Matthew’s Top 50 Board Games of All Time (50–41)

0:00 Hey Jude, you made [singing] a list. Start with the bad ones. The games [singing] get better. Remember [singing] to let us into your heart. Dub 50 of [singing] all time. The games get better. Anytime [singing] a game is bad, Matthew, don't be sad. Your friend Dave is here to drop his feet.

0:45 For well, you know it is your list. So, Jude, insist. Sometimes great games are a little bit older.

1:08 Hi everyone, welcome to Loser Palooa. Uh today we are taking a look at the top 50 well the beginning of the top 50 games of all times of of Matthew friend of the channel. I I this this the definitive top 50 list of all time. I would say it's what the people wanted. They wanted that they that guy. You know that guy.

1:29 You know him with the hat. That what what's what games did he what does he like?

1:33 Who even is he? Well, now we're going to find out in a series of videos. One of my top 50 games of all time.

1:41 So, do you think this is called the the 2026 list or is this forever?

1:46 Oh god. This is the when this is the as I was making this list this time right now list. Has it already changed? No, not dramatically. But you know, who knows? I've got this game. Uh I got this this called Cultivo, right?

2:07 Yes. Still in shrink. Yeah.

2:08 Is this Is this going to be in the top 50? Is this the top 50 game? It looks fantastic.

2:13 Probably not.

2:14 I think it looks really exciting and great and fun. Who knows? I've not played it.

2:18 I don't I don't like the title, but Well,

2:23 but you know what I mean.

2:24 I've not played it. There's a couple games on my shelves. A couple. It's slightly more than a couple. I have numerous games I own, not played. Could be top. I mean, who knows? But so far, I've got my list. I'm pretty happy with it. Some things are there because they're the greatest games of all time. Some things are there because that's where they go. And I don't care if I even if I never played it again, it's still going to be there. You know what I mean?

2:51 It also sounds like you're cleaning up your games. Like where am I gonna put this? Well, I might as well put it on my top 50.

2:57 I just It's got to go somewhere. I might as well Oh, and one thing I'll mention to you, Dave, more so than you and your list. I have grouped quite a few, not quite a few, but there are fair few things into a series of games rather than, you know, but I'll show that as it comes up and I'll talk about that in a slightly more depth. But I'm I'm ready to get going for it with some honorable mentions if you're happy to have me and

3:22 Sure. I'm I'm very happy to have you. Uh, honorable honorable mentions. Sure. I'll I'll take them. How

3:28 you'll allow you'll allow it?

3:30 I'll allow it. Yeah.

3:31 All right. [snorts] My honorable mentions go to a series of games by the good doctor Ryan Kenitzia and they are called My Island, My City, and My City Rolling Build.

3:42 There we go.

3:44 And

3:45 so you you're going to group them together? Really?

3:47 Well, all three. Well, do you know what? Yes, actually. And I think that's fair. I've loved those games and I' I've played through my island about three times. I played through my city, no my city three times, my island once and my uh my city roll a few times. Fantastic experiences, but they're not in my top 50 because they are they're gone. They're done. You know what I mean? So, I know that you had some of them in your list, but for me, they're just gone and done. They're done now.

4:17 I I understand. I do think there's a big difference between the the cash grab that ended up from a good idea of my island. I strongly disagree. I like my island better than my city.

4:30 It was like, "Oh, we have a good idea. We do my city and then we'll start off with hex's." And everyone's like, "Oh, this is going to be amazing." And then after

4:38 much better. Then after three envelopes like nine games in, they were like, "Now what? And now let's let's add area majority in it."

4:53 I think the journey was more fun. But yeah, but anyway, so they're my honorable mentions. And I think we're gonna go into my Let's get right into the the number 50, right?

5:01 Yeah. Number 50.

5:02 My My number 50 game is a game that was on your list. Where? You'll have to watch to find out. Uh Colorado.

5:10 Oh, I I want to say that I was the reason it was on your list.

5:14 You introduced me to this game. That's certainly true. I remember we played it in uh in at uh Aircon in uh Phil and Lisa's house, and it was great. Colorto is just such a great little card game that is so pure and so streamlined and so simple. All you do is either take the cards from one of the rows or add a card to one of the rows. It's so smart and fantastically fun and tense. And the joy of it is that the cards that you take, you want to collect points from, but you only collect points for the cards in three suits. And all the other cards are negative. And it's like, do I take these two greens to up my green thing and or do I leave these for Dave because Dave's not going to get any he's going to get negative points.

