Our Gen Con Preview List! (2026 edition!)
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Transcript
Hey everybody.
Hello, I'm Ryan.
And we are Ryan and Bethany Board Game Reviews.
And we have a great list for you. A list I am so excited about and I cannot wait to talk about it.
You guys, Gen Con is just around the corner. Every year we make a preview list of the games that we are most excited to see there. They could be games in kind of any stage, too. Maybe it's for demo only. Maybe there's a few that have kind of gotten in just in time for Gen Con. Maybe they're just for sale and they're being released at Gen Con. There's even a few I think that were just released just recently.
Yes.
So, they're just kind of calling it a Gen Con also, you know, it's on the Gen Con list even though it's not necessarily
a Gen Con release.
a Gen Con release. So, these are 10 games that we are excited to see at least for us for the first time at Gen Con. Yes, we're going to do 10 games each. Maybe some honorable mentions. As always, be sure to let us know in the comments below what games are you excited for for Gen Con that are releasing soon. We'd love to check them out, too.
Yes, and as always, ladies first. However, I'll let Ryan do one honorable mention before I get going.
Okay, fine, fine, fine. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Codenames has been a staple of the board game hobby / party game world for a long time. It has bridged that gap really, really nicely. For us, it's gotten kind of stale. We don't play it a lot. We It's just other games are a little snappier, a little, you know, whatever it is. Or we've just seen a lot of it and it's It's been shelved for a little while. They are releasing these expansion packs
Yeah.
of these various themes. One of them's fairy tale themed. There's a superhero one. I can't remember what the other ones were, but they're just kind of miniature packs of the fresh cards you can add to your game. Which I think is hilarious and genius. And I'm excited to just kind of get my hands on a few of these, mix them into our game so that way breathes a little bit of new life. I'm not excited about the new full box games that come out. Like, okay, there's the Codenames After dark or there's someone specific theme to these various ones, the Disney one or the Marvel one or the whatever. That doesn't do a whole lot for me. Um if I'm going to put code names I want the original one or or duet. And both of those can use just these mixed uh these expansion cards. So, that's a little caveat. It's it's expansion so I'm not calling it a full the thing on the list, but it is pretty cool sounding to me.
Okay, so number one is Digital Detox and this is published by Greater Than Games.
Number 10. We're going to say number 10 number one.
Oh, 10. This is 10. It's one with a zero. So,
Math.
Um so, in this game it's a card shedding game, but the whole idea of the I like the theme of this game. So, in Digital Detox that's what you're doing. You have all these different like apps open on your phone and in terms of these cards and it's a card shedding game where you're trying to be the last person or the first person to get rid of all of that, to get rid of all the different apps and stuff that you have open on your phone. And I just love the idea of that. I love that in our current climate how we're all like super addicted. Trust me, I'm on maternity leave, my screen time has like gone up so much. It's embarrassing. So, I just love the idea of this game of implementing this idea of something that we all know that we should probably do more often and gamifying it cuz if it's in a game then you're not on your phone anyway. So, love that.
Love it. All right, my number 10 this is Compile main three. So, there was Compile main one, Compile main two, this is now Compile main three. And they all have aux one, aux two, and aux three which are kind of like promo packs or mini expansions. Uh this is one of our our favorite two-player games uh and I just love the variety that they come up with keeping the system the same but just giving us new things to work on consider and mix together cuz they're all compatible in ways you can mix them up but they stand alone as as well. Uh so compile main three, I just want to see more variety. Uh and yeah, hook me up. I love it.
All right, my number nine, now that I'm doing this in the correct order, is um Berlin 1960. And this is published by Devir. So, this is a team game where you are spies and double agents. I'm just really curious how they're going to pull that off. We don't get to play a lot of high player count team games, but whenever we do, they're always a great time. So, this is one I might foist on my family if we ever got a chance to do it. Um and just to see how that that theme of like these spies and double crossings and stuff like that happens in this. I just I really want to see that in its full implementation.
Yeah, and in social deduction games uh all the ones we've got we've kind of worn out a little bit to some extent. So, try something new in that genre, that would be nice. All right, so this next one, number nine on my list, we actually had a chance to demo last year. This is called Mystic Curling Club. Uh this is coming from Asmodee Games, and it is wild. You literally have a I guess a D12, and you're flicking it like as if you were curling or playing shuffleboard or one of those kinds of games where you're trying to get it to land in a certain spot. Uh and but there are all these special abilities and rules, and the dice itself matters what number it rolls on. Uh [snorts] it is absolutely adorable. It is it's it's you know, physical, it's actually a dexterity game. And it was cute, and it was a fun theme, and at the same time it was really easy to hook you. You were instantly in the game. Like the demo like some demos you have to sit down, learn the rules, and then you get to play like one round of it. No, this was like, "Hey, flick this dice and see if you can get it in the middle." I was like, "Yeah, this is so it was that easy to get me hooked. I'm in."
