are able to support your allies by attacking the enemies. So maybe mind are just playing defense for a round, that means that I can help wipe out your row of enemies and then you don’t have to worry about anything so you can go all out attacking. It’s a great addition to a great game.

1. The 7th Citadel

Finally, at #1, we have The 7th Citadel. I really love this game and it’s what I had wanted from The 7th Continent, though I do appreciate that open and very sandbox system in The 7th Continent. The 7th Citadel gives you that same sandbox to play in but gives you more specific and focused missions. I know that I need to find something southeast. I’m not sure where for sure, but I just know that I need to go southeast, and I really enjoy how that works.

But the game keeps some of the core elements to it that are great. I like that you still are spending cards from a deck. And while that deck isn’t your life and won’t just instantly kill you if the wrong thing is drawn, bit kind of is your life. You put cards back into the deck by spending hit points. So if I want to get 10 cards by in, that’s five of my life. And while the game isn’t always punishing you with combat and taking life that way, there are a ton of challenges that you need to deal with.

Final Thoughts

Like I said at the beginning, I’m annoyed I missed Rock Hard 1977. I really like that game, so it’s an honorable mention and probably would be in about the middle. And I look at my shelf and I see more 2024 games that I want to play. Bomb Busters is a big one as is Stamp Swap that I want to try.

It is always a good year for games. If you don’t find one that you love, it means that you either got caught up in the hype for some game or weren’t looking that hard. And I love that I can find amazing games all the time to try. I definitely want to spend more time playing 2024 games, and maybe late in 2025, I’ll look back again at 2024 and see what my Top 10 looks like then.

Let me know your favorite game from 2024?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Games 20 through 11 of 2024

Now, first off, I do want to say, there are some games on the list that I don’t really enjoy. The bottom three I find to be poor or just okay, but let’s get to them.

20. Takenokolor

Takenokolor is a roll and write game where what you are rolling is the pens. However, the game itself is really simple and the choices are generally very obvious. They do have a few different “boards” that you can play on, but even the more complex ones tend not to offer that much more choice than the others. It feels like a very basic roll and write game with the gimmick that you are rolling pens. And even the added complexity doesn’t make the game more fun, it’s still very basic, just extra rules for the sake of extra rules.

19. Landmarks

Landmarks is a party style of game where one person is “it” and they are giving clues to lead the other players around a map. And the clues they give are one word based off of other words on the board. Basically, there are hexes, three of them have words on them, to start the game, and the clue giver gives a clue and the other players need to figure out where it makes sense to place that new tile. Does it make sense to connect to two words, or is the clue giver trying to keep you away from some.

Now, I said at the beginning that I wasn’t a huge fan of the bottom three. I think I want to try this one again. My hopes are fairly limited that it’d be a consistent hit for me, but I do believe, in the right group, this could be a fun game.

18. Odin

Odin is a card shedding game. Probably the best known card shedding game right now is Scout, which just broke into the Board Game Geek Top 100. Odin isn’t that, it’s a solid but simple card shedding game that works on a more basic principle than scout. You play out cards either as a bigger number of one color or a bigger number of a set of one number than the previous person did. Then you take one card to add to your hand from what the previous person played.

I think that this one is probably a 7 for me at 2 or 3 players if I were to rank it out of 10. But it plays higher than that. And at higher numbers than that it’s just very random. And you find lots of turns where you aren’t able to play and that might happen several rounds in a row. In Scout at least you are picking up new cards when you can’t play, here you are just left stuck with what you have.

17. Icecool Wizards

Icecool Wizards is not as good as Icecool. But if you want a smaller box and a bit more game play, there is an option for you. The core mechanisms remain the same. You flick around a penguin, but now you are trying to get elements to cast spells, basically set collection. And you do that by flicking your penguin over the elements and then flicking them over spells to collect those spells.

The one thing that keeps it from being up higher is that there is almost more luck than the basic game. What do you flip out for a spell, who knows. Now that balances out somewhat over the course of the game, but it’s just an extra element to the game that isn’t completely needed.