6:08 It's so tense and fun and wonderful. I love it. It's great. It's a great game. Uh, this game is um has a point system that says if you have one card, you'll get one point. If you have two cards and then it multiplies, right? Uh,

6:23 and I think I think that's the case. So, it it gets exponentially better. It tops off at six. So, uh, six cards of one color will give you, um, yeah, the the the most points, but I do find that system lacking because if someone gets their sixth card, they get so many more points than someone else having four and four, if that makes sense.

6:48 Yeah, you do need to you do need to try to get one of six if you can. That's definitely true. But I think for what it is though, for a quick little card game that takes 10 minutes to play, it's fun. I really think it's fun and I love what it does. And obviously there's Zulerto and all those type of games that are bigger games that have a similar system. And I love Zulto. That

7:10 Zulto was created from the on the backbone of of Colorado.

7:15 Like it's just I I love Zulto and I love uh Yeah, I love Zulto. So yeah, it's great. And there's another game with that system coming up later on in my top list. But where? Who knows? It's time for my number 49. Are you ready for it?

7:29 Bring it.

7:30 Game you haven't played called At the Gates of Loy Yang.

7:35 Oh yeah, maybe I've played this. So, At the Gates of Loyang is a Uve Rosenberg farming and trading game that it's one of these big box games that no one talks about and no one seems it's like oh a Gria. Yeah, this game Nus Fuel even those types of games. Yeah, at the gates of Lo Yang just just forgotten about. It's the best one. It's got this really cool system of you've got these fields which are cards and you're trying to fill up the cards so that they you put one pumpkin in and it's going to grow a whole field of pumpkins and you know you're going to have pumpkins enough for four rounds and you want to get some casual customers who you can just kind of give to the things that they want whenever. But you've got loyal customers and they need something every round. They need they need a radish, a pumpkin and a something else every round. And if they don't, they get angry at you. And it's so it's such it's so puzz. It's not I think the reason it's not as popular as the other ones is because in scope it really is a much narrower game. It's grow vegetables and feed your customers. That's kind of the whole game. But there's like action cards and you have to draft your cards to get all your you draft all your fields and your there's loads of uh different people like who can give you special powers and all this type of stuff. It's quite a narrow game, but it's so good. I love it. And I think I've got some nostalgia for it, though, because me and my brother played this.

9:04 It's like one of the very first big board games I ever played. And I just me and my brother were just like, "What the hell is happening? What is this? This is a board game. It's great." And I still love it. We played it. I played it recently and I was I thought, "Is this really that good?" And I played it recently and we both went, "Man, this is great. It's so good. It's a wonderful game."

9:23 48 games are better than that. So, let's let's

9:25 48 games are better, but it's still good.

9:27 At least 48. Is is the game very thematic? So, are you selling goods outside the gates of some cast?

9:35 Yeah. Well, it's all set in China and or you're grow you're a farmer and you're bringing all your things to market and there customers. It's as thematic as it can be. It's not like you don't feel like you're in ancient China, but I think it does a good job. I like the artwork. It's uh simple in its Clement France kind of way, but it's a I know it's just a really great

9:59 selling radishes does not sound Chinese to me.

10:03 They might not be radishes. They just look like radishes to me. I can't remember what they are. It doesn't matter. They're the red ones. You know, that's how thematic they are.

10:12 Okay. Wow. Um yeah, I'm I'm I guess I need to play it. I would be interested to get your opinion from it. Uh I love it. So all right, next is going to be at 48 is Cities, which is uh

10:31 a gamewalker Harding.

10:33 Mhm.

10:34 And um

10:36 Oh, what's the name of the guy the other the co-designer and he's really nice guy and I've met him and I just he's just escaping.

10:45 Nope, it's not Matthew Dunson. It's the guy who designed Biblios, but I can't remember what his name is off the top of my head, but that's fine. Uh, yeah. So, Cities is a fantastic It's so light. It's such a It's such a gateway game, right? It really is

11:02 light, fast, family way kind of game.

11:04 Yes.

11:05 And it's just great. You've got the because the cool crux here is that tenseness of the decision you're going to make.

