If your family needs some help with Christmas presents, here are some new(ish) games you should put on your wishlist.
Kingdomino
Designer: Bruno Cathala
Players: 2 – 4
Play Time: 15 – 20 minutes
Recommended Ages: 8+
Kingdomino is a strange beast. It’s a modern take on dominoes, with a dose of area control in it. Enough people were impressed by Kingdomino that it took out this year’s Spiel des Jahres, the most prestigious prize on board gaming. There’s a fair degree of strategy so your hardcore gamer friends won’t be disappointed to play it as a filler game while you can still play it with your muggle family and your kids.
Best of all, you can get it for less than $30. A great game in a small, family-friendly package.
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Codenames Duet
Designers: Vlaada Chvátil, Scot Eaton
Players: 2 – 4
Play Time: 15 – 30 minutes
If you’ve listened to Kotaku Editor Alex Walker, then you already own Codenames and pull it out at every party. That’s important. But Codenames Duet also fits nicely on your shelf and in your life.
It’s for those times when it’s just you, your favourite person in the world, and your favourite game. It keeps the same basic word-game one-word-clue mechanic but turns the competition into cooperation. Entertainment and relationship-building in one tidy box!
Note: This is compatible with the original Codenames and will give you another 200 new cards with 400 new words that can be used with either game.
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Bärenpark
Designer: Phil Walker-Harding
Players: 2 – 4
Play time: 30 – 45 minutes
Buy Australian! Don’t by fooled by the umlaut: Bärenpark is designed by Phil Walker-Harding – Australia’s most decorated board game designer – and is most likely Australia’s best board game of 2017.
Bärenpark sees you running a park (zoo?) for bears. With elements of Tetris, Zooleretto and Patchwork, there are a number of things going on and many interesting decisions to be made. There’s a great sense of satisfaction that comes from assembling your park, combined neatly into a cuddly, bear-shaped package.
The only problem with this game: Can you bear to build a park for koalas, even if they’re not bears (technically, literally, or zoologically)?
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Pandemic Legacy: Season 2
Designers: Rob Daviau, Matt Leacock
Players: 2 – 4
Play time: 60 minutes
Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 blew away the board gaming world. Rob Daviau’s novel ‘legacy’ twist on the co-op classic Pandemic set the board gaming charts on fire. It wasn’t just the highest rated game of last year, Pandemic Legacy: Season 1 is currently the highest ranking game of all time on BoardGameGeek. Season 2 has been recently released, and you’d do well to get your hands on it for some more gripping, card-ripping, epidemic-stopping action.
Like many sequels, it may not be exactly as good as it’s predecessor, but it will still one of the best games you can get your hands on in 2017.
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Gloomhaven
Designer: Isaac Childres
Players: 1 – 4
Play time: 90 – 150 minutes
Gloomhaven is a big heavy board game, to play with your heavy-gamer friends. Crawl dungeons, level up your characters, and experience novel and ingenious mechanics.
If you have generous parents, this is what to ask of them. Gloomhaven is about $200 of game, it’s value for money. You’ll experience 75 plus sessions of solid gaming that will last you a good year or two. It might be a long shot, but if Santa really really loves you, he might be nice to you!
If you need more suggestions, there are always these seven recently released games:
[referenced url=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/11/7-new-board-games-you-should-play-right-now/” thumb=”https://www.kotaku.com.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/11/Stack-of-Games-410×231.jpg” title=”7 New Board Games You Should Play Right Now” excerpt=”Last month Essen, Germany played host to one of the world’s largest annual board game conventions. Internationale Spieltage SPIEL. We just call it ‘Essen’. The event showcases the latest and greatest of the board gaming world, with publishers often releasing their newest games at the convention. Copies of those games are now finding their way to Australian shelves, so here’s a few of the hottest games from the show.”]
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