Catch Up on the Top 100 Games

100 through 91

Top 100 Games (of all time) 2025 Edition – 90 through 81

90. Wandering Towers

Published By: Capstone Games
Designers: Michael Kiesling and Wolfgang Kramer

Buy Wandering Towers.

This is just a fun simple game of trying to remember where you wizards are hiding and get them to the main tower. I like how easy it is to make it work. You play out two cards and if you have potion bottles filled you can cast a spell. The spells are simple, the cards are simple, you choose to either move a wizard or a tower as far as it says on the card. But it’s still a lot of fun because of that memory aspect and burying your opponents wizards under a stack of towers.

89. Grove: 9 care solitaire game

Published By: Side Room Games
Designer: Mark Tuck

Buy Grove.

This one is two games in one really with Grove and Orchard. I put them together because the games are very similar, though I do slightly prefer Grove. In this game you stack cards to get matching tree types to overlap. As they overlap you tick up dice that are going to give you more points. The more points you have at the end of nine cards, the better you do at the game. Grove adds in scoring cards, and that addition is what pushes it over because it’s bonus scoring, but also how many points you need to beat to win the game.

88. Via Magica

Published By: Hurrican
Designer: Paolo Mori

Buy Via Magica.

It is weird to think that drawing chips out of bag and everyone getting a cube to add to their spells, basically bingo, can make a fun game. But it is great in Via Magica. This is a simple game with powers that you get from completing spells. It’s one of two games that actually has abilities or powers from completing spells on this section of the top 10. But it’s all about drawing those chips and hoping to get the right ones. Or then being smart about the spells you take so you can always use the chips.

87. No Thanks!

Published By: AMIGO
Designer: Thorsten Gimmier

Buy No Thanks!

This section of the list has a few push your luck games on it. No Thanks! isn’t a tradition push your luck game, but it does have those elements. In particular, you need to decide when it is worth taking a card. Cards are bad, cards give you points, so you want to say no thanks to them. But you need chips to do that, so No Thanks! is a game about determining when there are enough chips on a card to make it worth taking. Because, not only a chips needed for saying no thanks, they are also negative one point per chip at the end of the round.

86. Strike

Published By: Ravensburger
Designer: Dieter Nuble

Buy Strike.

Imagine a gladiatorial battle in the Coliseum. Actually don’t, this game is all about rolling dice to get pairs and knowing when to stop if you don’t get pairs. You just want to be the last one in the game and that’s it. It’s a simple game and simple system but it is always fun when it hits the table. I think everyone just likes to make a decision to roll a fist full of dice. And if you don’t get any matches, you can always roll more dice that you held back, but beware the one because when a die lands on that side, that die is gone forever.

85. Marvel United

Published By: CMON and Spin Master
Designers: Andrea Chiarvesio and Eric M. Lang

Buy Marvel United Multiverse Core Box.

Do you want to team-up as Marvel heroes to defeat villains in a fast and easy game? Marvel United is great for that. You pick your hero, the villain to go up against, and a few locations and you are ready to play. This game is all about managing what the villain is doing, and they do some fun stuff, and then chaining off of what your superhero teammates did, because you use the last card played, to have a great turn. This is a great game to teach people cooperative game play because you can really cooperate. And there is so much for it.

84. Homebrewers

Published By: Greater Than Games
Designers: Matthew O’Malley and Ben Rosset

Buy Homebrewers.

I like brewing beer, I did it for a long time. I’m not sure it’s hobby I’m going to return to. But I can still get my beer brewing fix with Homebrewers. This is about brewing the best beers you can. You brew a beer and you go up on a track, then you need to deal with the spent grains, sanitize, get more grains and brew again. All of that is like homebrewining.

But then the game offers different ingredients you add to your brewing. And these cards stick around between brews. So if you brew a porter with almonds, you now always will. And those ingredients give you brew something special that might be more money, or it might be that you move up on another beer. At the end, you just want to be the best homebrewer out there.