11:11 There's four things you can bid for each t when it's your turn. You can only bid for them once in a round. So you can get a new tile once, you can get a new power once, you can get some buildings once.

11:25 You're not bidding, but you're drafting them, right? You can just grab

11:28 I mean bidding as in Yeah, drafting. I suppose I'm Yeah, bidding it. It feels like bidding because you're you you're using the currency of what you go for first is your currency. But yeah, it's drafting.

11:40 And I see how I manipulated that. So you want all of them though. Most of the time you want at least two or three of them. Sometimes you're like, "Oh, I don't actually mind which tile I get or I don't mind what." But normally you definitely want some multiple things.

11:55 Yeah. You need to prioritize. Yeah. [clears throat]

11:57 Yeah. You've got to prioritize and you go, "Okay, I don't care what comes up. I have to get those houses because that's going to get me bunches of points." because you score points in some generic ways, but you also score points based on the city and all the cities are different. And it's just the way it's like have these types of buildings across the water from each other or have the biggest greenery or have the most um like have a city that goes one side. Just very small things really,

12:27 but it's so tense and it's just that how tense it is is just so wonderful. I think it's

12:32 just a great gateway game. I just love it. It's fast.

12:36 And

12:38 I've heard that The Cities USA isn't as isn't as good, but I've not played it. So,

12:44 there we go.

12:46 What kind of history do those cities have? I mean,

12:50 exactly. Oh, I sliced you play. Let's do Vienna. And you saw this and it's like, let's do Detroit. Let's not let's not do Detroit.

13:00 Yeah.

13:01 All right. That's it. Is you love cities. That was on your list as well. So, so far two of the games

13:06 two of the games were also on your top 50.

13:09 Yeah.

13:10 Not bad. Not bad so far. Next one wasn't. It's called Big Shot.

13:17 You heard of Big Shot?

13:19 Is that No, I just played a a game new to me called Big Deal, which actually has a subtitle called Cover Your asses. Assets.

13:28 Oh, Cover Your ass.

13:29 Sounds like that. Yeah.

13:30 Is that the Grandpa Beck's card game? Cover Your assets. Yes, it is. It is.

13:33 I like that game. That's a fun little game.

13:35 It was brutal, but that's not your game. Big

13:39 Yeah. No, I'll be honest. This game is also brutal. So, Big Shot is um such a It's a It's kind of an old game and they've they've remade it a bunch of times. There's a Korean version at the moment, which is quite nice. My version is based in Australia. What you're doing here is there's I want to say 18 rounds over the course of the game and a dieice gets rolled and that's just to denote randomly which grouping of four cubes is going to be up for grabs this round. And then everyone bids on those cubes. Those cubes are the player colors. So if there's three players, there's going to be three colors of cubes going on.

14:26 Whoever wins the auction loses money and money is not it's it's once it's gone, it's gone. You get those four cubes and then you get to so I might have won two of your cubes, one of my cube and one of Ilka's cube and I got them and I now get to place them anywhere I want on the board. The board is a is a bunch of different uh locations that are worth points. And I want the majority to win one of the locations to get the points to say this area is worth 22 points. This area is worth 18 points. This area is worth nine points, but next to it is a times two area which is going to double the amount of points that those are going to be worth.

15:11 This is so it's such a great auction and area majority game. If you have the majority, there's seven cubes closes the bid like closes an area. So if you have the majority with four cubes, you can't be beaten. So say I've got the majority in a little in an area that's worth 20 points because I've got four of my cubes in there. And then you win a bid and you get three of my cubes and one of your cubes.

15:41 I can just

15:43 you put them into my area that I'm already winning just to completely waste them.

15:48 And the genius here is ties are neutralized. So if I've got three cubes somewhere and I got three, then Ila will win it with one.

16:00 Yeah. So, what you want to do is just go, "Okay, I've got three cubes here." And you and then Ilka wins a beard. She's got three of your cubes and one of mine. She puts three of hers into mine. She neutralizes all six of our cubes and wins it with one. It's so good. It's such a pure and streamlined game. And it's all about you get you win the bid, you've got four cubes, and you you look at the board and you go, "Right, how can I screw everyone over the most right now?"

16:29 It's interesting. You know what? I have not played this game, but I am getting the vibe of Imoteep, a game you hated.

