The Games We’re Still Playing Six Years Later

The new and shiny comes and goes. Games get hyped, played obsessively for a few weeks, and eventually find their way back onto the shelf while something else takes their place. Some games stick. I went back through our Top 50 Played Games from 2020 and was surprised by how many of them are still games we genuinely enjoy playing today.

Lost Cities, Quacks, Tiny Towns, Rummikub, Cubirds, Kingdomino, Welcome To…, Takenoko, Lucky Numbers, Sushi Go!, Stone Age, Everdel, NMBR 9, Wingspan, Silver & Gold, 5-Minute Dungeon, 7 Wonders, 5211, The Game, Shipwrights of the North Sea, Deep Sea Adventure, Nova Luna, Anomia, Dominion, Patchwork, and Sequence. Okay, maybe that's more than a few, but there’s actually a little history behind this list

The Tiny Towns Effect

Our first visit to Millennium Games was in February 2020. We were brand new to town, knew Catan and Carcassonne, and had absolutely no idea what we were looking at in a store filled with SO many games. We were clearly a little lost, a friendly staff approached us an suggested Tiny Towns

We had no idea at the time, but that recommendation would become one of those little moments that changes everything. Tiny Towns became a family staple, and that first visit opened the door to a much bigger board gaming world and addiction 🙈

Six years later, we’re still going back. At this point, we’re there about once a week, so I guess this is my very unofficial Millennium Games appreciation post, and Tiny Towns is still sitting on our we love this game list

Games That Became Household Classics

Some of these games have become much more than games we happen to like. I grew up playing Rummikub, and it was the first game my now wife played with the family. We’ve played countless games since, and it’s usually a best of three situation. At this point, it’s just one of those games that feels like it belongs in our house. The Game and NMBR 9 are two others that I will happily teach to almost anyone. I still think both are wildly under hyped

NMBR 9 in particular deserves a reprint. I'm taking this and any opportunity I can to wish for it to be more widely available. It's one of those games, I would gift everyone. Right now, that game is Jump Drive. I think every person interested in board games I meet/know, eventually ends up learning it (and most of the time loving it)

7 Wonders is our ultimate party game that isn't really a party game. It works beautifully when you have a bigger group, and we’ll often pair it with Deep Sea Adventure. The catch is that you really want six people for the full experience, which means these two don't hit the table as often as I’d like. Then there’s Dominion, which I can never get enough of. Everything reminds me of board games. My friend was singing the ABCs to her toddler last weekend and my brain immediately went: Action. Buy. Cards. I wish I were joking. After she put the baby down, I asked, "have you played Dominion?" She said no, and I have to fix that

The Games We Still Reach For

Sequence has also managed to stick around. We were taught the game during a double date, and we still play it with the same couple at least once a month as a 2v2 best of three. I’m currently waiting on my Cat in 8 Kickstarter, and I have a feeling Sequence may have some serious competition once that arrives

Of all the games on this list, the one I wish we played more is probably Stone Age. It’s a great game with somewhat ugly art. What prevents it from hitting the table is the scoring. It takes some mathing, and somehow that tiny bit of friction is enough to make it lose out to games that are faster. Which is a shame, because every time we do play it, I remember why we liked it in the first place

84 Plays and Counting

And finally there’s Silver & Gold. We’ve played it 84 times, and somehow the markers are still working. Faber-Castell, I love you! More importantly, Silver & Gold was part of a much bigger rabbit hole for us. Phil Walker-Harding was the first designer we ever followed, which led us to picking up a whole bunch of his games. It also introduced us to the world of flip/roll and write games. I think that genre? category? mechanism? I don't know the proper term is my favorite

What Actually Sticks?

Looking back at a everything we played on2020 is a pretty interesting way to see how our tastes have changed. Some games have disappeared from our regular rotation. Others are still getting played years later. A few have become tied to specific people, places, or memories, which makes them feel like more than just games on a shelf. I think that's what makes this hobby so much fun. The hotness is exciting. The new releases are fun. There will always be another game that we absolutely need to try. Sometimes though the games that matter most are the ones that quietly survive all of that. Six years later, these are some of ours. What games from before the pandemic are you still playing?