Board Game Holiday Gift Guide 2025!

It's that time of year again. Time for our holiday gift guide for all the board gamers in your life and particularly for you. If you are a board gamer yourself, these are some ideas. If you can't think of a board game you want, share some of these ideas with your family and friends and maybe they'll get you one.

We're going to jump right into it. We've got 10. They're not like a top 10 or anything like that. Um, they are kind of in a particular order. We started sort of on the light side and we have a lot of light games, a lot of more fun party games on this list, but don't tune out if you're like a Euro player because they get heavier and heavier.

And we're going to end with, you know, pretty heavy game. >> We wanted something for everybody. Basically, we've got a little something for the gamers in your life, the families, the friends, the kids, everybody. >> Yeah. And we're going to start with one that will likely be in some form or another on every future holiday gift guide that I can see.

>> Uh but this year in particular, uh Flip 7, a game you've heard about, I'm sure. Uh we've talked about it in years past or last year anyway. >> Uh they have a the Grinch version of Flip 7. Um I already own I have two copies of Flip 7. >> I also have two copies of Flip 7. I'll probably also get the Grinch copy.

I'm definitely getting this for some of my family because I have some of my family members. My sister always been a big Grinch fan. >> Oh, I thought you were gonna say she was a big Grinch. >> She is a big Grinch. No. Uh, no, but she loves these. We grew up with a lot of these uh things like Grinch and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

She loves the Grinch. Uh, and everyone in my family loved Flip 7. So, I think this is an easy get for the holidays. Flip seven in general. Even if you can't find the Grinch version, just get flips up. >> Yeah, I'm for someone in your life. >> Putting the Grinch version in my kid's stocking for sure.

>> Oh, that'd be awesome. Not a lump of coal. >> No, that's very unrinike. >> Is that's true. He's a big Grinch fan, too. I mean, I think for every age, people love the Grinch. >> Really quick, though, the main difference between the Grinch version, it's the artwork. They have Grinch-like artwork on all the cards now, which >> Yeah, but it is Flip Seven.

>> It's still Flip Seven. The game is still flip seven. >> I think it is just Flip Seven, >> but it's just a cuter version of it. >> So, it is reskinned. effectively what it is. But you can't have too much, you know. And Flip 7, I don't know how much the Grinch version is, but the Flip 7, just standard Flip 7 is like eight or nine dollars now.

So, this can't be much more. The next one we wanted to talk about, uh, won the Shiel de Jarez this year. It is Bomb Busters. You've heard about us. You've heard us talk about it on the channel. We talked about it quite a bit. >> We have talked about it quite a bit. Um, it was what a in my top 10 last year for sure.

and Spiel nominee for winner >> and winner. Um, so this is a sort of group deduction game that feel and you're clipping the the wires of a bomb. And the cool thing about this is it starts off very simple, but then it progresses. So you can make it more and more of a game, I think the base version, as you start playing anyone, you could teach anyone how to play this and then it gets a little bit more and more and more interesting.

And I mean, it gets pretty crazy. Uh, but it's a fun way to go through a game, particularly if it lands with your family, and I can't imagine it wouldn't. It's very adorable art, very family friendly. So, Bomb Busters is one I'd recommend. >> All right, the next one I want to talk about, it's a game called Hot Streak.

And this is definitely more of a party game. This is a game you're going to be standing up. In fact, this is a game that if anybody gets this on Christmas morning, this is the game that you want to just open up and start playing. >> You'll want to play it that night. >> It's It's a really really cool game.

In fact, the board, it's kind of cool. It actually like unrolls. It pulls out and you're putting all these mascots. I think there's I believe there's four mascots. >> Yeah. Four or five. There's a handful. >> Everybody's bidding on these mascots whether or not they're going to reach the end of the field and who's going to reach the end of the field first.