16. Festival

Next up we have Festival. I like games with fireworks, fireworks are fun. But Festival is just fine for me because it’s basically a pattern building game. And while I think it works well, it’s very abstract, and I’m just okay with abstract games. You take one of two tiles that’s visible and you’re trying to complete goals. But, instead of taking tiles you can reserve a goal as well because you can only score goals that you reserve.

Honestly, I think it’s the reserving the goals that bugs me about the game. It’s an extra turn that you take, and generally you reserve and score it the same turn. Unless you spy someone else going for it, you’re not going to waste a turn grabbing it early to then never be able to score it. It might be more exciting of a game if you just scored if you were the first to get it, though maybe a bit more deterministic, I see you one turn ahead of me for a goal, I pivot goals, whereas now you can steal it out from under another player.

15. Metrorunner

Next up is Metrorunner. This is one that I got to play at Gen Con and it’s a fun game. You are going around a rondel collecting cubes and trading them in to complete missions. It’s not that super unique a game, but I like that rondel mechanism in it. It feels different while still being an accessible and easy to understand and play game.

But the game has an interesting extra element to it. In Metrorunner you also have a sliding puzzle game in the middle. It reminds me of I believe it was called Pipes Dream where you connect one side of the board to another specific side with pipes. You do that here, but you do it with limited moves and only a few special abilities to help you. I won the game because I am very good at figuring out those puzzles, and you can do it a lot in the game.

14. Captain Flip

This one is a game that I’d love to add to my collection. I own 15 & 17 already, but Captain Flip is maybe the last one that I don’t own on the list. This is a fun game of drawing a tile, you see one side and that tells you some of the scoring that might be on that tile. And it is scoring that you can use and add to your pirate ship. But on the flip side is some other scoring and that scoring might be better. But, once you flip you are locked in on that side of the tile. So do you push your luck or not. It’s a very light game but a good time.

13. Adulthood

Adulthood is a game with a fun theme of being an adult, though, I’m already an adult and I think the game is more fun than real life. You have less taxes that you need to do in the game. But the game is all about how you spend your time and money. And the artwork is great and goes well with the theme because it just creates this fun experience.

I love how you might lose your job but you find a new one easily. Or you fall in love and get married and how you have a new action spot to spend time and money on. Plus you also are trying to play out other cards that are life experiences. If you do well with those, they are great way to score points, but a lot of them require that you have other life experiences first. No going to the PTA meeting without having a kid first. And who knows if you find that kid because it’s a big deck of cards you dig through.

12. Cafe Baras

Cafe Baras is a game with a really fun theme. You are Capybara baristas and you want to make your best coffee shop. So you buy items to put on your menu. Then you bring in customers who will give you money. And if you match everything a customer wants, you can get a repeat customer, which is going to give you points. Plus there are special customers. They score at the end of the game and only if you cafe meets certain things.

The game is from Kids Table Board Games and it is light. But because o that it plays fast as well. And it’s a pretty easy game to teach. I don’t think with a silly cute theme I’d want it to be longer. So Cafe Baras is a very fun time.

11. Stonespine Architects

And just missing my Top 10 for 2024 is Stonespine Architects. Though it is one of my most played games in 2024, at least in person. I really like this game because it’s all about building out a dungeon. And you want your dungeon to meet certain things. If it does you are going to get points. But there is an element of drafting cards to add to your dungeon. And then buying items to enhance your dungeon.

I also really like that you draft some scoring objectives as well. Players add three to the game as they play, each of them unique to that player. So while there are shared scoring elements, your dungeon is going to become more unique. And when cards don’t quite fit perfectly, well that might work for a scoring objective that you have.

Final Thoughts

I’m sure that I’m missing games that I played in 2024. Some because maybe they didn’t get rated from a quick play at Gen Con. Or maybe I just missed that date, but 2024 was a year where I got in a lot of fun games. And I also know that there are games from 2024 that I haven’t gotten to that I really want to play. In fact, I see one from where I’m sitting with Stamp Swap, and I know there are more as well.

What are some of your favorite games from 2024? But not you #1 game, bring that to Malts and Meeples tomorrow night as I stream at 9 PM Central my 10 through 1.

