Top 10 Solo Games Of All Time

hey I'm Alex radical from board Gameco and this is my top 10 solo games of all time a long long time ago like three years ish around three years maybe two and a half three I think three I think three off double check a long long time ago I put out a video of my top 10 solo games of all time and there were a lot of games in that video more than 10 as you would expect from any video don't worry there are more than 10 in this video too but it's been a long time since then and things have changed my opinions have changed I have I figured it's time to redo that video so here here we are in 2023 and I'm going to be doing my top 10 solo games of all time as of 2023. now a few caveats a few things have just been General be aware of what not first of all this list will inherently have more than 10 games because why in the world not uh secondly is I've pivoted a bit like for example one one example offhand is a game like gloomhaven gloomhaven was in my top 10 sold against of all time and I don't think in hindsight I would have done that I don't know why I did I'd have to think back to Alex three years ago and what my thought process was because glue Maven is a game that can be played solo but it's not a game that I typically play solo I've done it I have played Gloom even solo but it's not one that I typically play so it's not my go-to it's not my preference and so when I think of my top 10 solo games I'm not looking for games that can be played Solo or that I occasionally dive into solo I'm looking into I'm looking for games that not just are they great games but they are great game solo and I don't view solo as a step down I view it as either the primary way the only way so either the only way the primary way or an exact equal way to playing it competitively that's what I want for my top 10 solo games this time around I feel like other disclaimers oh pass that if you look at the uh list from three years ago I think there's like four games that overlap but I have to check maybe it's three maybe four I think I think it's three or four games that overlap but we'll we'll go ahead and dive into them let's let's actually take that opportunity to go ahead and dive into it starting off as usual with our bonus picks I have two bonus picks and they're both here for two different reasons the first bonus pick is going to be a teneres Adventures I am loving tennis adventures and it's a game that I've spent easily 60 hours on 60 if I played it maybe maybe 40 to 60. I play I spend somewhere between 40 to 60 hours playing to nurse Adventures solo this year alone well I say this year alone I think it would have to be this year I don't think I had access to it last year so this year this year I played teneris Adventures over 40 to 60 hours most of which has been solo this is a bonus pick for two reasons the first is that I think I would prefer to play Daenerys Adventures not solo I think I've played it not solo the only problem is I've only played it not solo players who don't yet know the system as well I haven't played with somebody who really knows how to play properly like who like who's fully like who has played like you know five ten hours under the belt I've only played it with teaching new players and so I don't know where I am in terms of preferring a solo or not solo as far as that goes but it definitely is eligible just from the sheer amount that I enjoy it the fact that I've given it a five out of five and I've given it a five out of 5 primarily based on solo play and so that is enough for it to be in the list which means the second reason though the second reason it's a bonus pick as opposed to directly in the pick directly in the in the list is that I am currently engaged in a full paid campaign playthrough with dragoi games where I'm going through the entire campaign but it is paid content and I'm a drop hesitant to throw this into my top 10 Soul games of all time I'm not saying I wouldn't be willing to but I'm a drop hesitant and so instead I'm giving it a bonus pick slot uh because it is definitely it's definitely eligible it's definitely eligible and so from there we're going to go ahead and give it a bonus pick instead just uh because I'm doing a decent amount of paid content around their games and I'm not guaranteeing that I'll never in the future include something that might have paid content I don't know for sure but because I'm actively in middle of that engagement I'm actually in middle of going through that I'm a little hesitant to do so so understand I love this game I recommend this game it is here for a reason but we're gonna put it as a bonus pick my second bonus pick on the other hand is Mage Knight Mage Knight is a game that I keep trying to get rid of and I will not let myself do so every time I pull this off the shelf I look at the back of the box and I pull off the shelf to get rid of I look at the back of the box and then I realized myself that it doesn't matter how rarely I table this game I want to love this game I want to sit down and do what I've been doing with Panera's Adventures Adventures I love the game I played it a lot and now I know how to play none like I have it locked under my belt I get mistakes wrong make no mistake but I can I can enjoy the game system I know it well enough that I can play it maze night I only ever play it one game at a time then give it five months and then come back to it and I keep doing that cycle so this is 12 months between plays and that means I haven't locked this in and so every time I play it's like I have to mentally prep myself I have to get back ready to where it was but when you do so no differently than playing Charles Adventures when you do play Mage Knight it can give you a three four hour long experience of just pure satisfaction as you engage in the RPG adventure and you can play it more than two players as well and more than one player as well you can play it uh non-solo for me I've only ever played this game so I haven't felt the need to dive into with more players I don't feel comfortable enough I barely feel comfortable enough teaching myself yet and so I'm still a little bit away from being completely