🚧 Cross the Line | 🏢 Publisher Gray Matter Games 🧑🏻‍💻 Designers: Joe Barron, Brady Peterson, David Yakos🎨 Artist: Sophia Ricciardi 👥 2-8 players | ⏳ ~30 minutes | 🎲 party game, guessing There is no bigger compliment than having people ask you to bring games to game night, or seeing a friend go out and buy a game you introduced them to. Even better is bringing a stack of games you've already played, having them pick one out of the bag, and then watching them teach it

🚀 Excursions | 🏢 Publisher Kinson Key Games 👽 Designer: Ben Rosset | 🎨 Artist: Ian O'Toole 🧑🏼‍🚀 1-6 players | ⏳ ~60 minutes | 🌠 Crunchy euro, simultaneous play If you’ve ever looked at Galactic Cruise and thought about the price, the size of the box, or how long it’s going to take to play, you are not alone. But if you’ve played it, you also know why it earned all of that table space. You’re building and upgrading cruise ships, recruiting guests, collecting the resou

🃏 Flip 7 by Eric Olsen | 🏢 Published by The Op Games on 2026 👥 3+ players | ⏳ ~20 minutes | ⚙️ Press your luck, push your luck, take that I really like Flip 7. I've bought it as a gift more than once, and it's one of those games I can put in front of almost anyone and know we're going to have a good time. So when I saw Flip 7: With a Vengeance, I bought it. Then I played . . . My thoughts? This is for someone else. That's not to say I don't like it. I just don't know if I

🔢 Tally Up! |🧥 Designer: Eric Olsen | 🏢 Publisher Messy Tables Games 👥 2+ players | ⏳ ~20 minutes | 🎲 Push your luck, dice, simultaneous play Some people describe Tally Up! as Flip 7 with dice, and I get it. They’re both simple push your luck games where you’re deciding how greedy you want to be. In Tally Up! You decide to be either IN or OUT, but you’re still invested in every roll. Everyone plays at the same time. If you’re OUT, you’re probably hoping everyone else bus

🐐 French Goats in Trench Coats 🧥 Designer: Eric Olsen | 🏢 Publisher Messy Tables Games 👥 2–6 players | ⏳ ~20 minutes | 🎲 Bidding, set collection, take that For years, we've had a New Year's Eve tradition of buying cheap board games, wrapping them up, and putting them in a pile. The idea is to buy games we haven't played or don't already own. Then we play and whoever wins gets to open the next one. We learn it, play it, and then do it all over again. That's how French Go

🦎 A Lotta Axolotls by Eric Olsen | 🏢 Published by Messy Table Games 👥 2-6 players | ⏳ ~15 minutes | ⚙️ Matching, set collection, simultaneous play ⚠️ Disclosure: I was gifted a copy of A Lotta Axolotls and helped with the rules for the new version. As always, this is my honest review. We do not accept compensation for our opinions or recommendations I recently gifted a copy of A Lotta Axolotls to a friend's 8 year old. I had no idea she liked axolotls. We sat down to play,

🃏 Flip 7 by Eric Olsen | 🏢 Published by The Op Games on 2024 👥 3+ players | ⏳ ~20 minutes | ⚙️ Press your luck, push your luck, family game I honestly didn't think much of Flip 7 the first time I saw it. I got a promotional copy from my local game store, Millennium Games, and remember thinking the box was colorful. Cute. Whatever. I took it home, played it with my wife, and . . . 🥰 We liked it a lot. So much that we taught it to friends that same afternoon. And the rest i

🏴‍☠️ Booty Dice by Eric Olsen | 🏢 Published by Messy Table Games in 2023 👥 2–6 players | ⏳ ~15 minutes | ⚙️ Push your luck, dice rolling, take that, pirate chaos ⚠️ Disclosure: I was gifted a copy of Booty Dice and translated the game’s rules into Spanish As always, this is my honest review. We do not accept compensation for our opinions or recommendations Who didn't grow up playing Yahtzee? I never really caught the Pirates of the Caribbean bug, but give me some dice and

🧩 Glyphics by Eric Olsen | 🏢 Published by The Op Games on 2022 👥 3+ players | ⏳ ~20 minutes | ⚙️ Party game, guessing, spatial creativity Think Pictionary, but 3D Glyphics is a party game that comes with 150 cards and 40 random pieces for you to try out your best artist attempt. When the pieces click, it feels like magic. Other times? You're staring at a pile of shapes, doubting every artistic decision you've ever made 😂 One player becomes the Builder and chooses a prompt

🎡 Ferris Wheel | Publisher: Rush by RoseArt Games | Designer: April Mitchell 👥 1 to 6 players | ⏳ 20 to 30 minutes | ⚙️ Tile placement and hand management I love when a board game gives me a little piece of history. Ferris Wheel Rush is set in 1893, and after my first play, I went down a completely unnecessary rabbit hole. I can now tell you way too much about the World's Columbian Exposition 🤓 The world's first ferris wheel is about to open, but all the carts are in the w

Icing on the Cake by FoxMind Games 👥 2 to 4 players | ⏳ ~10 minutes per player ⚙️ Abstract, tile placement, “I cut, you choose” drafting If you have ever dreamed of building the ultimate cake without getting flour all over the kitchen counter, Icing on the cake brings that sweet vision right to the table. You are dividing up displays of cake cards, drafting layers, and covering them in icing and toppings to build the highest scoring slice. ⚠️ Warning: this game will want you