Um my number eight is Garden Club, and this is published by Chris Couch Games. So, you are planting a garden, and you want vegetables, and you want plant, and you're trying to do these patterns. One of the things that really intrigued me about this or drew me to it was the components look awesome. They have like these recessed boards. It just looks really nice and it has like this 3D quality to it. And I know you shouldn't always be like bamboozled by good components, but sometimes they just draw you in and this definitely drew me in. So, I'm very curious about um Garden Club.
Yeah, I think it's What we're working with is just basically, judging by what it's covered, you know, we don't know anything about these for the majority of these. You know, we're trying off of the cover art, the designer, the company that's making it, and the small descriptions that we have to work with. We're trying to, you know, just go off of gut gut vibes and and see what happens, you know. Um So, the one I'm going to talk about next is Class of '89 coming from Paper Scissors Games.
Your Class of '89 is your number eight.
It is. Class of '89, number eight. Uh this is a kind of a tableau building game where you're basically building a yearbook page and you're drafting these these these students basically and teachers and things like that and you're putting them on your on your board, laying out a yearbook page, and you have to keep things in alphabetical order. Uh there's all these constraints in that way, but there's ways that you draft them. There's other things you can fill your yearbook page with like little, you know, I don't know ads is the right word, but little little blurbs and things that you can put all over the page. Uh it is charming. It is a throwback to the '80s. All the kind of tropes that you would expect to see there are there and uh we've had a chance to get a small demo of this as well and already we're like, "This is going in a great direction. I can't see the final product." And now we're going to get a chance to see that final product.
is by uh Paper Scissors and we have not been disappointed with them. So, obviously, we're like, "Yes."
Of course. All right. So, my number seven is Soar and this is from IV Studios. And while I don't know a lot about it, I really like um what IV Studio does. So, this is in the same world as Fractured Sky and it's some type of bidding game with these little dragons. So, bidding and dragons IV Studios, yes. I'm very curious about this. I want to see what it's about. I want to um experience this. So, that is Soar from IV Studios.
Yeah, their artwork is always on point.
All right. A while back there was a game called Inhuman Conditions and it would didn't make a lot of a splash, but it was a two-player only game. I absolutely loved it. It was a social deduction game for two players. Uh it was absolutely wild. One person is interviewing the other person and they're trying to figure out whether they are a real human or a robot. If they're a robot, if they're a good robot or a bad robot. So, they're trying to figure out what's going on here, if they're a killer robot or not. Um and it was absolutely funny and charming. Lots of role playing and silliness and it lasts like 5 10 minutes. It's it's a blast and it's it's [snorts] for two players only. There's a game coming out called Totally Human that has the same theme going on. Uh you basically going to answer questions in the way a human would in order to weed out which ones are aliens in disguise. It's got the same kind of feel going on where you're trying to ask questions and figure out who's the humans and who's who's not. But, it plays three to eight players. So, uh if you want two players, play Inhuman Conditions. If you want three to eight players, play Totally Human. The mechanisms are obviously a little bit different and all those things, but the theme is kind of that same theme that I I really loved and had a great time playing around with. And so, I want to see this with more players now.
Um my number six is Quagmire. This is actually a re-implementation of a game called Bog. It was one of those um
Paco games.
Uh so, this is by Perplex and Quagmire is just a bigger version of Bog. We really liked it when we played it. So, I I just I know I'm going to like this game. I It's always nice when that happens. You're going through a list and you're like, "I already like what that's based off of. So, I know I'm going to like this." And so, I know I'm going to like it. You're programming these frogs to hop across the pond. So, that is the theme about this. And it's the bog version was really fun. So, I'm excited to see how a bigger scale version does and any changes that he makes in that. And that is Quagmire.
And that was two players only, too, right? This goes up to four players.
Yes. Yeah.
So, that's yeah, even more chaos and more programming and frogs jumping and all that stuff. You may have heard of a little game called Diplomacy.
Just a little game.
Diplomacy is an absolute classic, but it's also got the reputation of the friendship ruiner. You play for hours and hours and hours. Players are eliminated. So, if you're out in the first hour or something,
No.
you just have to watch your friends play for the rest of the night.
And then she's no longer your maid of honor.
