5. Scrabble - I know, this isn't a particularly exciting game for some people (my roommate flat out refuses to play it), but it's kind of sentimental to me. When my parents first got married, Scrabble was one of, if not the, first game they bought together. My dad being the sore loser that he is, tried to insist that "correctly" was spelled with a "k" instead of a "c". Of course my mom refused to allow that, and for their first Christmas together, she bought him a dictionary and inscribed on the front cover, "so that now we can both spell KORRECTLY". That was the dictionary I grew up using, so the game has always brought a smile to my face with the memory. Even still, I can almost be guaranteed to play a game or two with my mom every time I visit home, as my dad has long since given up attempting to beat her at the game.
the same version of Scrabble my parents' bought, from the 1970's
4. Clue - Miss Scarlet, with the wrench, in the billiards room! Another classic board game, I remember many rounds of Clue Jr. as a kid, with the secret spy magnifying glass, and then graduating to the original Clue as I got older. I even had the Clue Museum Caper version that I got for Christmas one year. I recently played the updated version of Clue, which now has bombs and a whole bunch of other crazy stuff. I think I'm still partial to the old-school version, though. And have I mentioned that they made a movie out of this game? It's amazing, probably one of my top 10 favourites. Hard to go wrong with a Tim Curry cult classic! If you haven't seen it, it's on Netflix...watch it immediately!
No wonder I was always Miss Scarlet! She was totally the coolest.
3. Pandemic - This is a fairly new discovery, but it's such a cool game. In Pandemic, you actually work as a team against the board to try and stop the world from ending. If you've seen the movie Contagion, it's basically the board game version of that. What I like about it, is that it's a completely different strategy than most other games since you can work with the other players towards a common goal. Either everyone wins or everyone loses, and let me tell you, it's not easy to win! We've been playing for several months, and we're still playing the "easy" version. It took MANY attempts to beat this thing for the first time, but it's just so much fun to try! I've never been more determined to stop the zombie apocalypse!
Hey look, Toronto made the board!
2. Munchkin - While not strictly a board game, it does have a board game version. Plus this game is just too awesome to not include. Munchkin is actually a card game where you become a character and use special weapons and spells and stuff to defeat monsters. Yes it is as geeky as it sounds. But come on, who wouldn't want to be a Level 12 Elf with the Boots of Butt-kicking, an Eleven Foot Pole and the Kneepads of Allure fighting a Level 20 Plutonium Dragon?! Just so freaking cool. I've played most of the versions of this game - pirate, zombie, space, spy, super hero, board game version, and the original, with expansions - and really, they just keep getting better. Whoever Steve Jackson is who came up with this game, he has a pretty great sense of humour. I kinda wish I was friends with him...
I present thee with the cheese grater of peace!
1. Settlers of Catan - Ah, Catan, if I could count the number of hours I've spent playing this game...well, I'd probably get really depressed and wonder what I'm doing with my life, so we're just not going to go there. For those of you who have never heard of or played this game - you obviously don't know me personally, because no doubt you'd have been exposed to it already. Catan is an exploration game where you settle an island and build cities to get points. There are a few expansions for it, the best of which is Cities and Knights. We honestly own every version of this in existence, as far as I know - all the expansions, the extra expansions for more players, even the travel version. We have the regular game, and a separate one for the cottage, that's how often we play it. I just don't think I can explain how addicting this game is. If you ever get a chance, I highly suggest checking this out, although if you play with my friends, we can get a little cutthroat. There, that's fair warning. Now let the trade embargoes begin!
I specifically bought my dining room table to optimize our Catan playing experience.
Well, that's it for my Top 5 for this week! I hope you enjoyed it! I'm now going to go open a bottle of wine to psych myself up for my games night. To the defender of Catan!
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