High Society by Reiner Knizia 👥 3 to 5 players | ⏳ ~15–30 mins ⚙️ Auction and bidding Reiner Knizia has done it again. High Society is a thirty-one-year-old classic that feels fresh off the press. The game got a reprint by Allplay in English and is available in Japanese and Korean via Playte Games, and it is small enough to take anywhere. I think this is old enough to be called a classic, although with the new print, you could have fooled me The game is fast. It is brutal. I

I honestly thought Habitats was a brand new release. The artwork is gorgeous, the table presence is beautiful, and everything about the production feels modern. My only complaint? I desperately want the little wooden jeeps to have wheels that actually turn 😅 As we were learning the rules, I kept thinking, This feels a lot like Nova Luna. I was convinced Habitats had taken inspiration from Nova Luna or Sagani. Then someone pointed out that it was actually the other way around

We have a bird. His name is Maverick. And let me tell you, there is a certain type of person who visits our house and immediately assumes that because we have a feathered friend, they have the right to handle him. They do not! People see a bird and think, “Oh, I want to hold it!” But birds are not props for amusement. If you don't know what you're doing, you are probably going to get bitten Which brings me to this new party dexterity game that arrived on our doorstep as a rev

I saw Floristry and immediately wanted to play it. Then I learned it needed an app, and I was skeptical. I prefer my board games to be, well, board games. I have a strict no phubbing rule at the table, but thankfully, this isn't a case of everyone staring at their phones. The phone stays between the players, the app does one very specific job, and then you get back to playing. I hate to admit it, but the app works. More importantly, it doesn't distract from the game. It creat

When my wife and I were brand new to board gaming, we tried the original 7 Wonders and, honestly, it was a lot. The drafting, the iconography, the neighbor scoring. We were still figuring out what half the cardboard in front of us meant. On top of that, we mostly played at two players, so it didn't exactly become a regular. Then came 7 Wonders: Architects The idea of taking that iconic universe, simplifying the gameplay, and making it work beautifully at two players immediate

I got Paris: La Cité de la Lumière for Christmas a few years ago. We played it once, put it on the shelf, and apparently decided that was enough. Then I stumbled across a video featuring the game. Suddenly, I remembered that little box sitting on the shelf and thought, Wait. We own that So I dusted it off and brought it to our date night. Social media is constantly pushing the next shiny new release, but sometimes it does something even better. It reminds you about the games

Zooloretto is a game with a clever twist on spatial planning and drafting. On the surface, you’re placing cute animal tiles into enclosures to build the most charming zoo on the table. But beneath that peaceful theme lies a surprisingly cutthroat game of tile drafting and push-your-luck decisions. Even though it's nearly twenty years old, it doesn't feel dated at all and still delivers an awesome experience every time it hits the table 🎲 Zooloretto published by Rio Grande Ga

I'm a sucker for games that do something fun with their components, and Beer Mug Dice is one of my favorite examples. The dice are chunky little wooden beer mugs that either land standing upright or flop onto their side. It's such a simple gimmick, but it gives every roll a little extra excitement. Add in a tiny box that's easy to toss in a bag, and I was all in 🎲 Beer Mug Dice published by 25th Century Games and Playte Games 🏛️ Designed by: Andreas Schmidt | 🎨 Art by: Wan

When people think of word games, Scrabble is usually the first one that comes to mind. It definitely is for us. As much as I love word games, it's also why a lot of our friends don't. Eventually someone gets stuck staring at the board, trying to squeeze a tiny word into an impossible spot while everyone else waits. You end up spending more time looking for a place to play than actually coming up with clever words Vocabularian takes a completely different approach. There's no

Mindbug: First Contact is a fast-paced two-player card game that captures the excitement of Magic: The Gathering without deck building. Learn why its clever Mindbug mechanic, unique creatures, and strategic gameplay make it one of the best 20-minute dueling card games for beginners and experienced players alike

I grew up playing Magic: The Gathering. I loved building decks and dreaming up ridiculous card combinations, even if I either never drew the mana I needed or the combo never came together the way I imagined. I don't own any Magic cards anymore, but every now and then I miss that head to head card battling. That's where Mindbug comes in. It scratches that nostalgic itch in about 20 minutes without the cost of chasing new cards. Battlefruit Kingdom can be played as a standalone

We had the opportunity to playtest Pairloopa. As my niece gets older, I'm always looking for games that help me keep my title as the cool aunt. Pairloopa is a family friendly card game where players combine two words to create compound words. Think: SUN + GLASSES = SUNGLASSES The gameplay itself is simple, but what stood out to me was the trading mechanic. Because anyone can offer a trade when a card is discarded, every discard matters. Instead of waiting for your next turn,

👩🏻‍🎨 Designer: Uwe Rosenberg | 📦 Publisher: Lookout Games ⚙️ Abstract strategy, rondel puzzle, open drafting, polyomino ♟️ 2 players | ⏳ ~10-15 minutes Patchwork is an absolute classic in our house. Six years ago, it was our very first Uwe Rosenberg game, and our introduction to polyominos. I was obsessed with Tetris growing up, so finding that same feeling inside a cardboard box was kind of magical. It manages to feel cozy and calming while still being rewarding every