83. Chronicles of Drunagor: Age of Darkness

Published By: Creative Games Studio
Designer: Eurico Cunha Neta

Buy Chronicles of Drunagor.

I love my big campaign games. And Chronicles of Drunagor is no expection. It is just lower on the list because one of them has to be and it is one that I haven’t played a ton of. There is so much in the game, but I highlight three things in the video. I want to highlight one here, the activation system. You use different colored cubes to activate abilities of those colors. But when you run out of cubes or need a specific ability, you need to pull back those cubes. Then you cover up a spot so you can’t use it. It’s a unique system that I find a lot of fun.

82. PUSH

Published By: Ravensburger
Designers: Prospero Hall and Brian Kirk

Buy Push Here.

I like simple push your luck games, and PUSH is my favorite of them. This one is just push your luck, but as compared to other simple push your luck games, this one offers just a few choices. Mainly you create three stacks of cards on your turn. But those stacks can’t have the same color or number in a single stack, aka you can’t have two blue cards in a stack. Well, that is easy enough, you could stop early. If you do that, then other players could push their luck for more points. And then there is the die, if you have the roll the die, you might lose cards. It’s all about balancing that risk for points.

81. Potion Explosion

Published By: Horrible Guild
Designers: Stefano Castelli, Andrea Crespi, and Lorezno Silva

Buy Potion Explosion Here.

If you want a game that feels like app game, Potion Explosion definitely meets that need. It is one of those games where if like colors are touching they explode, or in this case, you get them. And it’s all about chaining together colors of marbles the best you can, and then you use them to complete spells. And those spells give you points that you need to win the game, but they also give you one time abilities that you can use to chain together more marbles and complete more spells. This game is just tactile and fun.

Join Next Week

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

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

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

This War of Mine 2nd Edition

I owned this game for a little bit. But I knew it was challenging with the rules and kind of a downer of a game. So I sold my copy. I expect I’ll be backing this. And I expect that Awaken Realms is going to have improved upon the game play and the rule book. T

he game still looks beautiful and challenging and something that I enjoy. Plus I love solo games and this being that is definitely catching my attention as well. The main question I have is do I want a game that is this heavy in terms of the story? And it sounds like they know they can improve the experience and have plans to make it easier to get into and play.

You can follow the campaign here. It’s coming in Q2 of 2025.

Agricola Special Edition

Thank you Awaken Realms for making these games. I did end up wanting Castles of Burgundy because I found I loved it. But I won’t lie, Agricola is one that I’m not that interested in. If someone were to get this, I’d play it for sure. But I know that it’s not going to be one that I’m going to back. I think that a lot of people are going to love this. And I appreciate that a lot of things they do for the game make it great looking but also make sure that it’s highly functional and be enhanced.

You can follow that campaign here. Launching in 2025 quarter 2.

Agricola Dead Harvest

This is a new Agricola game coming as well. And this one is coming in 2026. I’m not sure what it’s going to add in there and it’s going to add zombies in as well. They wanted to try and make it a bit more Awaken Realms like with the zombies. It’s going to be a standalone game that still have that farm management to it, but during a zombie apocalypse. Which, this is pretty wild, but I’m sure some people will love this game.

You can follow that campaign here, it’s coming in 2026.

B.E.L.O.W. The Asylum

Oh boy, this fourth one is definitely going to interest me. I love horror themes and Awaken Realms is going to make it dark with an asylum. So I’m not sure if this is Lovecraftian, yet, but it’s looking dark and gory and wonderful which I adore. And you are a group called BELOW who are going to be stopping this from happening, it’s 100% my jam. I’m going to say that about 100 times more, but oh boy this is amazing. And it’s designed by the designer of SETI a very popular game last year.

This is a cooperative game which is important for me. I don’t know that this is a campaign game, maybe a one off scenario or just face off against the game. It sounds like there is going a more horrific world and the real world and you work between the two. That sounds super awesome to me, like I said, I’d say it more.

You can follow the campaign here. This is a Q3 or Q4 2025 game.

