Top 5 Video Games I Want To Become Board Games

5. Need for Speed

This one is lower on the list because I don’t know how I’d make the game as well. Mainly because there are racing games out there already. But there are some concepts in Need for Speed that I enjoy. I like that it’s not a tracking racing, it’s almost always street racing. And while I don’t love hearing it in real life, I live near an area where it does happen sometimes, I think it could be fun to try and simulate in a board game.

Plus then the fast pace of the game, but that is where it becomes tricky to get an idea. Racing games you tend to want to be pretty light on mechanics. Because too many moving pieces and the game slows down. Now, in a more strategic racing game, like Formula D, slower isn’t too bad, but for Need for Speed, the game needs speed.

4. Diablo

Diablo is also on the list but also lower. Mainly because this feels like another dungeon crawler board game if it were to happen. Yes, there is story, but what sets Diablo apart is that it’s a loot collector. How do you simulate that in a board game, you battle, you divvy out loot, you repeat the process.

I almost wonder if something like the Folklore: The Affliction way of doing it would work. You have little battles as you travel to big battles. Just in Diablo, you have more little battles between the bosses or the story points.

The other tricky part is all the abilities in Diablo. How do you create each attack so it feels different so it feels just insanely powerful like it can in the game, and get that feeling of mowing through enemies. Because sometimes you might just want to grind a little bit to get better gear or new gear.

3. Tomb Raider

The top three, I think, have easier times translating to a board game. Now, I say that and Tomb Raider is technically a cheat on the list, there is a Tomb Raider board game, it feels nothing like Tomb Raider. You all play as a different Lara Croft and race along a track, or in a circle really.

I want something steeped in story, and that gives you missions like the new Tomb Raider games. You play as Lara in solo or her and a team of other characters in multiplayer. And you need to figure out how to sneak past people, or sometimes go in there and start taking out guards unseen. Use a system, but more refined like Reichbusters with noise, and trying to keep it from happening.

Plus then story choices and moments where you maybe are even trying to solve a puzzle or a riddle. And eventually a classic escape type thing as you run out of whatever tomb you were raiding which is inevitably trying to kill you, or a bad guy is. Campaign for sure, but maybe several shorter, 5-6 games, campaigns in the box.

2. Myst/Riven/Exile

Speaking of puzzles, Myst or any of the games in that series, turn those into a board game. They almost have in some ways with escape room style board games like Unlock and Exit. But I want more. What made Myst so interesting was often times you’d find a puzzle and then need to go to a different part of the world or different world to find the answer.

Make it a big open, sprawling escape room style game. Make it so that you need to take notes on what the puzzles you found are, what you are looking for, and where they are at, because you’ll find so many that you’ll need to do that. And give me a little story in the mix as well. But make this something that if you’re good you could sit down and beat in a day, but most likely you’re packing it up to play again and again over evenings just like the video game.

1. Dragon Age

My number one is one of my top if not my top video game that I’ve played. Dragon Age is a big adventure of leveling up, gaining stuff, and then fighting bosses, using potions, building together a team and a strategy as you go, recruiting more characters, leveling them up, and well, a ton of story in there as well.

As compared to any on the list, Dragon Age would turn into a board game with the most story. Dragon Age really let’s you delve into a world and make a lot of choices and those choices matter later. If you make the “wrong” choice you don’t get a recruit a person. If you make a different choice you don’t get as many troops to help support you in the final battle. All of that is a lot of fun and I want that in a Dragon Age game.

Yes, you’d still likely have boss fights along the way and do some of the dungeon crawl type stuff. But I’d not mind seeing that abstracted away from a lot of the littler fights and only there for the really big ones. Because Dragon Age works so well because of the story it has.

What Games Would You Want?

There are so many different styles of video games out there to choose from. Would you want a solo Sim City game? Would you like to see a Jazz Jackrabbit crazy side scroller turned into a board game? Does playing Madden on the table top sound fun?

Let me know what video game you’d love to see get a board game treatment. And let me know what video games already turned into board games that are a lot of fun.

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According to the Kickstarter page, Down to Hell is a faithful reproduction of hack and slash video games put into board game form.

Pros

• It’s not just standees, so they aren’t trying to make $2 million just on that
• Skill tree
• Feels like Diablo the board game
• Scenario based

Cons

• Cooperative and competitive
• Claims to have new mechanics
• Feels like Diablo the board game

Thoughts on the Page
For a first time Kickstarter company, they are doing a good job of laying out the page in a way that makes sense. fairly often being a first time company is a red flag for me, but they’ve clearly put time into doing this and have made it looked polished and professional. That’s why I didn’t put the first time company as either a pro or a con, because they seem like they know Kickstarter fairly well. And they’ve clearly planned it out well in terms of what they can afford and by not making everything minis shows good restraint on their behalf.

However, I do want to address some issues that I see with how they present the game. First, this is clearly a Diablo ripoff, and that’s fine, if they make it unique enough. But I feel like they haven’t, not just from Diablo, but from board games like Gloomhaven and others as well. Nothing I read through remotely suggests that they have new mechanics in the game and that’s a problem. It makes me wonder how much they’ve played board games or if they are video game fans who wanted to try and make a video game a board game.

Back or Brick
For me, this is a brick. I think the concept of the game sounds interesting, but I am very worried about it being derivative of a number of games both board and video. And a claim that it has new mechanics, that makes me worried that they’ve played maybe 10-15 different games, few of them dungeon crawlers and so they think they’re doing something really new, when in reality they are doing something that is going to feel old. Now, I don’t want to assume to much, but that was the feel of the game for me, it could be good, but this screams of a risky back to me, not of it coming out, but that you’re going to end up with a good and balanced game that doesn’t feel like it’s been done a ton before and better.

Is this a game that you’d back or is it a brick?

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