And and even if you do make it to the end, the person was lying to you the whole time. They are going to They're going to break their alliance and they are going to get you or whatever the case is. Um so, there is a new game called Diplomacy: The Golden Blade. It promises the same kind of strategy, negotiation, and backstabbing, but shrunk down to 15 minutes per player and without player elimination. So, all the things that make this kind of like a classic outdated kind of a thing, the player elimination, the way too long of of an event, are are still are are out and all that. It's what it's kept is all the core parts that makes it so popular and interesting. Um I'm really interested to see how this works. This thing's got a two-player mode. Like, I want to see Diplomacy in 30 minutes.
How you going to do it? I don't know, but I love it. But, it's up to seven players with no player elimination.
Yeah.
But, it promises all those same craziness, all those same things. So, yeah, I would love to see how they pull this off.
And that is from Renegade Game Studios. All right, my number five is Bookshelf. This is from Alley Cat Games. And I'm going to be completely [clears throat] honest. This is another one where I just saw the pictures. I was like, yes. You're literally it's a dexterity book stacking game. That's it. That's all you need to know is that you are um it's for one to six players and you are it's a cooperative game and you're having bookshelves and you're stacking books on that. Do you really need any more information? I think that's all the information anybody needs about this game to want to check it out. So I'm really looking forward to that. That is Bookshelf.
I'm I would knock this over. I'm so sorry.
I'll play with the kittens.
I'll try, but I'm just I'm not as delicate with
I'm like a third monkey a baseball glove at all times. All right. Uh the next game I want to talk about is Viking Route or Viking Route. I don't know how to pronounce it. But uh this is coming from Ares Games. Ares Games is known for all of their big classic war games and they just do a great job at war games. But I think that when they decide to make a family game or a kind of a hobby game outside of the war game sphere
So good.
they think outside the box. They do things weird that no one else is doing and I am absolutely loving it. And I'm here for it. It's not what they're known for, but because of that they're just in a different mindset than everybody else. They make such cool interesting weird games. I love it. So there was a game uh this is uh kind of representing a game called The Faceless. Um it uses similar mechanisms from The Faceless, but it's basically a game where you have magnets on a board and a compass and the compass of course is affected by the magnets and you are moving around using this compass and magnet system all over the board and you are Vikings and you are you know doing your thing. It's it's fully cooperative, but you uh have it got a magical ship, you're going past the world's edge. Uh you've got all these ravens that are sent by Odin that are helping you steer.
Uh you're fighting all these monsters, all this kind of stuff. It just sounds like a really great adventure, but it has this crazy mechanism of using magnets with a compass. I I love it. I've never played the Faceless, but it sounds like this is kind of more my theme anyways. So, I'm very interested to see how this actually actually works. Is it a gimmick or does it does it work the way I hope it does?
It's totally going to work the way you hope it does. It totally is.
Well, if yeah, I feel like they would have fleshed out all of the weirdness in the in the Faceless and kind of Okay, now we know what works, what doesn't. Now we're going to make a new version of it.
I got a chance to see a preview of this last year and how the magnet works and it's it's so cool. It's very very unique um while still having while not being just a gimmick. Um so, I I'm looking forward to seeing the full product of that. All right, my number four is Gardens and Dragons and this is published by B A Games. This is your seventh game in a row that started with the word dragon
or either dragons or gardens.
No, there's some books in there.
You've got a type for sure. If you There's a game called Dragons Reading Books While Gardening, you would it's instant buy.
What's really funny about that is I am not a gardener. I kill things. I can't get rid of weeds. Like there's I'm not good at that, but I like the idea of it and so I'm drawn to those concepts. Um so, this says the great migration migration of dragons is coming and it's time to prepare the fields for their arrival. So, you're just trying to make the best garden for all these dragons that are coming. But yeah, it is true. I do have a type. I like I like the cutsey dragon stuff and I like the gardens and books and tea the cozy cozy cottage theme. That's what this is. It's cozy cottage like mystical.
Yeah, what is that? Cozy fantasy here?
Yeah, cozy fantasy. That is a thing. That's a real thing. It's become a thing in the literary world as well, cozy fantasy. People want that. So, yeah.
We did do this on accident, but I love it. It means It means it was meant to be. The game I'm choosing next is actually called Cozy Sticker Ville.
It is.
Speaking of cozy. But, I'm not choosing this for me per se. We have two daughters and of course our newborn. And one of our daughters loves stickers. I'm talking like if you get sticker you go to the dentist she's like gets a sticker or whatever she's like can I get another sticker?