Tainted Grail The Fall of Avalon Video Game

The video game is finally coming out in a full release. This is an open world game. And it looks amazing. But it’s a video game so I might get it eventually, but it also looks first person action game. They are going to release a special collectors edition as well, which is fun. It’s just going to give you stuff that you don’t need, but might want because they look very cool.

Follow the campaign here coming in Q1 of 2025.

Labyrinth Chronicles

This is going to be an combination of Ravensburger and Awaken Realms making a “deluxe” edition of Labyrinth. I have actually never played Labyrinth, but it looks fun as a mass market game. This is not just a straight reprint with Awaken Realms stuff to make it look fancy. They are still keeping it a lighter game, but it’s a bit more of a “gamer” game which a few more decisions. There is going to be a campaign more as well, which is a fun thing as well. I do enjoy a good campaign game. But it’s still going to be a family game as well. I might get this to play with my kid.

Follow the campaign here. It is coming in Q1 of 2026.

Dragon Eclipse Season 2

Yes, this game just delivered and is just delivering. But now there is another one coming out. And this one is called Dragon Eclipse The Grand Quest. I am intrigued by this because I got the game. But I want to get it played before I say anything more on it. There is an adventure mode which I should play and really see if this is a game for me. And you can play PvP and more on this one. And the aesthetic is great. They are smart with it, and it’s coming in Q4 of 2025 so people will have a bunch of time to play it. And even the language editions will be delivered.

Follow the campaign here.

Final Thoughts on Awaken Realms Next

Alright, let’s talk about what I’m likely to back. That’s what you want to know, I’m sure. And I think you can already start to guess. I think I’ll guess Dragon Eclipse The Grand Quest. I think it sounds like a ton of fun. And then the Labyrinth Chronicles sounds really fun. I think it’d be fun to do that as my kid is starting to get into games more. And he’ll probably be ready to play this by the time it comes in. And This War of Mine Second Edition as well, though I might wait on that. But finally, of course, then B.E.L.O.W. The Asylum which is 10000% my game.

But what game is the most interesting for you, let me know down in the comment section below.

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

How To Play Push

Push is a simple game where you get two actions that you can do. The first is the most common that you’re going to do in the game. It’s going to be flipping cards, and pushing your luck, where the name comes from, to build out three columns of cards. It might be less, but generally you’ll build three. When you stop you pick one of the columns to take and add to your points. The other thing you can do is bank points you have, because there are ways that you can lose points.

Let’s talk about what happens to the other two columns. Depending on if a reverse was flipped or not, the next two players, either direction get to pick a column. So why not put everything in one column? Because there are rules for how you have to place cards. You can’t have the same number, or color in a column. If you ever do that, you bust, and you get no cards. Plus there is an additional penalty.

What’s this penalty, well, you get it for busting, or if a die card is in a column that you take. You need to roll the die. The die has the five colors on it and a blank side that is safe. But if you roll a color, you get rid of all the cards of that color you have. But you don’t get rid of cards of that color if they have been banked.

When the deck has been gone through, the player with the most points in their banked, and collected areas is the winner of the game.

What Doesn’t Work

This is a lucky game. You draw cards blindly and just have to guess when you want to stop. You might roll the die a turn before you would have banked a lot of points and you lose them all. So for some people that is going to be something that doesn’t work at all. Why, because it’s going to be that random nature that some people don’t like in the game.

What Works

But let’s talk about that luck in terms of what works as well. Because it is lucky and a die roll and go against you at the wrong time, or you might just draw three red cards in a row and bust drawing a fourth, but it’s fast. And everyone is down for the same lucky time that you are. You know if you’re a push your luck fan, this game is going to work for you.

I also like how you can bust. Because, I tend to notice most combinations of what might bust you. But there are times because you might be safe from a red, you only have two, and a four, you only have two. But the right combination comes out, a red four, and now you can’t place that into the columns and you bust. And I don’t notice those all the time.

