In the world of board games when a game ‘kills’ another game it really just means that it replaced it for someone. No games are hurt in this process… bear in mind that the comments here are just my opinions, the games that are ‘replaced’ with others are still great games and worth exploring…
Cosmic Encounter killed Munchkin
Munchkin, it’s vicious. If you haven’t played before then it’s a great game where you are all adventurers and are exploring a dungeon, fighting and leveling, trying to be the first to get to level 10. If you do, you win. The thing is that as soon as you get close, all the other players will do whatever they can to knock you back down and make things hard for you. So what we have here is what is termed a ‘Bash the Leader’ game.
After my first game of Cosmic Encounter, I never went back to Munchkin.
In Cosmic Encounter you are trying to occupy enemy planets, get to a certain level and you win. You can see the similarity here. The main difference is that Cosmic Encounter is broken, but not in a bad way. Every player has a unique ability that changes the rules for them, sometimes it’s combat oriented, other times something a bit weirder.
On your go you get a random planet to attack and then you ask for assistance from the other players… if they assist and you win then they get to occupy the planet with you. You can always side with the defender though and get rewards… Now there is bluffing and deception involved, you can even forego combat and negotiate a truce too. All in all a deeper, more satisfying game… and most importantly, just as evil.
Star Realms killed Dominion
Dominion, first of its kind. The Granddaddy of Deck Builders. I had a long innings with this game and loved it so, I thought no game could ever surpass it, but the inevitable happened.
Anyway, before I get to that… Dominion lets you draw cards from your own deck to take actions and buy more cards to add into your deck to make it more powerful. At the end, if you have the most points in your deck, you win. You can buy points cards and there are ten other cards that do cool stuff that are randomly chosen out of well, these days there are quintillions of cards. (Maybe not that many, but you get the idea..)
So, how to beat this behemoth of gaming? How about making it set in space, and making it combative and adding factions that power up when matching? Also a whole deck of cards you can buy with a small selection available at any point? Yeah, if a Magic The Gathering World Champion designed it, that wouldn’t hurt either. In steps Star Realms.
Wise Wizard Games nailed it with this game, the base game is awesome, there are mini packs that add lots of new cards and there are a series of other core games that can be used instead of the base game. They have made a fantasy version called Hero Realms and are also releasing a junior version called Star Realms Academy that looks so cute and just makes everything simpler to understand. Head to Head or free for all fighting never felt so good… deck building genius.
Dixit killed Cards against Humanity
Cards against Humanity or (CaH as we shall refer to it)… love it or hate it, it’s part of the tabletop scene and probably will be for a long time. Yes, it can be a bit over the top and rude, but, it makes people laugh and gasp and any game that can elicit an emotional response of any kind, by design, is doing something right.
I don’t know about you but I got fed up with it quite quickly. That’s when I looked for something that still made me consider how someone else is going to respond but gave more control to the players.
At its core CaH is putting you in somebody else’s shoes. What will horrify or make the judge laugh so much that I will be awarded the point?
Dixit doubles down on this. With beauty and serenity, Dixit destroyed CaH. Now it’s a battle of wits every round. A picture card is secretly chosen, a phrase is spoken, perhaps ‘Mystery’. Now I look at my picture cards and find one that evokes this turn of phrase from my hand, just as everybody else does. We shuffle and all is revealed, which is the storyteller’s card? If anyone votes for mine, I get points. There’s more but it’s that simple. Now we can consider somebody else’s thought processes without having to resort to shock tactics.
Everdell killed Monopoly
This decimation is not mine but one I instigated. *MuaHaHaHa!*
Monopoly, love it, hate it, it’s here to stay.
A group of guests would come in regularly and play Monopoly, we would chat and one day they asked to try something new. They mentioned a cute looking box on a shelf and so I got it down and gave them a lesson in Everdell. They took to it really well, I came back a few times through the evening and assisted them with some rules queries. They thanked me as they left.
Next time they came in they went straight to Everdell and never even gave Monopoly a second look. The death knell had been sounded, RIP Mr. Monopoly.
A series of Forbidden deaths.
I loved Forbidden Island and when a sequel was announced I was trepidatious, surely they could not equal the majesty of this great cooperative game? I was wrong, I rarely played Forbidden Island again after Forbidden Desert hit the table.
Then I heard about Forbidden Sky and dared to hope. Alas, not the game I was hoping for and Forbidden Desert stayed my favourite ‘Dessert’ (if you will). When Forbidden Jungle was announced I scoffed and thought the shark had been jumped… but this time the great designer Matt Leacock had taken all I loved from Island and Desert and spun a web around them with some great twists and now Forbidden Jungle is the only one I play. So Sky was the tricky third album in my eyes but from missteps great lessons are clearly learnt, where next for the series? Forbidden Ocean perhaps? I await with bated breath.
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Bear in mind, games come and go, we all have a journey to go on, when one game is surpassed, don’t forget it, look back on it fondly… think of the times it gave you joy and maybe pass it on to someone else to enjoy as much as you first did? Spread the joy of the hobby. All is a mater of taste, don’t hate me for my opinions!