I need one for my sister.
Right. The sister never gets the sticker. Uh and she goes through like I don't know any craft fair whatever and someone has like stickers you know she's always like
these bracelets now that have stickers on them. So, she That's That's all she wants is this bracelet cuz you can pull these stickers off and then give them to people. Stickers are her thing.
So, this is a sticker based game. It's got 800 stickers in this box. It's basically a legacy game. You're building out a village with all of these stickers. Um this is from Unexpected Games and this is an unexpected title for me. I think that this is something that I would not normally choose, but knowing how much she's going to love it
Yeah.
Um and by the way, she's a shark of a gamer too even though she's only nine. She is
Gamer nine is different than non-gamer nine though. If you have gamer kids, you know exactly what we're talking about.
stuff about you need to go fishing, explore the mines, find your true love, and more. I think that uh she's going to absolutely love this and I'm going to love playing with her and that's why it's so high on my list. Um yeah, Cozy Sticker Ville. Can't wait to check it out.
All right, my number three, speaking of legacy games, is Mountain Goats Legacy. What's funny about this is I've never played Mountain Goats. I just love legacy games. Ryan and I have played eight legacy games?
Oh, at least.
completion. Like we start and finish them. I love the reveal. I love how the game changes. And this is just really funny that it's um called Mountain Goats, even though I've never played the original, but I really like legacy games. Um and I figure if they're making a legacy game out of Mountain Goats, it must be a pretty good game that people want this. So, my number three is Mountain Goats Legacy, and this is published by All Play.
I want to say it's the same artist and art too from uh Flamecraft. The same Look Look Looks familiar. Looks good, but that makes sense. All right. So, uh this would be my number three. This is Tag Team Arthur's Legacy. So, Tag Team came out last year at Gen Con. Or at least that's when we Yeah. It's a two-player game where you are kind of um building your deck to play with, but it's more of programming the deck, I guess, as you're building it. And it reveals one at a time, and you're Whatever the cards say to do, you do. Um it's a crazy game of cat and mouse, and you know, it's very chess-like where you're like, "Well, if I did that, they'll do that. But if they might do that, then I will need to do this." And lots and lots of cerebral thinking back and forth. You match up two different characters, and you and you battle them together.
Um So, this is a standalone expansion. It's all about King Arthur's people. So, you're going to have things like King Arthur himself, Guinevere, Lancelot, um I think Excalibur itself is his own character.
Oh, that's fun.
So, you have all of these different tropes from the Arthur's world, and then you can
You're right. And even Excalibur.
You match, you know, take two of them, shuffle them together, and then you take some of the other person takes two of them, shuffle them together, and then you battle. And they are completely compatible with the original Tag Team characters as well. So, it's a standalone game that also expands original Tag Team. Oh Oh gosh. Tag Team has has been a consistent hit with our family and people I've shown it to and um it feels like you're playing a CCG without having to buy all the CCG stuff and at the same time it's just such a unique mechanism of that kind of that that deck crafting as you're choosing what order the cards are going to be in for the rest of the game. It's wild.
I should honestly get um sometimes at work, I work at a library, I suggest games for the board game selector to buy and I should suggest this. I feel like it would circulate a lot. People would like it. All right, my number two is Queen of Spies and this is by Salt & Pepper Games and this is a solo game. So, if you don't know, I really like playing solo games and I'm getting more comfortable with learning them by myself. This is the thing that gets me the most is like getting a rule book and being like, "Ugh, I need Ryan to teach me this solo game." But I'm for I'm starting to get more comfortable with learning and being okay with getting it wrong the first time I play and then re-correcting and then correcting myself the second time I play. But this is a Queen of Spies is a solitaire story driven board game of espionage and daring missions set in occupied Belgium during the First World War. Also, I'm really interested about the First World War cuz I read this kids book about it and I'm like, "Wow, I know nothing about this." So, these two things, the solo game and that it's it's three different chapters basically and it completes a complete story. I just I I like solo gaming and I am curious about this. It doesn't look like the rule set is going to be too difficult for me to be able to teach myself and then have this complete story arc. So, that is Queen of Spies.
And also, I think that Salt & Pepper has done a really good job of of taking obscure somewhat obscure moments in history
Yeah.
and turning them into games. We played one called Operation Barclay recently
Yes.
and um I'm not sure if I'm going to put that review up before or after this, but it just takes this this crazy battle in this in historical World War II and makes this this crazy game out of it that wasn't a a combat war-driven game.
Yeah. Yeah.