Plus, with this being a fast game it plays like a party game. And when it’s going well, everyone at the table is encouraging others to push their luck one more time. Yes, you might bust, but imagine how good the points will be if you go further. And that is how a good push your luck game should work. And sometimes, as the person who is creating the columns, you stop because you know the last person is just going to get that die to mess with them.

Who Is Push For

Push is for people who want to play a light, silly game that is almost a party game in a lot of ways. If you are risk adverse, this game won’t work for you. If you don’t like randomness, this game won’t work for you. But is the premise sounds silly and fun, then you’ll probably like it quite well.

My Final Thoughts on Push

I do like Push quite well. I like the randomness of the game. And I think that is really a party game. I find it to be more of a party game than a game like Codenames is, the difference is, you can’t play with as many people, though still a good number. Push is just loud fun, something that I don’t really say about Codenames and some other party adjacent games that are really big group games.

And I like the mechanisms in the game. They are just simple enough to be a fast teach, but it’s a fun decision space to see when you want to keep pushing your luck. You get a four in all the columns you’ll probably stop. But can you spot those sneaky situations that can bust you. Or, can you flip a few more cards and get that one column super juicy for you to take.

Have you played Push, and do you like it?

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: A

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

How To Play Disney Lorcana

Disney Lorcana is a multiplayer, though probably mainly two player, card game. In it you are trying to get to 20 lore before your opponent does. The first player to twenty lore wins the game, it’s as simple as that.

On your turn you do a few different things. Firstly, you draw a card and get the option to ink a card. This is to take a card from your hand with the cost circled on it, and put it face down in your inkwell. These ink cards then are turned and used to play out the other cards in your hand. And finally you can challenge your opponent or go questing for lore.

When you challenge your opponent in Lorcana, they each deal each other damage based off of their strength and can knock the other out if it matches or exceeds their willpower (defense). If they don’t, the damage persists on them until someone challenges them again. You only challenge if the opponents character quested or challenged last round. You also quest in the game. That uses a separate stat. You use that to move up on the lore track.

On your opponents turn you watch what they do and repeat the process. There is not reaction system that is used. It is just the first to twenty lore who wins.

Initial Rollout

So, I think the important part to talk about is the initial rollout of the game which we are in the midst of. Right now the game is out and it’s out to local game stores. The downside is that the amount of product released is low. So low that booster boxes are being sold either by stores or online at twice the value.

The nice thing is when you local game store isn’t marked up it isn’t a bad. And often stores use limits on how much you buy to keep the prices down. The issue is that speculatory buyers pick up product and then sell it on eBay or other locations are a much higher.

This is making the game hard to find and hard for those who want to be able to play the game to actually be able to play the game. All the product is gone from stores, and now it is a matter of waiting for the general retail release which will sell fast.

The Game Play

The game play is a lot of fun. But my experience is that I got starter decks. And the starter decks for Lorcana are not without their flaws. It is mainly a lot of common cards in the decks and it is not built for combinations to be pulled off. It is meant to be basic to give you an idea of how to play. For that reason, it is hard to give it a full review.

But what I like about the game is the simplicity of it all. I worry about my turn and less about your turn. I spend the ink I want and don’t need to spend any on your turn. It makes the game simpler which makes it accessible.

And the game play is very fast. I got through two games during a lunch at work, maybe twenty minutes per game. So if you want a game in that trading card space that is easy and fast to play, Lorcana is very good for that.

What I Want to See More Of

Better Distribution

Firstly, I want to see more cards. September 1st it is getting a wider release and I hope to grab some cards. But if not, they’ll continue stocking cards at that point. This rollout plan while solid for the local game stores to get people in and sell cards, has created a weird scarcity and early collectability issue with the game.

Deck Construction

I also want to deck build. That is an element of the game that I think sounds interesting. It is simple in that you take any of the two colors and put them together. And you decide the ratio of cards. So you play with a sixty card deck and as long as you have a card of a color, you can build it with two colors. Each color seems to, but isn’t super well defined, in what they do better than other colors.

For me, this is very interesting because the starter decks, like I said, aren’t great. And I think it’ll raise my experience with the game to a higher level because it is more interactive in what you do. I don’t mean between players, I mean between the cards that you have.