16:37 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

16:38 It's exactly this. You you you you prepare your your your boat with the stuff that you want and someone else puts it in an area that you did not want to go to.

16:48 Well, this game,

16:50 but [snorts] that's the point. The point of this game is to screw everyone over. And I went into Immoteep thinking the point of the game was to build things, and it's not. It's not the point of the game. point of this game is to just it's just but yeah, I think you'd like a big shot. I think it'd be a really good um I think as long as you're playing with people who know upfront, you have to kind of declare and say, "Hey,

17:13 this game is the point of this game is it's super brutal and mean,

17:17 but it's quick and it's light and it's fast and it lasts a maximum of 18 rounds."

17:22 And yeah, it's just great. I love it.

17:25 Yeah.

17:25 All right, Big Shot is fantastic. Next up, a game I think you like called Rivals for Katan.

17:36 The two-player version.

17:38 The two-player version of Katan.

17:40 Rivals for Katan.

17:42 I own everything there is for this game in the English language. The Rivals for Katan base game. I own like the Age of Darkness and the Age of Inspiration or whatever it's called, the two expansions. and it's so okay. So, what's happening here is it's a two-player version of Katana. That's a card base. There's no board. And you're trying to get points by building cities by building like a town, then building a city, and you want roads and stuff. And you kind of get points in a very similar way to how Katan gets points, but there's loads of like action cards and powers and people and stuff and lots of things to go for. And the cool thing here is that in the base game there's three modular expansion decks to add in and you can almost play through a story of katan, right? And then the expansions add new they just it's like a deck builder almost. It's like okay let's play with these cards this time and next time we'll play with these cards and we'll and have a different experience. And the resources are done. They're like little square cards. So, you're kind of like spinning the cards to know how many how much

18:49 make your knights stronger.

18:51 Yeah.

18:51 Yeah. And it's just a great back and forth two-player card game. And it's still it's a race to 10 points, so it's it's over fairly quick. Takes a lot of table space because you got

19:02 Yeah. Because you're Yeah. You're making your your own uh I'm very familiar with Rivals of Katan and and we used to have everything for it. I think I want to say twice as twice over. I remember having a tin box that hel that held everything and then you had the little um windmill and something another token.

19:27 Yeah, that's from the deluxe version. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. With a nicer dice.

19:30 Of course we delux deluxify the card game.

19:33 It's just such a good two-player card game. Don't get me wrong. The one thing I will say about The Rivals of Katan, it is more complicated to learn and play than Katan with expansions.

19:43 Yeah,

19:43 I think it's a it's a more complex game than base game Katan.

19:47 Even if you played with like we're going to play Katan and Cities and Knights, I could teach someone Katan with Cities and Knights expansion.

19:54 Yeah. Faster than I could teach them how Rivals of Katan works because Rivals of Katan is like

20:00 just a bit funky. It's a bit weird in parts and you go, how does this work? And the decks take a bit of working out how all this time. But yeah, I I love it. I think it's fantastic. It's for me as a game investment.

20:12 Yeah, it's fun to see this on your list. I

20:16 I would not have thought you would have done that. We recently played Katan on the road together.

20:22 Yeah.

20:23 Which is just a card game that you actually play with four people. That had its own problems.

20:29 Well, at least the way we were playing it. But um yeah, it's fun to see Katan on your list. I'll allow it.

20:36 Well, thank you very much. Yeah, cuz on the road is fun. And I think as far as a like a a true family game to play with kids, I mean then yeah, it works. But uh build as many things as you can on your turn. Don't play with this weird rule of you can only build one thing because then the game just lasts.

20:52 Yeah, that made no sense. seven extra rounds and you just think Dave could have won

20:57 ages ago because he just had to I do like Katan on the Road though. I'd be interested to see where that game goes if they do expansions.

21:05 Not did you not get a copy for a family member that you give?

21:09 Yeah. No, I bought I bought it as soon as it I saw it was existed and I was like I'm getting this game. So I got a copy and I'm going to play it with my niece because she

21:17 Oh yeah, it was your niece but it had not happened you know. No, not yet. But like playing it with seven, eight, nine, 10 year olds, if you got family members and stuff, this is a because I'm like, she's played Monopoly Deal. It's it's it's the Monopoly Deal of Katan. That's what it is. It's Monopoly Deal. Monopoly Deal is better.