And so, I love that idea. All right, my number two. This is probably the weirdest game on my list because I am completely caught off guard by it. This is a company called Resurrection Games. Never heard of them. Uh the designer is Brad Zander. Never heard of him. I looked at their profile and they've got like eight games on uh listed or announced or whatever. They're all massive intellectual properties. Talking about like Looney Tunes. Um what is This one's DC comic books. What was another one that we saw?
Oh, I can't remember.
Was it Lord of the Rings?
I don't know. I
I can't remember. They were just massive IP. Scooby-Doo was one of them. Like how we It is super hard to get an IP.
Right. Scooby-Doo
And Game of Thrones. Like it's really hard to get in with an IP. He's gotten in with a a bunch of big-name IPs right out of the gate. I am very confused by this. What I'm talking about is This is Brave and Bold. It's a bag-building combat game. Uh this particular one is it's fast-paced competitive bag-building combat game set in a DC universe. So, it has the the branding of of of DC. Wow. What is this? What is this company? WHO IS THIS GUY? I don't know. But, he has uh it's clearly got great connections or just that great of a designer {slash} marketer or whatever.
Yeah. So, I love bag-building. Um Quacks has has recently rose to um high standing with me with the new all-in edition. Um and I love bag-building and bit deck-building all that kind of stuff. I love DC. And I'm extremely curious about this company and I would love to learn more because this is off guard. If you don't know about a Resurrection Games, list in the comments. I want to hear what you know about them, who they are, where they came from, what's going on with this company.
If you are Resurrection Games, let us know.
Let us know. We want to talk to you.
WE'RE CURIOUS. ALL RIGHT, SO my number one for the Gen Con preview list is Forage. This is published by Flatout Games. The reason why I'm really looking forward to this is twofold. I like the design team. It's Molly Johnson, Robert Melville, and Shawn Stankewich. They're the Point Salad design team. And they have Beth
Three sisters? Is that Three Sisters, too?
No.
No. All right. Oh, I know that is, too.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cuz I really like that design team as well, like a lot.
say like
three names and they're all good. They're
Yes. And they have art by Beth Sobel, and I really like Beth Sobel art. So in the game, you're exploring, gathering, making combos, and you're crafting gifts as you forage in the Pacific Northwest.
You're foraging for books that dragons give you while you're gardening and and foraging.
Okay, so like if THAT WERE TRUE
SO IT EVEN says on the BoardGameGeek page, it is designed and developed by the team that brought you Calico, Cascadia, and Point Salad, that whole series of games. So none of those have been disappointing to anybody. So I'm really looking forward to this. I feel like it's just one of those games that is going to be um it's going to be it's going to feel familiar while being new at the same time cuz I feel like they're really good with that feeling of game, of creating these games that feel familiar and yet they're brand new in what they're doing. So I'm really really looking forward to that. And that is my number one.
All right, my number one game. Let's get some background first. We talked about tag team, we're taking two things and you smash them together. All right, what's what's two games that we can just take off our shelf and we can smash together that you think would be fun?
These games.
Okay, fair. What if we took Carcassonne and we took Labyrinth and we smashed them together and made Carcassonne Labyrinth?
It's literally the name of the game is Carcassonne Labyrinth. Uh this is a tiling game where you're just laying tiles like you are in Carcassonne, but then you're sliding tiles around like you are in Labyrinth. So you're making these crazy paths, you're making crazy castles, you're sliding them around, maybe you're breaking them apart, maybe you're making these roads and telling them I I don't know how the mechanisms work. All I know is it takes you place tiles and you slide them around. Uh takes two things that we're very familiar with, Carcassonne and Labyrinth, smashes them together. This could be awesome. It could also be crazy.
Yeah, it could it could There's lots of directions this could go.
But man, if you had to choose two more iconic games to mix together, I don't think that you can think of two more iconic games to pair together that would match this well. So I again don't know how it plays, it could be could be weird, but I'm excited to see where it heads.
It's going to be great. Anyway, that's our list. These are the 20 games with an honorable mention that we are looking forward to seeing at Gen Con. But of course, as always, we want to hear from you. Do any of these games stand out to you? Are there any game that you're looking forward to that's being released or demoed at Gen Con? Let us know in the comments below.
Yeah, we would love to hear about all of those cuz we want to check out all the best games everyone is talking about. If you see us at Gen Con, be sure to stop and say hi. We've got buttons we're handing out and we just want to say hi and thanks for watching. Uh we really appreciate all you guys.
Thank you so much for watching and don't forget to subscribe so you can see our videos as they come out. Until then, you can find us in all of these places.
thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.
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