Best New Editions of Board Games Coming to Retail in January, 2026

0:07 Hey, I'm Grant with Grant's GameRex. This is my monthly video on the best new editions of board games coming to retail. For anybody who's new to the channel, the way this video works is I include three types of board games here. I include just sort of updated versions of older games, maybe that might like have new art, new graphic design, but it's still the same game. I'll do I'll do re-implementations of older games in this video, which is oftentimes taking a game that has already existed and maybe changing the theme, maybe tweaking the mechanisms. It's still related to an older game, but you know, it's a little bit more than just a new addition. And then the third type of video in this, the third type of game in this video is new games in an established series of games. So there are, you know, sometimes games like the Exit series or something like that where where there will have a lot of games and they're all sort of in the same system and I include those types of games here in this video as well. So uh you know, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you liking, subscribing, all that stuff and helping the channel grow. I put a lot of work and a lot of research into these videos and I'm glad it is useful to all the board gamers out there. All right, let's get into the games.

1:28 Okay, first up for January, Asthma is releasing Timeline 2025 refresh. This is the 2025 new edition of the game coming out in 2026. So there you go. Timeline is a great family game where you are going to be putting historical events into a timeline of events and you are trying to get rid of your cards the fastest and you only get to get rid of a card if you put it into a correct place in the timeline. You know, this came after this but before this and if you're right, you get to uh you know, shed cards from your hand. if you are wrong, you have to draw a new card into your hand and you're just trying to play out, you know, history stuff. So, it's a it's a great learning tool as well if you're trying to teach uh family members about history, um whether that being kids or whatever. Um it plays two to six players in about 15 minutes and it is a lightweight game. Uh, this 2020 2025 refresh version is mostly just new artwork and updated graphic design for the game of Timeline. Uh, so, you know, if you've been looking to jump into that one, if you like history stuff, this is definitely one of the best history games out there. As also releasing Timeline Games and Leisure. This also plays two to six players in about 15 minutes and

3:00 it is a lightweight familyweight game. They say it, you know, works as uh young as like ages eight and up. This games and leisure version of timeline is a brand new version of the game, but it's still the same mechanisms where you are trying to place things into the timeline in historical historically accurate uh chronological order. This one though as the game I mean as the name might suggest includes all things that are related to games and leisure. So you know different inventions when were when was uh the uh radio invented you know that might be one of the things here when was the first bicycle invented and so all things related to games and leisure uh historical stuff like that.

3:52 And you know, I mean, one of the nice things about that one, honestly, is that like, you know, the main version of timeline is going to be if you're playing with like a history nerd, they'll probably know some of the things, but like the games and leisure, I feel like even a lot less history nerds know. So, it kind of levels the playing field. Like, I you know, when was the first bicycle invented? I don't know that. And I love history stuff. So, uh, yeah, that's a that's a a fun version of timeline to jump into it if you are looking to jump into that game system. Uh, Asade in association with Lookout Games is releasing Patchwork Revised Edition. This is a two-player only game, plays in about 30 minutes, and it is a lightweight strategy game. You know, if you're comparing it to Timeline, it's definitely more strategic than that, but still a lightweight game. Patchwork is a game that has existed for a while now, uh, over 10 years, and this is kind of a, you know, anniversary edition a little bit. Uh, where, you know, Patchwork is a great two-player game, and it's it's honestly like if I knew a couple that was wanting to get more into the world of board games, I think Patchwork is one of the best recommendations. It's got strategy, but it's not overwhelming. It's not too hard and it's just a really fun tile.

5:17 Polyomino tile lang where you're drafting polyomino tiles and then trying to fit them into your board together. Well, this revised edition basically retains the same gameplay as the original game and there have been multiple versions of the game. You know, there's a Christmas version and a Halloween version. This uh this revised edition though just offers updated components, refreshed visuals and graphic design and a sleek new presentation. So same game but just, you know, looks a little bit different, looks a little bit snazzier than the original game. So if you're a fan of Patchwork, check it out. Asthma in association with office dog games is releasing the Lord of the Rings the two towers tricktaking game plays one to four players in 20 minutes and it is a lighterw weight card game but a strategy card game. Uh this is the sequel to a game that came out about a year ago called the Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring trickt taking game. So, you know, this is essentially a similar game mechanically, but uh keeps the story moving for Lord of the Rings. The original Fellowship of the Ring game played through the story of the Fellowship of the Ring. It is a cooperative trick-taking game where each of us play as a character from the Lord of the Rings. And based on who your