21:34 I just got a copy of Monopoly Deal.

21:37 Interesting. It's called No Mercy. Have you heard of that?

21:40 Yeah, that's one. No Monopoly Deal. No Mercy. Although is isn't No Mercy an Uno version?

21:46 Uh here.

21:49 Showman No mercy.

21:52 That would be great. Yeah, I just recently bought a copy of uh Monopoly Deal because it's Monopoly Deal K-pop Demon Hunters because again, seven-year-old Nick.

22:05 I'll be tell you what, I'll be probably singing that song tomorrow at some point because I'm doing some child care. All right, next up at number 45, Dave, I think this was on your list. I can't remember if it was. It may have been. Don't mess with Cthulhu.

22:22 Yes.

22:24 Yes.

22:24 It's the best social deduction game other than it

22:29 small box.

22:29 I'll rephrase that.

22:31 One of the best small box social deduction games. The reason I love Don't mess with Cthulhu is because

22:37 very very quickly everyone's got some cards in front of them. Some of them have omens on, some of them don't. You're trying to find the omens and that type of stuff. Some people want to find them, some people don't want to find them. The best thing about this game is it gets to the accusations and crime of the game and the anger immediately because Dave says, "Okay, I'm a good guy." Dave's thinking, "Okay, I'm a good guy and I've got three omen. I've got two omens. I'm a good guy and I've got two omens. Brilliant. I'm going to declare I've got two omens." And then Matthew, he might find the omens. And I go to Dave and I say, "Flip this card." No omen. You flip. I'm like, "Dave, you said you had two." And you did have two.

23:17 I do. just be on you picked

23:20 absolutely not. You are now a baddie and I hate you and he just gets to that fun part straight away. I think is why it's so good.

23:29 So don't mess with Cthulhu has uh the good guys they need to find those omens. The bad guys, they want to have Cthulhu revealed. Cthulhu is one card that needs to be revealed.

23:41 That's true. Yes.

23:42 There's only one card that that's the bad card, right? And I feel that that if you say nothing the whole time, you pretended to be a good guy and you have that card and it it just get gets picked, the game's over. There's there's no, "Oh, now I know and now the next card is going to be extra interesting."

24:05 So I I do like the other version better, which is called Temple Deskens in German. Yeah. Uh which is that game, but it has two fire that you need to reveal. So after one fire you at least know one person is evil.

24:20 So

24:20 yeah that's a by Schmidz that is Temple of Secrets. It's just don't mess with Cthulhu time bomb we mentioned before in Dave's list which is also don't mess with Cthulhu. There's a lot of versions but yeah Temple Drekens or Time Temple of Secrets. That's be interesting. I'll be interested to get that one. But I mean there's the Necronomicon. There's a couple expansions in the deluxe edition that do make things better. I think there's roles that you can have and all this type of stuff.

24:46 Yeah.

24:46 But it's great. It's a great game. It's such a good

24:49 Yeah.

24:50 game to just if you want to just play and shout at your friends and be angry at people, it's a wonderful game for that.

24:55 Also with with people you've uh you have no bond with. You you quickly bond over this game

25:02 because you don't know these people, but immediately you you you start having fun with lying to them and oh no, you did not. And and yeah, it's

25:10 and this is one of those games as well where if you lied in the first the first time you play,

25:20 I'm not going to believe anything you say the next time you play. And though it it really carries over. It shouldn't, but it does carry over and it's Yeah, it's it's great for that.

25:29 [snorts]

25:29 All right. Number 44 on my list, Dave, is another game that I don't believe you've played and it's called Ohanami. Have you heard of this game?

25:43 I know.

25:44 So Ohanami.

25:45 No. So Ohanami is a It's a two to four player. It's by uh NSV, right? So it's like And Pandasaurus did it as well. So it's a little card game.