It's like a little football field thing. But they're running around and you're playing these cards to move them, but they're they're going off course. They're turning around. They're falling over each other. They're going to be crawling try like it's wild and wacky zany mascots. >> You're really just betting, right?

>> Well, you are betting. The the hook of the game is there's a standard deck of cards for each character and you can see what's in the deck, but you're all going to add cards into the deck before you bid to manipulate it. I might have a card that says turn the hot dog guy around, and I know that card's in the deck.

No one else does. So, I'm bidding against the hot dog guy, but then again, that card might not be drawn, or it might be drawn after he's already crossed the finish line. So, it's never like a sure bet >> or before they started. >> Well, yeah. Something Well, yeah. You don't actually even like use all the cards.

some of the cards are taken out. Like, so there's just a lot of unpredictability, but you're betting uh on who's going to win. And then there are these like these side bets you can make every round. So, it's almost like ready, set, bet, but like even more casual and sillier and funny. >> It's not real time either.

Like >> the betting is not real time. The betting all happens before, but then you're flipping the cards over and moving the and watching it unfold. You can literally just picture these mascots running around like crazy. It's just so much fun. Yeah, the moments at the table with that one are really, really cool.

The next one we want to talk about, I actually haven't played, uh, but Ryan has. It's called Alibis. >> It is a word game. Definitely a party game, and I've heard it described as code names meets, uh, so Clover. So, it's got a lot of code names in it, though. >> It does have a lot of code names in it, but it's a it's a cooperative game of code names, right?

So, you've got all of these villains, uh, these super villains, and, uh, they're all dealt different words, but, you've got one that's kind of like put out of the game face down, and all the rest of the words are given to the players, and you have to put a one-word clue down. You write on a whiteboard a one-word clue that references however many, depending on the player count, you're going to draw a certain number of cards, but you're trying to reference them.

You're trying to pick a clue that points to all of your guys so that other players know, okay, it's not these three. But what it is, there's this deduction element since it's cooperative. Everybody's writing their clue down at the same time. Everybody's revealing them. And you might write a clue like rich.

And I'm looking and seeing, well, who out here is rich? But then I think, okay, well, you put, you know, I don't know, lawyer out there. And I'm like, but this guy says, you know, justice. So I'm like, oh well, if lawyer's justice, then lawyer is not rich. So then I can maybe these other ones are rich that I was on the fence about.

So as you're kind of looking, you might say, I figured out one of David's, but I'm going to try to figure out everybody's else's, and then David's might come clear. But then by the end of it, there's one that you haven't assigned to anybody and you're basically saying that's the one that was set aside.

And if the more people that get it right, the more points you get and it's kind of like can you that you get like these these tokens and you actually remove them. Your goal is to remove every token before I think three rounds or whatever. So I mean that part of whatever like you can score however you want, but the the game itself is just a ton of fun >> and it does you're right that that code names vibe with that little bit of Soul Clover vibe.

If you've got somebody in your life that likes those games or you enjoy playing those kind of word association games with your family, this is a great pick. >> Yeah, I would say if you played Code Names, if you played uh So Clover, if you played Just One. >> Oh, yeah. There's a little just one in there, too.

>> Just one a little bit. So, I mean, those have been huge successes over the years. So, this one seems pretty good, too. It's from All Play, right? >> This is from All Play. Yeah. >> Yeah. It's got a little more theme to it, too. It's not just a war game with the villains. >> Superheroes are kind of hot right now.

Still, so >> still for now. Are they actually? Maybe not as much as they used to be, but I think it's still a pretty popular genre. Yeah. >> Uh the next one we want to talk about is a two-player game. This one soft launched at Gen Con earlier this year and then came out later around September time frame.

It's Tag Team. Uh this is from Scorpion Masque. Uh not the same design team, I don't think that was behind Sky Team, but the same publisher. Uh and some of the same people involved. This is an auto battler onev1 head-to-head fighting game. So, it has all these different fighting game style characters, but you're building a deck with cards, but you're never changing the order of the cards that you have in the deck.