6:48 character is, you're going to want to win certain tricks or lose certain tricks. And so as a table, as a group, we're trying to like, okay, we need to make sure that they win a trick with a mountain and we need to make sure they don't win any tricks at all this round. And you know, you play through chapters and every chapter, um, you know, it might add a little bit of difficulty, it might add a little bit of more challenge, a little bit more rules. And so you played through a number of chapters in that uh, first game. there was 18 chapters. Well, this is essentially this uh this two towers game is essentially chapters 19 through 36. So, it literally picks up right where the fellowship of the ring tricktaken game story left off and now it's going to continue the story through a number of chapters and each of these chapters is going to escalate in difficulty. It's going to provide more challenges as well. Um, you know, there is a real narrative aspect to this game where you reveal characters and story as you go along through the chapters that m mirrors the Lord of the Rings books. Uh, and you know, this one does add some mechanically different stuff. Like for instance, there are now orcs in the deck and you want to lose every trick with an orc. If you win a trick with an orc, you lose the chapter. There are towers in the game now and towers can help you win

8:20 any trick regardless of what else is played. So, you know, if you know Lord of the Rings and if you like trick taking games, those are excellent excellent reasons to check out both of those games. I I think these are some of the best cooperative card games out there. You know, I played through the Fellowship of the Ring one with my family over a week and we played through most of the whole thing and and they were all obsessed with it. We all loved it a lot and so I'm excited to check out the two towers as well and keep keep it moving. As in association with Ludon Nova is releasing Junk Art Revolution. This plays two to six players in about 30 minutes and it is, you know, a lighter weight game but on the upper end of lighterw weight. This is a re-implementation of the game junk art.

9:09 And the game junk art came out, you know, almost 10 years ago. It is a dexterity game where you will be stacking different blocks and shapes and, you know, not all of them are blocks, some of them are triangles, some of them are balls. There's a lot of different types of um pieces that you can stack. you know, thematically we are junk artists and we are showing off our art in various different cities and uh so you know this new version includes revised rules. It has an updated scoring system. It has wooden pieces and it has new cities. The cities in the game might change how that round is played. you know, on this round you need to stack certain colors of things or you need to do, you know, just sort of restrictions on what you're doing that round and adds a little bit of more challenge and more replayability cuz it changes how different things will play out. Uh, but it is, you know, a dexterity game at its heart. So you got to be okay with stacking things and you know and then obviously it comes with those fun moments where the whole stack falls down and everybody's like no I was so close and I love those moments about dexterity games as in association with Ludo Nova is also releasing Adam uh plays one player. It's a solo game and plays in about 30 minutes and it is

10:41 a you know mediumw weight game. This uh reimplements like is a new edition basically put out by a bigger publisher. It was a self-published game a number of years ago but now this publisher has picked it up and put out a new version that has you know uh just higher production value art design all that sort of thing. Uh it is a hand and tableau management game. uh you are going to be sort of sailing your ship across the sea and dealing with different challenges and obstacles as you go. Uh you can either play it just as a you know just a game on its own or there is a threechapter campaign mode that you can play it as as well. So you have the choice there. you know, you're you're playing this game solo. And you know, I always tell people like with most solo games, if you played it with one other person and sort of played it cooperatively and made decisions together, that works as well, though this is intended to be a solo game. Um, there are going to be like uh different there there's sort of you need to handmanage your cards and the cards are going to help you all the cards are multi-use and they're going to help you sail your ship, but they're also going to help you overcome the obstacles that the game throws at you and there are going to be bring be a bunch of harsh challenges. There's going to be weather obstacles. There's going to be um your

12:13 your cruise despair is going to rise and you need to manage that. So yeah, it's just a interesting little solo game at a mass store. As in association with Libalude is releasing Dixit kids. This plays 3 to six players in about 20 minutes and it is a lightweight game. This is essentially Dixit that works for ages six and up. So, if you have played the partyish game Dixit and you know it was always too much too complicated for your kids, now here's a version to play with your kids. Dixit is the game that kind of kicked off games that have beautiful but also a bit abstract and esoteric artwork. And you are sort of interpreting the artwork and you can interpret it in a lot of different ways.