25:56 It's another little card game. It's super simple. It's a drafting game. You've got 10 cards. You draft two of them and then you pass around and you take two and you're drafting. And you're trying to build runs of cards. You've got blue cards, green cards, gray cards, and pink cards. In the first round, the blue cards are going to be worth three points, and nothing else will score. In the second round, the blue cards are going to be worth three points, and the green cards that you've got out will be worth three points. four points. In the third round, the blue cards, the green cards, and then the uh the gray cards would be worth seven points. So, you're like, do I put out gray cards to have a huge amount of points in the third round and the fourth round, or do I put out loads of blue cards to score them over and over again? And then the pink cards are set collection. You want as many at the end of the game. The twist here is I think the reason I think you'll like this game is because the way you put your cards out is you're building three rows. So you go, "Oh, cool. I've got the 26 and the 27. Those are the two cards I'll draft. They'll go into one of my rows." And now I can put cards higher than 27 above it and cards lower below it. And you've got three chances to make these big runs of cards. But if you grab a card, you think, "Oh, great. I've got there's the best thing I can do here is an 18 and a 50. You go, well, I do want those. So, you put 18 and a 50 out. You

27:27 can't put any cards in between those cards. Now, that's kind of how it works.

27:32 And you have up and down. So, you've got that and your scoring cards. And it's just quick drafting. It's very Japanese garden themed. But, I think it's just a fantastic little card game. It's just quick and you score a lot of points, you know? It's like, "Cool. I got 56 points in in blue this this round and stuff." And then you go, "I'm not going to go for any pink cards." So you've got I'm going into the last round with 180 points and John over there has got no points. Yeah, but John's got 20 pink cards. He's going to score like 200 points at the end this round. So it kind of has a bit of a swing to it. I'm not saying it's got a load of depth or a load of strategies. It's put and there's luck. It's grab the best cards you can on your turn. And you don't The trick here as well is you don't have to play any cards.

28:21 You can just draft and discard. So you don't have to play

28:25 because you only have three. You can't

28:28 Yeah. You've got three columns.

28:30 It's not even if you can't play. You don't have to play. You don't You can just take two cards and then discard them.

28:36 Yeah. But if you discard a blue card, you think, well, do I discard this card because it's a crappy number for me, but it is going to be worth like 12 points over the course of the of the game. Is it worth it to take it? [snorts]

28:49 So, it's great a little card game. Oh, arami. I I highly recommend it. And uh it's just a really good little card game that I don't think gets enough uh well, who cares if it gets enough attention? It gets as much attention as it gets, you know. So, uh but I I like it a lot. There's lots of cards. I mean, I think you'd enjoy it, but I mean, does it do anything? It's very different to the game face to face, which was on your list, but it doesn't.

29:19 But pick one if if you like, you know what I mean? It kind of it just fills that slot, but I wouldn't say it's better or worse than slightly different, but it's not that different really. Just pick one. It's a quick card game that you can grow to enjoy.

29:32 Um, game face to face. Great game, Dave. You were right about that one, I'll tell you. All right, number 43 is yet another game I don't think you've played. The original version was called Heartland, and it got remade into Gunkimono. Have you played this one? Gunko.

29:49 Oh,

29:51 it doesn't really. Yeah, I talk about it a lot because it's got a fun name. Gunko. So, Gunkkimono is a domino placing area control kind of game and you're trying to get all these tracks. Essentially, on your turn, you've got some choices of what dominoes to make. But what you're trying to do is on this big grid, you're trying to make I want to make a big area of yellow and a big area of blue and I'm going to get I made a six area of yellow, I get six points. I made a five area of blue as well, I get five points. I get 11 points. And that's great. But if you do that, the person who goes after you is going to and they've got a yellow and a blue domino. Well, they can just go there right there as well. And they got seven and six points. So you want to make these big areas, but you don't want to set the other players up for doing stuff. So the way that you set So the way that you stop that from happening is instead of taking points by creating these big areas on the board, you take honor. And honor gets you to go up these different tracks.

30:56 And if you get all of your pieces in the five different colors to a certain level, you get a castle that you can then place on the board. So that now that is my area of yellow.

31:06 Yeah.

31:07 So I'm going to score that every round.

31:10 So after But

31:13 that doesn't mean no one can place on top of it. So as soon as someone does that, everyone's like, "We need to cut this area of yellow down to let's just cut it in half right now." So, it's kind of got that going on. If you get up these honor tracks as well, you get some bonus points. So, you can get points for doing that, some tiles and stuff. But, it's a fast just family weight mean little tile placement game. That used to be farming themed and now it's Japanese castle themed. I don't know if either of the themes are mindblowing, but Gonkimono just got really I appreciate it's not a groundbreaking game and it's not and it's and for me I'm like it's my it's on my list here, but I'm not going to tell everyone to run out and buy Gunkamono because it's going to be the best experience they've ever had. I love it, but it's not, you know what I mean? But it's like Yeah, you'll probably like it. I'm not going to It's not one.