It's just that when you add a card, you're putting it wherever you want in the deck. So, then you're just flipping over one card at a time and you kind of get to understand it. Almost almost feels a little like programming. you're flipping cards over like, "Okay, I'm gonna do this so that it changes and I can like you're putting your cards against the other player's card." So, when I flip a card, Ryan would flip a card and you kind of compare those.

If I'm attacking, he might defend and if he defends, maybe he's, you know, counterattacking and things like that. But then the next round, I might put a card in a different order such that his defense goes against something else and it's wasted instead of being good. >> That's that's like the mind game element.

Like, I know David hit me with a really strong attack on his third flip. I'm like, I can't let that happen again. I should put my new newly drawn defense card as my third card. But I'm like, but David, if he puts a card above it, now that's his fourth card. So, do I want to put a card above it to make, you know, it it the the mind games for that get kind of crazy.

And I honestly feel like if you're like a parent looking for a great game to play with like your teenagers or whatever, this is such a great one because it doesn't require a lot of teaching. It doesn't require a lot of their attention. Like I know what families are like. I know you've got kids running in every direction, but if you can say, "Hey, I know you like fighting games.

Can you want to sit down for 20 minutes and play this game with me?" I think it's just a great experience. >> I did exactly that with my youngest son. And now my youngest son is 21 years old. Uh, and he is a finicky, picky board gamer. Uh, and he liked this one quite a bit. So, very appealing looking, too.

It's got a nice sort of cool cartoony look to it. The next one we wanted to talk about is is it the only trick taker? It is. It's the only trick- taking game we have on the list. Now, tricktakers are pretty hot over the last >> Yeah, they really are. And you can't go wrong with most of them. >> And mo Yeah, a lot of these new tricktakers are really good.

This one is origin story. It's from Stonem. Stonem has a lot of fans. Stonem has a certain sort of like bar of quality that they always meet and they definitely did it with this one. I will say uh as Tricktakers go, I think it is a little bit more on the chaotic side. So like, uh Skull King level of chaos.

Yeah. Um, but it's really interesting because you are forming your origin story over the course of the game. You're all playing superheroes or super villains and you're going to be adding superpowers over the course of five rounds and those powers give you wildly, you know, wild powers to use during the trick taking game, letting you peek at other players cards or do things like that.

But before each round, you're also saying sort of simultaneously, I'm going to be a superhero or I'm going to be a super villain this time. And that dictates what you're trying to do. If the if you're a superhero, you want to win tricks, as many as you can. And if you're a villain, you want to not win any tricks, which is >> hard, >> a tall order, but like I said, there's crazy powers.

Like there's tricks that say, "Oh, did you say you're a superhero this round?" Well, at the end of the round, you could say, "Nope, I'm a super villain." like you can change things up like that. So it like brings in a lot of interesting chaos. It's a really creative trick taker. Probably of all the trick takers we've played, the one with by far the most theme.

>> Yeah. And if you're somebody watching this video because you Google searched because you wanted to get a good gift for somebody in your life that loves board games. This is a great example. This is going to be a really hot game. This is going to be a game that they've probably heard of. Stonem is a great publisher.

I mean, widely loved in the board game industry. if you're not in the industry yourself. Uh I think this is just a great hit for pretty much anybody at any level of gaming. You can play it two players. It works well in a group setting. You can play it with families and it still appeals to more hardcore gamers like us because it gives us a lot to do within that trick- taking game.

Uh and so I highly recommend this one. >> Yeah, it's a big recommendation for in fact all of these are big recommendations. The next one is probably the biggest recommendation I can give for the game you're looking for that matches sort of the Cascadias. If you're a family or a household that's played Cascadia or like Ticket to Ride Katen, that that's your level, you played a lot of gateway games, Shallow Sea from Bad Comet is maybe the best gateway game going on right now.