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Top 10 Anime of 2024

10. Alya Sometimes Hides Her Feelings in Russian

This was one of the bigger anime during the summer season, I believe, because it was a cute romance anime with an interesting premise. Alya has feelings for the protagonist, but she also doesn’t really want to say anything. So she says them in Russian, all of that makes sense from the title, unknown to her, her happens to speak Russian. He had learned it as a kid because he had a childhood friend for a few years who spoke Russian as well, but he can’t remember who it was. Turns out it’s Alya’s older sister, but this is the pretty standard, but cute, high school romance anime.

9. Tower of God

Now, I will caveat this and say, I haven’t caught up on the second season yet. But the first season was really enjoyable. I read the webtoon/manhwa for Tower of God and enjoyed that as well. And I think the story is very well translated to the screen. I’ve heard that the second season maybe doesn’t have as good animation, but the first season is really good. And the premise of this anime, this getting out of the dark and climbing the tower to find the person you care about, it’s well done. The characters have complexity and the whole story is just enjoyable.

8. Oshi No Ko

Now we go to an anime that feels very anime like, but also different. It’s different in that there are elements of this show that’s a mystery. And of course, it’s odd that because the two main characters are reincarnated as the twins of the Idol that they love. I like how the anime and manga don’t really hide from the more questionable sides of the Idol industry and the entertainment industry as it tells the story. And the mystery element is interesting as well and offers some good challenges for the main character.

7. Horimiya

Horimiya is one of my favorite manga that I’ve read. I really enjoy the dynamic between the couple and just how wholesome the whole thing is. And they do a good job of translating at into the anime. They do some odd stuff with the anime in that they condense it and skip arcs and storylines in this teen romance again. But I appreciate that the main characters fall for each other quickly and there isn’t a ton of back and forth of will they won’t they nor is it a harem where all the girls like the main character. It’s just that good wholesome romance.

6. Sign of Affection

And speaking of a good wholesome romance anime, Sign of Affection is amazing for that. The story is of a deaf girl and her falling in love with a guy, and the guy falling in love with her. But it’s just this heartfelt story for them, and it feels like a real relationship. Yes, there is some jealousy and an attempted love triangle in it, but for the most part it’s just this great story about a wholesome relationship. And the male lead, they do a good job of creating a character who puts in so much effort, like learning sign language, that it’s just even more wholesome.

5. Solo Leveling

Now we move into action with Solo Leveling. I am pretty sure that this was my most anticipated anime of 2024 and it really didn’t disappoint. I like Solo Leveling a lot, but there are a few that make it higher that I watched. The animation for this show is great and it stays true enough to the story. It really gives you some iconic moments from the manhwa and it does a good job with them. I enjoy the premise as well of that weaker character becoming strong, but not becoming an edge lord in the process.

4. Kaguya-Sama: Love is War

The final romance on the list is an anime that’s been out for a little bit, but I love this one. It’s so fast with the characters spitting back and forth insults and romance at the same speed. All because the two most popular and powerful kids in the school are in love with each other. But if either of them breaks and admits it to the other, it’s a sign of weakness and the other will have power, that’s their worry anyways. It’s really fun and funny and Ian Sinclair as the narrator is amazing in this, he goes so hard on being over the top and comedic.

3. Shangri-La Frontier

The top three are all ones that I assumed that I’d like because I like the manga lot for all of them. Shangri-La Frontier is no exception, clearly, and I appreciate this one as a video game anime. I love how the video game is highly developed in this anime as well. It makes it feel more immersive, and you get little bits of the real world and real world elements affecting the game, but it’s much more focused on the game itself.

The main character is fun as well, I appreciate as well that he just wants to have fun. It could be a serious gamer, but not. He is a trash gamer, plays bad games, and now he’s just trying out an amazing game. And his two gaming friends are entertaining as well as they give each other a hard time. Even the NPC companions that he has are great.