32:05 This should be the game that you would recommend. This is the list that that breaks all other lists.

32:11 No.

32:11 And now you're saying no, don't play this one.

32:14 No, I don't I'm not saying don't play it. I'm not saying don't play it. I'm saying

32:21 I know that the types of games maybe I just don't have much confidence in my own opinion. the kind of games I tend to like.

32:29 I like light fast like

32:32 Yeah, I I know

32:34 Euro kind of games. Like there's not that many big like there's not that many massive games on this list.

32:40 But um I've got so many more honorable mentions. I'm just looking at like Downfall of Pompei, Isle of Sky, Turn of Taxis. They're all so good, but none of them are going to be coming up on this list and they're all fantastic.

32:50 Turn of taxes is something wrong with it, but Isle of Sky I agree. of Sky is of Sky is brilliant.

32:57 All right,

32:59 next up is a game. This is a series of games. This is our first my first contender in a series.

33:05 All right, so this is Scram, which is also

33:10 Cabo, which is also a new one called Scream. And there's al it's also the silver games.

33:16 Yes,

33:17 they're all roughly the same. I loved Cabo, the original Cabo, because that's which isn't a team game. and you can play two players really well. So, I own Cabo and I own Scram, which does the same type of thing, but it's a team game. And they're all based off an old game called golf anyway. It's just an old card game. Essentially, what you're trying to do,

33:36 it's it's a game that where you everyone's holding five cards and uh you you put them face down so you don't know what you're holding.

33:44 Uh you might start with two already flipped so everyone can see, oh, what that number. So, maybe you know it personally. It doesn't matter. you get a sneaky peek at a few things beforehand. They all they all work slightly differently, but yeah.

33:57 Yeah, exactly. But yeah, and then you uh want to get rid of these cards. So, you draw a card from the central pile and trade it in for one of the cards that you already have because you want to have as low numbers as possible. So, uh hey, now I've got a two and I know there's a nine here. You know what? I will put this two on the space of the nine and then I discard the nine. uh which allows the other player to pick up the nine if they want to. Now, the cool thing is that if you have multiples, then you can get rid of all of those. If you've got four four sixes, you technically could trade in. You you could gain a seven, but get rid of four sixes, which of course is is beneficial, but now you have a seven left. Um,

34:43 and all all of the different cards you can either in in lots of different versions, you can take the card for the value or you can take the card for the power of the card. And in Scram, for instance, if you take a card face down, the card never never if you take a card face down, it remains face down. If you take it face up, it remains face up.

35:02 And there's all that there's lots of manipulation. There's teamwork that happens in Scram. But it's great. I love Cabo. I love Scram. I think they're all fantastic. It's just a great What what makes Scram extra different is that you you are teaming up with someone across the table and if you know that they have sixes and I have sixes, then we can get rid of both of those sixes so I could help.

35:23 That's right.

35:24 So, um yeah,

35:26 but there there's a memory element to this game, right? There's it's a memory game in part. You got to remember what the card you have, which does put some people off like, oh, there's a memory aspect in this game. There is. And that's what's fun, though. It's like, okay, I'm going to get rid of this. and you go, "What this? What do you mean this is a one that I've just got rid of? Isn't this a 12?" No, that's a 12, you idiot. So, yeah, it's great.

35:48 All right,

35:48 good game. There's an app for it, by the way.

35:51 Yes. Yes, there is. The final game in this segment is Nations.

36:00 What a game.

36:01 That's a big game.

36:03 That's a big one, right? There's some big games on this.

36:06 It's a big old long game as well. So, Nations, it was on your list as as well, I think. Or was it night?

36:12 Nations, the dice game. Yeah.

36:14 Yeah.

