I fell out of love with mobile gaming ages ago. What once was a platform full of potential has degraded into a free-to-play money grab for the likes of Farmville, Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans. For those of you that like those kinds of games, that’s great. However, the types of games and the business models that drive them no longer appeal to my gaming sensibilities. At this point, my final vestige of mobile gaming comes from digital adaptations of analog board games.
Up until this very moment, I never really thought about all of the different meanings that “family game night” can entail. There’s a difference between parents playing board games with their young children versus adults playing board games with their even older parents, which is where I’m at now. The definition can vary even further, as there are a seemingly endless number of family configurations out there.
Trying to approach a family game night to fit every family configuration is a lost cause. However, coming up with one is a bit easier if you’re looking for games that are fun for all ages that don’t have any sort of objectionable content within them. Hopefully this isn’t too late for the holiday season. Here’s my Board Game Night Playlist that may work wonders for your next family game night!
Welcome to the Board Game Night Playlist! In what will hopefully grow into an ongoing series, I put together a playlist of games that you could use for your next board game night. Ideally, each playlist is created with the thought that all of the games on the list could be played within an evening of gaming. Also, I’d like for each playlist to contain some sort of thread that ties them together. For instance, I want to make playlists that are tuned for specific player counts, themes, gameplay mechanics or other logical through lines to make the most out of your next session.
This first playlist was inspired by a board game night we had with Mat and his now-fiancée Liza. Neither of them had played board games in years, with most of their experience coming from playing mainstream hits like Monopoly or Scrabble. What set of games could we pull together that were equal parts fun and accessible? Our picks out to be excellent choices, as we had a great night and inspired Mat and Liza to seek out more great board game experiences for themselves. This first playlist is the exact lineup of games we played that fateful night. If you’re hosting a board game night with newcomers, or are new to the medium yourself, try out this introductory playlist!
If memory serves me well, I’m pretty sure Blokus was one of the first board games to make the jump to iOS. Despite all of the positive things I heard about it, I never bothered to give it a chance until I played and bought the physical game. At first, I downloaded the free version to try it out and was immediately put off by the ad implementation. I understand the need to include ads to subsidize a free version of the game, but the full-screen video ads that would interrupt my game every three moves or so are obnoxious. Instead, I put down the $1.99 to play uninterrupted.
At first glance, it’s easy to dismiss Blokus as some sort of board game knock-off of Tetris. In actuality, this blocked-based experience shares virtually no resemblance to the classic puzzler beyond the look of its pieces. Instead, this is actually an awesome strategy game that’s easy to pick up with a ton of depth.
In Third Person 