Is It Played?

This one seems pretty obvious, but how does it grow? Is Lorcana a game that will be played? Right now it is a concern for me if it is a game that will be played. I am happy to see that local game stores are having events. I want to know how many people attend those events or not.

Lorcana is a collectable card game right now more than an actual game. This is not due to Lorcana not being a fun game, it is due to the rollout of it and it being Disney. It is bought more by collectors than it is people who want to play, at least that is my feeling. And if it is not played, it’ll stop being collectable and stop being a game.

Final Thoughts on Lorcana

Lorcana is, like I said, a fun game. I think it has the potential to be a better game as more comes out. But Ravensburger is smart with how they have put out the game in terms of complexity. Disney is a very accessible theme. And that means that as a game it should be one that anyone can play. And I think Lorcana is that, once it is available that is.

Right now I give Lorcana a 7 out of 10, a C+ to B- range in my normal grading system. It is a fun game, but it doesn’t standout to me. I think it could work into a B+ range with better decks. And I like deck construction in my TCG’s so, that is an element I want to play around with. I really think it is going to be a better game for me because of that.

How you been able to find and play Lorcana? Let me know your initial thoughts on it.

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

How to Play Strike

Strike is a very simple game, where you are rolling dice and trying to get matches. But the numbers on the dice go from 2 through 6. The 1 is a strike, if you roll that, the die is gone forever from the game. If you are the last person standing with dice, you win the game.

The first person in the game, or if anyone rolls dice and clears out the dice tray, has to roll all of their dice. Otherwise you can push your luck by rolling any number of dice at a time to see if you get matches. If you do, you take the matches. If you don’t, you can either stop, leaving the dice you rolled in the tray or you can push your luck and roll in more dice trying to get a match. And that is the game, very simple and fast.

What Doesn’t Work?

Now, I say that the game is fast, and having played it a handful of times now, it consistently is. Because you can roll and strike and lose dice means that the pool is always dwindling of total number of dice. It is possible that it’d take a while to play because you are just rolling a die, getting a match, and no one is really building up a big dice pool.

It is also possible that your very first roll of the game that you are out. In a five player game you have five dice, there is no guarantee you get a pair. Even in a two player game with a lot more dice, there is no guarantee. You get enough strikes you are just out of the game.

What Works?

Now, I said that the game could go on for a while or you could just be out of the game, both are true. But the game works well and counters both of those, generally, by having great speed to the game. Turns are fast, you are invested in each roll of the dice, and it works that way. So through a handful of games I have yet to see the game take too long

It also reminds me of Icecool or PitchCar where you get excited when someone has a crazy roll. So it is a good group game that way where it’s less about winning and losing than it is about the fun of the game. Especially in something that is luck heavy you want to have people excited during the game.

Who Is It For?

I think this is a good filler game for a game group that is okay with randomness. Strike is just randomness as you play it. You roll your dice, you can knock into other dice and change their faces and you hope to get a match. There is no dice mitigation or anything like that. So if you want strategy or control, Strike will not be for you. If you are fine with some random dice chucking and a quick fun time, Strike works well.

I also think on the luck side that even if you don’t have deep strategy players it might not work. There are some people who will get frustrated by the fact it is random. So when the dice are rolled it feels like, because it is, that the game is deciding for them. The question with Strike is if you can handle losing because of a bad die roll or not?

Final Thoughts on Strike

I really enjoy when I play Strike. It gives some good laughs when someone rolls a handful of dice and it fails. It also gives great moments when someone rolls 3 dice and manages to clear the dice tray. Or when you bump a die and now the die you rolled and the die match.

And even the moments where you roll 6 dice and you come out with one match or no matches, those are fun. Because you know it is just random as you go. At the same time, and I talk about this in the who it is for, it does limit the game. Sore losers or people who want so much strategy, it won’t work for them. But if you can embrace the absurd it is a fun time.

My Grade: B+
Gamer Grade: C-
Casual Grade: B+

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