2. Dandadan

Dandadan is so close to being my top anime of the year, it was really a coin flip between two for me. But I enjoy how absurd this one is, and then how it had an amazing heartfelt moment in it as well. The premise is just goofy. Ken believes in aliens. Momo believes in spirits. They don’t believe in the thing the other believes in. They both challenge the other to go to spots where aliens and spirits are seen. And, well, they both turn out to be right. And it gets crazier from there. The animation is amazing, and like I said, it has some beautiful moments as well. This is romance, comedy, adventure, supernatural all in one.

1. Kaiju No. 8

Finally, my top is Kaiju No. 8. I love this one because Kafka is a dummy but a great character. He’s washed up just fine with working in kaiju disposal. He takes one last crack at the defense force and, well, with a little bit of help from being infected by a kaiju, he’s able to make it. It’s all about his challenge and striving to be a hero and be able to be at his friends side. Of course, his friend is the most powerful kaiju hunter out there.

The cast of characters is a blast as well in this anime. Kafka, like I said, is a dummy, but he has this heart of gold. Mina is stand off-ish but it’s a tough shell. Reno I love as a character because he wants to be tough and cool. He thinks that he can do it all but develops such a soft spot for Kafka and helping him along and worrying about him, as one of the people who knows he’s infected, it’s amazing. And Kikoru is the prodigy that everyone is chasing down. But also is a character with more depth. It’s just such a fun show with everyone, plus great kaiju fighting action and gross kaiju clean-up.

Final Thoughts

I made it through 10, and I should be able to skip honorable mentions. But I want to talk about a few more that I really enjoyed as well. Both Mushoku Tensei and Tsukimichi Moonlit Fantasy are fun isekai to checkout. And I found some enjoyable comedy romances with things like The Quintessential Quintuplets, The 100 Girlfriends Who Really Really Really Really Really Love You and My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU. Those three are all just good fun with The 100 Girlfriends Who Really Really Really Really Really Love You having such an absurd premise.

What is your favorite anime that you watched in 2024? Based off of my tastes, at least from this list, are there any that I should really checkout?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Next 5 Best Board Games of 2023

10. Ecosystem: Savana

This one is almost a bit of a cheat to put on the list. I got it in really recently and I have played it a few times. It’s more of a cheat because I knew I would like the game. I own Ecosystem and Ecosystem: Coral Reef, both of which I really like. So of course, a new version of the game I would like as well. It’d have been a surprise if I hadn’t.

Well, needless to say, I did. I think this one did some interesting things. It forces you to flip more cards down so by the end they are face down, but you still get to use them for scoring. So when you score a lion or a cheetah you flip prey cards face down. And I believe that the cheetah scores first, so it can mean that the Lion, which scores more points, isn’t able to score. The cheetah beats it to all the tasty gazelle.

9. Black Hole Buccaneers

This is one that I don’t even own. But for a game that I don’t own, I kind of wish that I did. The reason I don’t own it is that it’s a drafting game, which I love drafting games, but I own a lot of them. and Black Hole Buccaneers is a little bit more complex, which still having a light and goofy theme.

Mainly, it has a drafting element where you can be stuck with negative points just by a card that you’re given at the end. But otherwise it’s a pretty interactive drafting system. I need to know what you’re doing or what you’re taking. I can just ignore the one that I might bust on and hope it goes well anyways. And it would balance out with a lot of powers and scoring that stacks as you go along. But when it comes to drafting games, it won’t beat out others that I have already.

8. Cursed!?

Next up is a small solo game, Cursed!?. This one is a pretty simple push your luck type of game. You find that you’ve been cursed by a witch. To break the curse, you need to provide her with eight souls and quickly.

The mechanisms are basically flipping cards against monsters and seeing if your attack can add up to their health. The twist on it comes with the idea that busting is bad. You don’t want to overkill them, you just want to take them out. For each point under you are, you burn that many cards. So someone has eight health, I do six, I burn two cards. Well, if I flip and I go over, I remove the card I flipped and still burn two cards. So I burn extra cards. I like that bit of strategy to figure out when the push or not.