13:06 And you might be doing it on vibes. You might be doing it based on a specific thing on the piece of artwork. So this changes Dixit from a competitive party game to a cooperative game. So, you know, that's one of the reasons it helps with kids is it it is now fully cooperative here. Uh, and so what what they're going to do in the game is basically uh you're visiting this rabbit burrow and then you're going to play a card from your hand that matches one of the rabbit's moods. There's different artwork for the rabbits and you are trying to play a card that matches a particular mood and then you're also trying to sort of get everybody else on board with that. they have to find the invitation so that as many guests as possible can make it to the party in time. So, it really just, you know, it's translating the Dixit experience of interpreting these beautiful but abstract artwork cards. I don't know, abstract is like the wrong word to use cuz it's not abstract. It's almost like surrealist art, you know? So, it's the same thing where you're interpreting that artwork but doing it in a way that worksheet in association with Space Cowboys is releasing Unlock Short Adventures the Oceans Heart plays 1 to six players in about 45 minutes and it is a mediumweight game. This is an escape

14:39 room style puzzle solving game. There have been a lot of unlock games and you know they started with these bigger box unlock games and in the bigger box unlock games there were essentially three cases, three mysteries, three story lines to solve in the box. These unlock short adventures are much smaller box and only include one case. So instead of having three cases, now there's just this one case. And they're all sort of similar in that they are, you know, mystery solving detective style games. Figure it out uh together in a cooperative fashion. U but each of them has different themes. So this one you are exploring the depths of the ocean and uncovering its mysteries. So if you like a ocean type theme, then that might be a reason. You know, that's that's sort of the reason to pick one unlock versus others is the theme, the story of it. You know, this one, just so you know, it's a scenario of difficulty two out of three. So it's sort of a mediumweight difficulty one for the unlock games. Uh, and you know, the unlock in I most of the unlock series I I haven't played all of them, so I can't speak to all of them, but I think it's true that none of the unlocks uh ask you to destroy components, so they are very easy to give away to somebody else.

16:06 After you play them, you could give it to another person to experience the story as well. All right, next up, Bad Crow Games is releasing Company of Heroes Second Edition. This is a two-player game, plays in 90 to 150 minutes, and it is a medium plus weight game. Uh, this is a re-implementation of Company of Heroes that came out four or five years ago. Uh, it is a it's a game that's based on a video game. So, if you know the video game from Relic uh Sega, the Company of Heroes video game, then you might particularly like this board game, but you don't have to have played the video game to to enjoy this one. It is a tactical war game. You are, you know, deploying troops, moving troops out on the board.

17:02 you know, you have different units, different factions, and you're trying to uh battle for control points to collect manpower, munitions, and fuel. So, if you're a fan of war type games, and this one does have, you know, high production value and that there's like plastic tanks and other types of vehicles and you are going to be moving them all over the board and being very tactical in how you're choosing to do that. This second edition, what does it change from the original one? It introduces extensive improvements to gameplay. It includes uh improvements to the tactical choices, the unit balance, the faction differentation, the mission parameters, and more. It adjusts unit and building costs. It adjusts resource generation and other mechanics to allow for more units to be purchased. fielded and used over the course of the battle. So, you know, if you if this this makes it easier to jump into and and you know, easier to get more stuff onto the table, which is very satisfying. So, again, if you're a fan of war games, then you might want to check out Company of Heroes second edition.

18:22 Colliapy Games is releasing surro 20th anniversary edition. Uh this plays two to eight players in 15 to 20 minutes and it is a lightweight strategy game. One of the reasons I have liked Suro in the past is there aren't that many strategy games that play quickly that still play a high high player count. And this is one of those ones where it's like you could play this with six, seven, eight people, no problem. Uh, and it still plays pretty quickly and it's easy to teach to anybody. This is a very welcoming strategy game. In surro, you are putting down tiles onto the board and then moving your stones along the path. And you basically have to move along the path until it ends. And what you are trying to do is keep your stone on the board as long as possible. Other people are going to be putting down tiles and moving. you know, it will force your stone to sort of move to the end of the path. And if that path leaves the the board, then you're essentially out for the round. But every round is, you know, 20 minutes at most. And so if you're out, you can come back in, you can play it again easily. So this uh being the 20th anniversary version of the game is just a really sort of blinged out, fancy, beautiful copy of Zuro. Uh there are a number of things that they did. Uh there are uh gold lines, you know, like shimmery gold

19:53 lines. There's uh faux jade tiles with glimmering spot UV paths. There's uh eight colorful dragon stone pawns in marble translucent patterns. There's a silky dragon stone bag to hold all of your pawns. So, it's the exact same, you know, gameplay, the same mechanisms, but just kind of a very fancy deluxish version of the game that looks really pretty on the table to celebrate 20 years. So, you know, congratulations, Suro. That's that's a long time to still be a game that people talk about and people play regularly. That's pretty good. Oh, and one thing I wanted to mention is that uh I, you know, when I talk about games in this video, sometimes they're coming to friendly local game stores, sometimes they're through publisher websites, sometimes it's both, you know, sometimes it's it's uh either one of those. So, the 20th anniversary edition is available through Colliopy's website right now. It will be coming to Friendly Local Game Store soon. Uh, but it might not be there, you know, in January. It might be there in your friendly local game store more like February or March. But if you're itching for it, it is available through Collia's website right now.