I know like we love Flip 7, but I wouldn't exactly call it a gateway game. like it's pretty it's a card casual card game. >> It's a fun one but casual. >> Shallow sea is that sort of step into real sort of board game enthusiast level games and it has a lot in common with Cascadia. Uh it's a tile laying game where you're drafting tiles on your turn and adding them to to score and sort of like the puzzle in front of you is to add those tiles such that you're maximizing your score, not getting yourself into corners where you're not scoring as many points as you could.

incredible table presence. So, non-gamers are going to look at this and go, "Oh, that's really appealing." Very pretty >> and a ton of variability because there's all these different underwater life tiles and coral titles that you can use to really change the game up a lot. >> Yeah, Cascadia was very popular and there's a very very good chance that someone in your life has introduced you to Cascadia, be it a father, mother, brother, cousin, whatever.

Somebody in your life has probably said, "Hey, do you want to play Cascadia?" If you have that person in your life, get them shallow sea. I think they will appreciate it because it does a lot of what what we love about Cascadia, but I think it does it in a in a more satisfying way. Not that >> it does.

>> I still love Cascadia and I will always play Cascadia, but shallow sea just offers a new level to that game. >> Well, yeah. One word, combos. Yeah. >> You don't have combos in the game systems that have been in the Cascadia systems. Shallow sea, you have turns where you're like, I'm going to do this.

Oh, and that lets me do this and that lets me do this. >> Nobody doesn't like that. That feels a wonderful, wonderful feeling. >> All right, the next one we want to talk about, this is called Sanctuary. Now, Ark Nova was a game that came out a few years ago. It's a giant game about building a zoo, and people loved it.

But the drawback to Arn Nova, it's pretty heavy, and it's very long, and so that makes a lot of people not want to play it. Sanctuary is kind of a new version of Arknova. It's not necessarily a sequel to Ark Nova at all, but what it's doing is taking a lot of what people loved about Arknova, especially like the zoo, building and collecting animals, and it's repackaging it in a what I would call maybe a little bit smaller, but more streamlined, faster tile placement game that takes a lot of what people did love.

Like, there's a lot to love about Ark Nova, but I think this manages to be a much more presentable game that I would say is for a wider audience than Ark Nova had, making it, I think, a great holiday gift. >> Yeah, I would agree. I would say it's definitely not a sequel and I I I would probably say I don't know that I would describe it as a version of Ark Nova.

Is definitely a companion product to Ark Nova because I think you could have both of these in your collection very easily. They are incredibly different gameplay experiences. But what you'll see in a Sanctuary is a lot of nods to things that you feel while you're playing Ark Nova. Not all of them, but in a very similar fashion.

And like Ryan was saying, you can get this to the table with a lot more different people than you can Ark Nova. Arknova is certainly more intimidating to the non-gamer. Sanctuary, >> not really. It's still pretty meaty. It's not exactly like a light game. >> Yeah, I wouldn't put this on the same entry level like we said about Cascadia or Shallow Sea.

>> Absolutely not. Uh I'd say it's more medium weight whereas Ark Nova is medium to heavy. Shallow Sea is like medium to light. Uh, but it's a very appealing game. The animals are great and it gives you a lot of the same sort of feels, if you will, of Ark Nova. >> All right, the next one, uh, just right now is coming out.

So, if you're watching this video, get in there, order this game. I feel like this is going to sell out probably. >> It's an old game. >> Uh, it's an old game, but it's back in a new package. Literally, the Orlons big box. And I know we've been talking about Orlons on this channel for since the start of this channel.

I mean, we've loved Orlon since it came out. >> Oh, yeah. Orlon. Uh, well, it is currently still officially and formally my number one game of all time. When we did our top 100 or 50 games of all time or top 10, Orlone has >> continued to be my number one >> and it may still be my number one. There's a chance that Veil of Eternity might knock it off.