7. Skytear Horde

Next up a solo game that I played on Malts and Meeples, Skytear Horde. This is one that after I played it a few times, I went all in on the Gamefound campaign that happened this past year. It’s more content, which I’m not sure the game needed, but won’t be bad to have. And a better storage system for all of it.

The game itself is a horde battler. You need to wipe out a main boss, but a lot of what you’re doing is fighting against hordes. And you do that while also managing the hand of cards that you have, because you don’t get to draw new cards all that often, or all that many. So you need to set up your defenses to stop the enemy hordes while keeping enough back for what comes next.

This game can play solo or multiplayer, but I really like it as a solo game. The enemy system is simple enough that it’s fast to run and with that it makes it easier to table. It isn’t a small game or the fastest game to get originally set-up, but once it is, the game play works well and it’s easy to reset.

6. SpellBook

Finally, the best of the bottom half of my Top 10 of 2023, yeah, that’s long, is SpellBook. This one maybe could sneak into my top half with more plays. It’s an engine building spell casting game. You are learning spells so that you can cast them, and you can get each spell into your spellbook one time. Well, do you wait for the higher point scoring, better powered one, or do you hold off on it? There’s a timing and push your luck element to it.

And then there is your familiar. They should all be cats, but they aren’t, still it’s fun to play as they don’t really do anything. Your familiar is another way to score points and push for the end of the game. If you completely feed your familiar, you end the game there and all the spells cast and level of familiar are tallied up for points. Otherwise once someone has cast their final spell the game ends.

I like how you can push for the end of the game multiple ways. It isn’t just the end of the game, it’s that you can push for very different scoring. You might mainly ignore casting spells, just getting the one or few that help you add tokens to your familiar faster to push the end game that way. And there are different combinations of spells you can use, so as long as everyone has the same one, you can play around with that.

Final Thoughts

This was a fun year to play board games. I am pleased with the number of 2023 titles that I got in, and I know that I have more that I need to play. And I realized that there are two campaign games from 2023 that I hadn’t rated yet, but I’ll just leave them off as Vampire the Masquerade: Chapters and Isofarian Guard would definitely had made my Top 10, if not my Top 5. So it’s too late to go back and correct that.

So there are a lot of good board games this year and a lot of good ones that I want to play. Witcher the Old World, Earth, Thunder Road Vendetta and more all need to get played. That is some of why you’ll see a future article about how I want to work through my shelf of shame or opportunity or to be played. I just own a lot of board games that I’m excited to play, so I don’t need to buy more I need to play them.

What were some of your favorites board games from 2023?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here

Top 5 Board Games of 2023

5. Trailblazers

Let’s start out with Trailblazers. This is a fun route building game as you create the pathways for hiking, biking, and kayaking out in the wild. Each of them needs to start and end at the rental or trailhead locations for their respective one. To get a biking trail you need to start and end at the biking trailhead, for example. And the question is how long can you get your various routes, because you can connect up to four trails to each trailhead.

Mechanically this looks like card drafting. You pick out two cards from your hand and then you add them to the trails that you want. Each of them has different overlapping routes so you can connect them in a few different ways. But, of course, these cards don’t only have a single type of trail on them, they can have multiple types. So can you get them laid out right, though, you can overlap nor to trail types need to match. For a full biking trail, though, it needs to only be biking path on that trail.

4. World Wonders

Next up in World Wonders from Arcane Wonders and actually a Brazilian company. World Wonders is a game about building up an ancient society and getting the conditions met to put a wonder on your board. Well, it’s a tile laying game where you need tiles arranged in certain ways to get cool wooden wonders which give you points.

I like this game a lot for it’s action system. In World Wonders you get money each round. And that money goes for buying roads or buying buildings, mainly. But the big thing you can buy with your money are the wonders. The wonders are one of the main ways that you get points. You do for surrounding tiles you’ve played as well, but it is mainly for the wonders. To get a wonder, though, it costs all of your coins. So however many you have left, that is going to be the cost. It’s a great question of when you are going to make the jump.

