2 Player
Sail
2 players
20 minutes
11 years old and up
2/5 complexity rating
MSRP: $19.00
Need a quick 2 player game to play on a weeknight after a long day? This is the one! Work together without communicating about tactics and card info to avoid obstacles and taking damage from the kraken. It is essentially a trick taking game that moves the ship across the sea. Different combinations of cards trigger different game actions. Each character has special abilities which gives some variability. The game is really beautiful and is also small enough to travel with.
Adventure
Flock Together
1-5 players 25 minutes per player (25-125 mins) 10 years old and up 2/5 complexity rating MSRP: $89.00
We saw this game at GenCon ’24 and immediately were smitten with all the hilarious chicken puns and beautiful artwork. This is a fun cooperative board game that will keep you smiling while you fight predators. This is a lighter entry point to coop games. Each chicken has a part to play on the team for abilities to synergize.
Puzzle
The Light in the Mist
1-4 players 300 minutes 14 years old and up 3/5 complexity rating MSRP: $32.00
Get ready to solve 22 puzzles using a tarot deck as a guide. Don’t let the tarot deck scare you off if that is not your thing though because it is still an incredibly engaging game. You can choose which puzzle you work on next, which is a fun non-linear change to many puzzle type games. If you can’t figure out a puzzle you can move to another one and yet somehow the story doesn’t feel disjointed. The Light in the Mist does an excellent job telling a story with the puzzles, narrative, and imagery. The puzzles are very intuitive without being simple. The price point is also more accessible than some other puzzle games.
Crime / Mystery
Sherlock Holmes: Jack the Ripper and West End Adventures
1-8 players 60-120 minutes 12 years old and up 3/5 complexity rating MSRP: $57.99
Take turns being the one and only Sherlock Holmes to solve 10 different cases. Choosing which leads to follow and how to follow them make it feel more immersive than other mystery games. It’s fun getting absorbed in the time period. There are newspapers that are important for each case but hold clues and information across all the cases, which is a nice touch. Some people online recommend ignoring the scoring mechanism where you compare your team to Sherlock Holmes, which I think is a great idea because solving the mysteries is enjoyable enough 🙂
Kids
My First Castle Panic
1-4 players 20 minutes 4+ (we think ages 3-7 years old would enjoy it most) 1/5 complexity rating MSRP: $24.95
My First Castle Panic is a great kids coop game. They will need to work together to defend the castle. This can be nice to ameliorate the sore loser syndrome… which all parents know so well! It teaches shape and color matching, strategic thinking and taking turns. Best of all, no reading is required to play, so little ones can potentially play it on their own, giving you time to do all the things you never get to do.
Narrative Action-Adventure Game
Fateforge: Chronicles of Kaan
1-4 players 60 minute episodes (35+ hours total of gameplay) 10 years old and up 3/5 complexity rating MSRP: $89.99
This action-adventure (RPG-like) campaign utilizes an app to guide you through a city full of intrigue and will remember your choices to ultimately determine the fate of the empire. Since the app essentially acts as your game master this game is great for a group of players with no DM. Quick combats (10-15 minute) are quite variable, keeping the game engaging. There are also expansions that continue the story so if 35 hours isn’t enough, don’t worry!