With that said, this big box has everything you've ever wanted. It has all of the expansions included. It has nice storage trays. Has all sorts of deluxe bits. Uh they did change um it appears as though, in fact, we just got it, so we've just cracked it open. They've changed the discs that you're pulling out to sort of like little meuples uh that represent the different characters.

Don't worry, all the meuples are the same shape and size, so you can't go, "Oh, what ones do I want to get here?" Um but they do stand up like little people on the board now. So you can see the icons standing up looking at you instead of the discs. >> But yeah, if you are a Euro fan and you've never played Orleans, which is possible because there's so many people who've entered the hobby more recently >> and Orlone, it's one that I'll always bring up when someone new to the hobby says, "What are some older games that I might not have played?" And if I say, "Have you ever heard of Orleone?" And they're like, "No, this is a like buy it.

Just buy it." I don't I've never met anyone who was like didn't like Orlone. >> And even if even if somebody in your life or you have it already, uh this new big box just is the presentation is insane. Like this is why I think it makes such a great gift as opposed to like just buying it because who doesn't like opening up this big premium package with really nice components and you open up the box and there's all the little game trays inside.

>> Really nicely >> well presented. Side note, the bags in this version are gorgeous. >> Premium bags. >> They are really nice bags that you're drawing because it's a bag builder. >> What about that first player marker? That thing was >> first player. Yeah, it is a gorgeous, gorgeous presentation. And one quick one before our last title that we want to talk to, uh, which is our heaviest game.

I did want to give an honorable mention while we're talking about big boxes to the lost ruins of Arnack, uh, treasure box, whatever it's called. >> It is effectively the same thing. It's a big box to store all of your uh lost ruins of Arnac. I don't know if they sell that filled. >> I think they sell it filled.

That's that's the difference. Like Orlon big box, you get everything you could ever want. >> You can get just the box if you already own. Now, the Lost Ruins of Arnneck one is for people who own it. So, this is for that small sliver of people out there or large sliver of people who own it already. If you know someone who owns it and loves it, get them this big box because the storage solution for all things Arnac is fantastic.

Plus, it does come with new content. >> All right, so now let's go to I don't want to call this my number one, but it is my number one. So, this is for the gamer in your life that loves heavy game. This is the heaviest game by far on our list. It's so hot right now. Everyone's talking about it everywhere.

It's Galactic Cruise. If you get a gamer in your life that doesn't have this, if you get them Galactic Cruise for your Christmas, you've made their Christmas. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Galactic Cruise was I would say if we were to crown the heavy game of the year this year, the one that everyone was talking about, everyone was playing, still playing.

You went to any sort of like game day or any sort of like weekend retreat for board gaming, >> Galactic Cruise was one of the heavy games that was getting played a lot. >> Galactic Cruise like what what it does so well is it it's heavy but in a very approachable way. They really did a great job with every aspect of this game.

The rules are fairly easy to follow. The icons are pretty easy to follow. Like it is a it is a heavier game without being like sort of speak easy heavy, right? Lerta vibes. >> It does give us sort of vibes, but it's kind of like a stepping stone into that that heavier game. Like I feel like it's more accessible maybe than some of Lerta's heaviest games.

>> I just may have to give it a try. >> I think you really you really should. I think any gamer is going to knows this game would be excited to get this game for sure. Well, that was our 10 slash 111 maybe 12 with all the things we mentioned. Uh games that we wanted to share for this sort of holiday gift giving season.

I think we've covered just about anything. Uh we had a lot of small little games. Some of those could be stocking stuffers. Um we can't wait to share some from next year. There's some games coming out around the corner that I think will be perfect for the list, but they're they're just not coming out this year.

True. Uh they'll be out soon. But if you have any questions at all about any of the ones we talked about, please make them in the comments below. Or if you have some gift ideas that we didn't cover, add those in the comments below, too. Until next time, though, make sure everyone has fun at the table, and we'll see you then.