ready for Maze night I don't play it enough it's not on this is for a reason but I don't feel comfortable I think it was on my list I think it was on my list last year I have double check no not last year three years ago but I have double check but it is a great game and when you table it every time I table it like this is the kind of game where if I ever play this game and after playing it I'm ready to get rid of it I'm okay with that but I am only ever willing to get rid of it when I haven't played it in 12 months and then I play it and I'm like this game can't go anywhere so for right now Magee night continues to stay around but it's not going to be in the top 10 because I'm not playing enough barely at all which means to the top 10 list and yes there's still more than 10 games on this top 10 list but we'll we'll give the explanations as to why but starting off with our number 10 pick and the number 10 pick is one that I think arguably will be a bit higher but I've gone through the entire set of solo challenges and that's going to be Calico Calico Cascadia and virgin all fall into a similar vein here but I do think Calico is the best of the three for me and so that's the one that I'm picking as the clear winner Calico is a tile Lane game it's a game which you're going to be trying to place tiles onto these little Patchwork areas and every time you place to talk you're trying to do so to be mindful of a few different things first of all depending on the pattern you might get bonus cats depending on the color and putting together groups of colors you'll get bonus buttons and depending on the scoring objectives in play you are trying to be mindful of how you orchestrate the tiles around certain buttons in the uh pattern that you're building the solo play has two ways of playing the first is simply try to get as many points as you can and the second is giving you 10 challenges that start off with hard and go all the way up to as hard as you can possibly imagine there are 10 separate challenges that give you things you have to do along with it's not just about getting points it's about doing this this and this and getting points it's about getting one of each button and getting points it's about getting three cats and getting points it gives you these different things you're trying to be mindful of as you go through at different goals you have to achieve but you still have to get points you can't just do the goals and so you're trying to balance two different things being well suited on points but going for specific ways of getting points as opposed to anything else and they are hard they are challenging they're enjoyable so far it's my favorite from the series of Virgin Calico Cascadia is my favorite for solo Play Cascade is my favorite for multiplayer play but I still love the solo mode as well and verdant as well I still love the solo mode as well all of them are just really fun solo challenges and puzzles and not the only kind I have a mix of different types of games in this video of the top 10 solo games I have a mix of different things that all hit different styles and approaches of play but Calico is is my number 10. I think arguably be probably closer to somewhere in the range of like you know the five to nine range except I have played through all these which means right now I'm kind of I'm currently going through Cascadia and verdant because I haven't fully played all of their challenges yet and so that's why I'm with these games and that's going to be Calico which means that is our number 10 pick our number nine pick is going to be under Falling Skies I think under Falling Skies was in my video three years ago I'd have double check the video I'm not searching but undefining Skies from cge technically a one plus player game but it's one plus in the same way that any solo game is one plus sure you can have multiple around the table all comparing notes to the making decisions together under Falling Skies has as you rolling Dice and allocating them to different sections on your base you're going to basically have Alien Invaders so you have all these aliens who are slowly approaching your base and you're trying to place your dice here to be able to unlock more areas to be able to shoot down planes from the sky to be able to increase your research level because that's ultimately how you win increasing the research level so you can figure out how to defeat all the aliens it's basically Independence Day in a box and it's such a ridiculously good Game it started as a print and play and then it became big papers picked up by CG they uh deluxified the presentation I don't know if they made tweaks to the rules I never played the original they added a campaign mode to it so there is a full campaign to dive into I haven't seen an expansion for this one I'm curious how well it's done for cge that there has not been an expansion for this game also I don't know if the game necessarily needs an expansion what would it be like another campaign mode some more cards and characters they've done promo stuff for it so there is that but undefined Skies is a dice management dice allocation puzzle for one player or one plus players the same way any game on the sale could be one plus player but it's a solo it's a dice allocation puzzle as you roll dice try to figure out how to place them and how to mitigate what's going on in the game and to slowly reduce the alien smashy taking you down and it gets brutally challenging which is very satisfying the game can start off easy but gets harder and harder to go and there is difficulty modification in play the way you flip the boards it's just a very good time if you like little optimization puzzles under Falling Skies has that for you number eight for me is Trailblazers Trailblazers are the newest one on the list for me I think I can say that Trailblazers are the newest one on the list of me this is one that I enjoy at multiplayer but I enjoy it just as much solo but like this for the first one this is the first no actually I mean Calico I enjoy my player and Justin my solo as well so honestly they're all doing fine so far Trailblazers is from bitewing games and this is a