21:11 Capstone Games is releasing Arkrite Anniversary Edition. Um, this I don't know which anniversary this is because Arkrite came out in 2014. So this is like the, you know, 11 or 12 year anniversary. So hey, that's a fun thing to celebrate there. You know, it's like you're a pre-teen. You're a pre-teen now. Arkrite. Two to four players, plays in 120 to 240 minutes, and it is a heavyweight game. This is legitimately one of the heaviest weight strategy games out there. So, you know, if you if you want uh to jump into Arkrite, know that there's a lot of stuff going on and it's a long play time. It is an economic game uh that involves, you know, stock manipulation. It involves worker placement. It involves a lot of different mechanisms as most heavyweight games do. Um there's a lot of stuff in it. you are play playing playing taking on the roles of entrepreneurs in 18th century England building and managing factories. So you're taking uh the you you have multiple factories that you're managing and you're taking them into the industrial revolution. So this new anniversary edition, what does this one have? This is a standalone game. This is like not compatible with the original edition of Arkrite. So know that uh this uh anniversary edition has been streamlined and updated with a new rule

22:44 book and artwork. Uh it offers different play experiences through various modules including spinning mule and waterframe variants as well as an East India module. It also features a solo mode which allows a single player to compete against artificial opponents. So, if you've been wanting to play Arkrite uh solo, uh this now it's it took it from a two to four player game to a one to four player game. So, you have the opportunity to check it out uh even if you don't want to like try to teach it to other people. You know, it's a it's a long hard game to teach and maybe you don't want to do that. Maybe you just want to play it by yourself. All right, Cosmos is releasing Exit uh the game the circus mystery. plays one to four players in 45 to 90 minutes and it is a mediumweight game. Uh exit the games are similar to unlock that I talked about earlier where they are detective style mystery solving games.

23:51 You're going to be doing a bunch of puzzles trying to advance the story trying to figure things out. One of the differences between the exit games though is you often do destroy some stuff in the game. Like you might cut things, you might rip things, uh but that kind of adds some fun layers to the challenge of the game. And all of the Exit games are fairly small box games. And uh you know it again it's it's a series so they're all sort of mechanically similar though they each have different themes and storylines and you know unique puzzles. This one is about a circus. The circus is in town and performers and artists can't wait to show the audience their stunts and tricks. But something seems to be a miss under the big top as a series of high-profile burglaries have occurred in each of the cities where the circus performed. Ooh, that sounds like it could be an inside job. It's happening at every city. I want to know who did this. So yeah, if you like uh escape room style games, then check out Exit the Circus Mystery. And Cosmos is also releasing Exit Kids: The Great Bescape.

25:05 Uh, this plays one to four players in 20 minutes. And it is a lightweight game. This is a game, you know, it's essentially taking the exit system and making it appropriate for kids ages five and up, both thematically and, you know, the puzzles are obviously a bit easier to solve. So, you get to lend a bee, a helping hand to help her fly home. this bee got lost and she is uh you know she she got carried too far away by the wind and you have to help get her home. So that's a fun cooperative theme about trying to get this bee back. And uh you know it's an exit game that makes it appropriate for the whole family, all ages. So that's what I got for you. Those are 13 new editions of board games coming to retail in January. Uh as always, thanks so much for being here. I hope you're excited for some of that stuff. Um, I have been working hard in January. I'm always reaching out to a lot of publishers and trying to basically update my spreadsheets where I keep all of this information and I've gotten I've got a good picture of 2026 already. There's going to be a lot of great games coming out this year that I'm excited about and I think you will be too. So, uh, stay tuned. I will be back with a, uh, more of these retail videos uh, in February. Oh, the other thing I'm going to start doing is, you know, every year I do these uh top games of the year in various different categories, but people have been

26:36 requesting sort of my top games of all time in various different categories. I've never done any videos on my top games of all time. I just do them yearbyear. So, I'm going to start that series. The first video of that is going to come out in February. So, I'm going to do some category videos of my top games of all time. So, yeah, stay tuned for that as well. Thanks so much everybody. I'm Grant with Grant's Game Rex.