And I like the tile placement in the game. It’s fairly restrictive in how you can place them. You either need to play it next to a road or another tile. And wonders don’t count as tiles. So you need to think about how you’re placing everything. And how you can reduce gaps in your placements to try and get things surround. And the tiles also offer advancements, going up tracks. As you push up those tracks that can trigger the end of the game. Which is a nice alternate end.

3. Tesseract

Next up we have Tesseract, a game that I had an amazing time with at Gen Con. The group of people I played it with were a ton of fun. And Tesseract is the type of cooperative game that I really enjoy. It’s a cooperative game where each player has special powers. And that is something I very much like in games. But beyond that, it is a game where you can lose in multiple ways, much like Pandemic.

In Tesseract, you play as researchers who are studying a tesseract cube that came to Earth. And you need to solve it’s puzzle before it all disappears and, well, destroys the Earth. It’s a bit absurd and mainly mechanical. But it works on the Pandemic like system of do a number of actions and then bad things happen. How do you beat it? You need to place out one through six of four different colors of dice. To do that, you need to play it from a run or a set. It’s very mechanical that way.

But I still really like how it plays out. There is always pressure. And each player has their own special ability. What I am able to do on my turn is unique from what you can do. So you need to work together to get everything taken care of. And there are elements of the game, like trading dice, that do help with that. And I like that as you get closer to the end game and the game winning, but you complete columns of dice, let place all four fours, you get boosts to help you. It’s a really rewarding system.

2. Forest Shuffle

Next up we have Forest Shuffle another nature themed game. Forest Shuffle is one that I really grew to like at Gen Con and was really happy to get my hands onto it. It’s a tableau building card game of building out a forest. That’s the basics of it, you have a hand of cards that you balancing playing cards from and paying for those cards with cards from your hand, with drawing up more cards. I like that system.

Then the scoring itself is a real mixed back of what you can do for scoring. Almost everything you play down gives you points. You have the most trees in your forest, well, there is a card that scores points off of that. One of the birds scores points for the bugs you have, another for the diversity of birds, or a tree for how many of that tree you have. It’s a ton of points everywhere.

And I think it’s really clever how you get those point cards into your tableau. You play them around the tree cards. The trees each start their own separate little part of the forest and on each side you can play something out. But you are generally limited to one card per side. You are able to play out more, but only if the animal or card says you can. And each card you play next to a tree is split in two. You got a left or right or up or down. So if it’s split vertically it can only go on the top of the tree or bottom. And that covers up half the card which is clever.

1. Marvel Zombies

Finally, this is more the type of game that people think of when they think of the board games that I like. And it makes my #1 for that reasons, Marvel Zombies. Now, I don’t have the giant Galactus, but I wish that I did. It just costs so much money. But Marvel Zombies is a Zombicide game of dice chucking fun. In a normal Zombicide game you play as people fighting zombies. You can do that here, but the main draw and core box has you playing a zombies fighting heroes.

This game is a simple game in a lot of ways. It’s just going out and fighting zombies (or heroes/SHIELD agents) with some objective. And the more you take out, the more objectives that you get, the more everyone levels up. To do that you chuck a handful of dice, if you’re rolling a lot, and see if you hit. Or you move around a board and then, of course, you spawn more zombies.

Marvel Zombies is not a thinky game. There is a little bit of strategy to it, but not too much, it’s more about that fun of running into a room as the Hulk, rolling a bunch of dice, and smashing a lot of good guys. Or when a swarm of SHIELD Agents shows up with Thor either running away to try and complete an objective, or maybe taking in a whole team of zombies, everyone playing, and seeing what happens.

What Was Your Favorite from 2023?

Now, I think I could give a number of honorable mentions. But I am not going to do that because like I said, I plan to do the next five board games for 2023. I will say, I think that my big board games that I played in 2023, like the campaign game ones, all came out earlier. Often times, I find, that a big game comes out in a year, I get it and then it takes me a bit to get to it. But that’s why I do a Top 10 Campaign Game list sometimes as well as my Top 100 Games (of all time) each year.

There are a lot of great board games that came out in 2023. Which is your favorite? Is there one that you think I should try out?

Send an Email
Message me on Twitter at @TheScando
Visit us on Facebook here
Support us on Patreon here