Most people know the board game classics even if they do not play games regularly. Games like Monopoly, Scrabble, and Jenga, have remained popular for decades and they can be bought almost anywhere games are sold. Some of the classics still appeal to modern gamers, whereas others tend to get poorly reviewed by hobbyists these days.
Gamers that are in the board gaming hobby tend to feel that the classics have been improved, outdone, or outright replaced by other games in similar styles. Many modern games use classics as their basis but end up changing some of the ideas to better suit the gaming tastes of today.
10 From Shut The Box To Space Base
The classic Shut The Box is a very simple game where players have numbers they are attempting to roll. Each turn, a player rolls two dice and decides to either add them together or use them separately. The modern game Space Base uses this same mechanism where players decide to either add the dice together for one number or use them separately for two numbers. The difference is that players are making a space station that gives resources and points when certain numbers are rolled.
9 From Poker To Western Legends
Almost everyone has heard of the classic card game Poker. The most famous, and most commonly played, version of the game is Texas Hold 'Em where players use two cards and the cards on the table to make the best five-card hand.
In the modern game Western Legends players take on the role of cowboys and cowgirls in a sandbox game where they can be the best marshals or the worst outlaws. The game centers around a standard Poker deck, which can be used to play Poker but the cards also have secondary uses that can give players the edge.
8 From Solitaire To Lost Cities
Most players experience the game Solitaire on their computers these days. It is a classic game of stacking cards in a consecutive line to win. Lost Cities is a modern game that plays on this idea by giving players the task of playing cards in a line from lowest to highest. The catch is that the players share a deck and once a card is played, it can't be picked back up. This leads players to hoard cards in their hands in hopes that they will draw the specific card they need to win the game.
7 From Sorry To Camel Up
Sorry is one of the most well-known games of all time. In the game, players try to get their pawns to the end by drawing random cards and, generally, hoping for the best. The game relies a lot on the luck of the card drawn and the number the card has on it. Camel Up is a modern game that also has a heavy emphasis on luck, but instead of players having pawns they control it features camels racing around the board and players can choose to bet on any of them that they wish.
6 From Yahtzee To King Of Tokyo
Yahtzee introduced players to a new type of dice game, allowing them to roll and re-roll dice three times before accepting the result. This classic game outsells pretty much every board game in existence, and it would be a challenge to find a family home without a copy of Yahtzee.
King of Tokyo takes this idea of rolling and re-rolling and adds giant kaiju monster battles, powerful cards, and entirely custom dice. Two to six players duke it out for the control of Tokyo in this game that feels larger-than-life.
5 From Jenga To Menara
Jenga is responsible for popularizing the genre of dexterity games, a genre in which players manipulate objects by stacking, balancing, or flicking to win the game, rather than strategizing. Menara is a modern game that takes everything great about Jenga but puts it in a cooperative package where the game will likely never be played the same way twice. Instead of blocks that are all the same shape, Menara features a ton of unique tiles and poles that come together to create some very organic and interesting structures.
4 From Monopoly To Machi Koro 2
Everybody knows Monopoly. It is, without a doubt, the most popular board game of the last hundred years. Many games today can trace their roots back to Monopoly. Machi Koro 2 is a modern game that has a lot to thank Monopoly for. The game does not have a board to move around or properties to land on, but the idea of owning properties and getting money on other players' turns remains intact. Machi Koro 2 offers the same feeling as a classic, but many gamers believe it has improved on the ideas of the past.
3 From Rummy To Ticket To Ride
Rummy is a classic card game where players collect sets of certain cards to eventually play them for points. The game has inspired many modern games but the most popular is a game called Ticket To Ride. Ticket To Ride lets players collect cards of different colors and play them to place their trains on the board, build routes, and earn points. Ticket To Ride is considered by many to be one of the most inviting board games today as it is easy to play, but difficult to master.
2 From Dominoes To Kingdomino
Dominoes are rectangular tiles that have two sides to them, usually depicting a number of pips on each side. Many different games are played with dominoes but generally, when two dominoes are connected, the sides touching must be the same.
The modern game, Kingdomino, implements this same concept by having unique dominoes in the game. Instead of pips on each side, the dominoes in Kingdomino have different land types that must be connected. Players use these dominoes to create the best kingdom possible and earn the most points.
1 From Chess To Onitama
Chess is one of the oldest games that is still being played today. The human race has been playing some version of Chess for over 1,400 years. Onitama is a modern game that is not quite as old, released in 2014. It is a head-to-head match where each player has 5 pieces. The pieces in Onitama do not move a certain way, like in chess. Instead, it uses cards that show how the pieces can move. When a player uses a card, it goes to their opponent, leading to tense turns and a very strategic experience.