36:15 I I do like Nations. I was really I was such a fan of this game. Um, you're building civilizations going through the ages. And as you are progressing, uh, you might want to get rid of things that you previously previously they were awesome, but now they're like, "Ooh, but I can only have one specific thing." So you

36:38 Yeah, you've got a certain amount of areas and you can cover up anything with anything else pretty much. Not I mean, there's your leader goes somewhere and your colonies go somewhere and your battles, but you can cover anything up and it's like great, I've actually completely painted myself into a corner now. I've got no wood production at all, but I get a bunch of coins, you know? So, you can kind of paint yourself into a corner

36:58 and it just the progression feels good, right? It's like, oh, I've got this now, and now I've got this armor, and now I've got these types of soldiers, and now I've got crossbows, and your military is getting better. And there's quite a lot going on. Like, you've got these advisers, which give you special powers. You trying to build wanders throughout the game, which might give you a bunch of different scoring opportunities, and for that, you got to get be the first to draft these architect cubes. And there's battles, but the battles aren't like the battles will win and lose you money. They're not like hugely and now all my dudes got killed and I'm starting again. You just need to reach a certain level on the on the little track when a battle happens. And the but the wanders are fun and you can have asymmetrical players like you can play all the same or you can like I'm Egypt and I have extra grain or I'm China and I have extra population. What you could also do, what I really admire in this game is that you can scale the player. Uh so like um there's this little track on the top where you can say I I'm very good at this game. I'm going to give myself a little disadvantage. Yeah. So

38:04 and and uh new players you might just Yeah, it's a it's a smart system.

38:09 Yeah, that's a smart little system and it really just controls the your income and that type of stuff really. [snorts] But yeah, it's great. It's kind of a long game. Kind of a big old The box is twice the size it needs to be if I'm honest. It's uh

38:22 Well, not for me. I had expansions in it and

38:26 yeah, Dynasties is the expansion I think for for nations.

38:30 But yeah, it's a great big old Civ game and it does just the the joy of it is just the progression. And uh the dice game is also fantastic. It really really is good as well. In fact, is the dice game more fun because it's a bit more dramatic? It's a bit more I you think so I suppose.

38:47 No, no, it's just I I put the dice game on my list because it is the one game that gives me the feeling of playing Nations.

38:59 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah,

39:00 but just in a shorter amount of time with people who actually enjoy playing Nations, the dice game, whereas Nations is just a such a big game and to teach everyone all the all the finesse, the fine things.

39:15 Yeah, I agree.

39:16 I've Yeah, but it does work two players, which is good. But yeah, I totally agree. It's

39:21 Yeah,

39:22 it's kind of it the nations itself now is a little bit old-fashioned just the way it all works. It's all a bit oldfashioned, isn't it? I think. Yeah, I guess. Yeah.

39:30 All right, that's my first installment.

39:33 This is fun.

39:35 Uh,

39:35 a few crossovers.

39:37 Definitely. But I also love to hear about those games that I don't know that we should definitely check out. And h reminding me how much I want to play Nations now.

39:48 Yeah, it's we've talked about it a bunch. So, yeah, it's a great one.

39:53 All right. So, but for the next installment, you'll have to wait just a little while. I'm about to film it right now. I'm going to change my shirt and through the, you know, that's what's going to happen.

40:02 No, it's going to be a totally different

40:04 day of the week and it's going to be not at all in the same light.

40:09 Yeah. So, we're going to Yeah. So, we'll see you for the next one where we go through the 10 games even better than this.

40:16 Thank you, Matthew. Uh, so that's it. U Matthew, if you agree with Matthew, then please let us know. If you do not agree, let us know in bold letters so we won't miss it because I think we all know Matthew's list is is going to make some wrong turns at some points and and we'll be here to criticize it.

40:36 I'm aware that my taste in games is art and that's fine. So, you know, oh man, Quirk is Quirkle's on my list. What a great game. Ah, there's so many good games.

40:48 Thank you so much. See you next time, Matthew. Bye, everyone.

40:50 Bye. Hey Jude, you made a list. Start [singing] with the bad ones. The games get better. Remember to let [singing] us into your heart. The 50 of all times. The games get better [singing] better. Wo n

41:33 I hate you. [singing] N [singing and music] I hate [singing] you. N [chanting] [singing]

42:00 I hate you. N [singing] I hate you. N [singing]

42:28 I hate you. [singing]

42:34 [chanting] [singing]

42:35 N hate you. [singing] Hate you. Hate you.

42:56 I hate you. [singing and music]