When Betrayal at House on the Hill came out in 2004 it took the board game world by storm. Now a Scooby Doo rethemed print is breathing new life to this game and it's "far out!" It's a 1 vs many game, where 1 of your friends is the bad guys and the rest of you cooperatively are trying to beat them. The surprise... nobody knows who it will be till midway through the game! Search a creepy randomly generated mansion and play through over 20 different scenarios. This game has a lot of replay value and doubles as a nostalgia kick for Scooby Doo fans. It'll have you saying: "I ruv board games!"
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So you insist on only playing Monopoly? That's fine, but my go-to version of this game is Monopoly Deal. It takes the big board game and condenses it down to a fun, quick, card game you can play in 15 minutes. Set collection is the name of the game here as you're trying to get as many of the same colored properties as you can. For only $6 you'll feel like you're robbing the bank just by buying this game!
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It's hard to find good medium-weight strategy games for under $20. Forbidden Island fits the bill though. With good art, a couple nice plastic molds, and fun gameplay, this game is sure to be a hit for gamers on a budget. Made by the creator of Pandemic, this is a cooperative game. It's more simple than Pandemic, but don't be fooled, that doesn't make it any easier! This game will test your skills as you and a couple buddies try to survive a sinking island. Find all 4 pieces of treasure and escape on the helicopter with the rewards, or slowly succumb to an inevitable loss... Which will have you setting up the game again to see if you can beat it this time!
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Kids might hate eating their fruits and vegetables... but they LOVE Point Salad! This card drafting game has you collecting sets of cards to make the best salad imaginable! There's lots of replayability as each game is different every time, and you can always find new strategies to try. After all they say variety is the spice of life. Fun for the whole family, Point Salad is great value for the board game family on a budget.
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The game that will have you and your friends saying:
You: Wanna play a board game?
Them: No Thanks!
You: Darn
That joke never gets old. No Thanks! is an auction game. It's really fun and simple to understand. You start with red chips in your hand, each one is worth (-1 point). Lowest score at the end of the game wins. You can buy cards that come up for auction but they're worth their number in points. If you don't want to buy a card you say, "No thanks." and place a red token to pass on it. So eventually, it will be worth it to buy a card with all the negative tokens on it. It's also about set collecting. If you have consecutive numbers in a row - they're only worth as much as the lowest number. So a 15-16-17-18 are only worth 15 points combined. But a 15 and 17 are worth 32 since they're not connected. Super fun, easy to learn, and a bargain price make No Thanks a No Brainer!
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Winner of the most prestigious award in board gaming - The Spiel des Jahres. Kingdomino is the perfect game for all ages. A simple game that uses pieces inspired by Dominos, you are building your own little kingdom and trying to score the most points. You want to collect a lot of the same land type which are designated by the color tile. And most importantly, you are royalty so you want to collect crowns. This is a simple drafting and tile-laying game, with a good amount of strategy but isn't too thinky if you don't want it to be. If you like to have friends over to play board games, and especially if you're not a mega hardcore gamer, I highly recommend Kingdomino.
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Social deduction games - either you love em' or you hate em'. The Resistance might be the most pure social deduction game on the market. And the sequel, Avalon, is the best version of this game. This game adds more fun roles, like Merlin who actually knows who all the evil players are. But Merlin must not be too brash, for if the evil team loses they get one last attempt to steal victory from the jaws of defeat. If they can guess who Merlin is they have sealed the victory for themselves. An absolute riot of a time. With the right group you can get literally hundreds of hours of gameplay out of this. Recommended for fans of social deduction games.
Purchase The Resistance Avalon Here
Skull King is one of those games that has a good mix of luck and skill. So if you have a family or friend group of diverse gamers that aren't all as experienced, this game will even the playing field. And the best part is, it does't handicap anyone. There are always fun choices and interesting strategies to make each round. This is a trick-taking game, so if you have experience with those you'll learn quickly. It has some silly pirate rules everyone enjoys and powerful cards that shake things up during gameplay. The perfect gift for game groups of varying skill level that's great for casual parties or competitive game nights.
Purchase Skull King Here
The Crew is the innovative cooperative trick-taking game that came out in 2019. A cooperative trick-taking game sounds impossible on paper, and that's what makes this game so genius. You play through up to 50 missions that get progressively harder the higher you ascend. You start out barely scraping by beating the early missions as you explore what this game has to offer. But by the end you'll be a well-oiled machine, having mastered the art of subtle communication and telepathy. Give The Crew a try if you have a consistent group of 3-5 that likes playing cooperative games. I'm sure you won't regret it.
Purchase The Crew Here
Codenames is the og word game, and one of the best word games of all time. Come up with one word hints to connect as many words as possible. But be careful, one bad guess can make you auto lose. Have to connect Chick and Maple? Maybe Waffles is a good hint. But what if they guess Plate... This will test your vocabulary and the connections you have to words. The semantic debates that occur while playing these games are always a hoot! And some hints will have you scratching your head wondering how your friends or families brains even work. It's hard to beat the price too. This game has tons of replayability and I haven't found a single person who doesn't like it.
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