game of making Trails designed by Ryan Courtney what you're doing in the game is you're gonna have these different Trails over here these are cars that you're going to be taking you're going to be drafting these cards although in Solo you're not drafting the cars so much as just taking sets of cards from the deck and you're taking from a smaller and smaller pool each time so you draw eight cards pick two discard the six draw six cards pick two discard the set the four and rinse and repeat until you're down to it trying to place those cards into your board into your Tableau in order to achieve one of a variety of different scoring modes in this game because the game has so many different ways to play this is the core game there's also the uh the animals expansion there's the Riders expansion which changes the way you play the game then there's playing a solo the solo has a plain solo mode which is about getting points it also has a solo mode it's about getting points and achieving challenges similar to Calico and it has the same Vibe and I've I've done horribly I have not beaten them all yet I've beaten like one or two of them so far but it's a solo mode that's giving you challenges and your goal is to beat those challenges while getting 50 points which is hard then there's additional solo mode for the um for the rider solo mode plus is the Epic solo mode there are so many ways to engage with this game and it does so in 15 minutes it's fast you can knock out if you're ever if you're someone like me who actually like likes to actively log their plays and likes to gamify that process if there's ever a day where i'm like you know what I didn't get enough games played today I could sit down for an hour play Trailblazers and boom I just got five plays in my belt I'm good to go not that you should treat your games that way that seems like it's probably a bit addictive it might be a problem and something to be looked at but um if you are that personality which you shouldn't be and I'm totally not then you can do something like that Trailblazers excellent from Nightwing games I I I love it I the first the first week I got it I got more than 12 places in my belt in that first week I did a full 12x12 review just because of how into the game I was how quick easy accessible and rewarding it was both playing at multiplayer and solo mode I don't know I might prefer solo I'm not searching I'd have to play it more I might prefer solo but I like it always that's going to be Trail Blazers my number seven is where you see where the other I told you there's more than 10 games on this list and my number seven is going to be a grouping of games and that specifically is going to be my favorite button shy solo games now I'm gonna go through all these fairly briefly but I did select a bunch and they are not all equal here they're not all equal my favorites here are probably numbsters for allopolis and ancient Realms or possibly numbsters naturopolis and ancient Realms maybe possibly I don't know but either way these are all a bunch of button side solo games and these are going to be my number spot I'm gonna you know you know we're gonna team taking numbers out I'm gonna go with numbers and spotless as my favorite picks and the others being secondary now I have a lot of button shot games that I like I've talked about them in the past this uh multiplayer weapon shot of games there's two player button shy games the solo button shot button about the shot games and these over here are my favorites from those but I'll go through them in order of least to most starting off with food chain Island food chain island is my least favorite from these but it's still an enjoyable time the only reason it's here though is because of the grace of its brothers and sisters otherwise it wouldn't be present on this list but I kind of is able to sneak it in once I'm doing a bunch of button shy games in my number seven pick and in row it's a tactical puzzle as you try to move the the modules around you're trying to move these robes around trying to collect different things as you try wrong game in food chain Island what you're trying to do is you're trying to have the animals eat each other in sequence so that ideally you end up with one card left think of it as solitaire but Solitaire with a bunch of animals and uh different abilities and different sequences as far as how it goes random setup all that stuff and so overall very satisfying experience the game gives you a bunch of expansions to mix it up but it's a great little solo puzzle it's a little much for like playing on an airplane because you need the tablespace for it but they're looking for a travel game a travel Soul game to keep you occupied and if you didn't get enough plays or trailers under your belt uh you know food chain Island will have you covered from there Rogue is probably my least favorite after that road would also be the one that's arguably possibly not on this list but here by the grace of its uh brothers and sisters and again you're trying to walk around getting these modules and trying to set these patterns it's not really getting models it's trying to create these patterns you can have a sequence of a journey and the journey is going to give you hey you have to get everything in that cycle but the way you move things around that's all going to take movement points he's trying to use the various abilities of these modules and use the moving points again a bunch of expansions mixed in as well but again a little bit of a tactical puzzle I find it a little bit more clever than Grove than food chain island fujin island is if I want something a little less brainer burnery and Rovers if I want something a bit more brain burnery but they fall into the same spot then from there we have uh let's go with naturopolis next over here nature not numbers I'm saying the wrong games all the time numbers over here is going to be the next one numbs this is going to be a hand management puzzle this is great for a plan I just played this off four or five times on a flight last week this is this is basically trying to deal with a handful of cards and then trying to use that handful of cards to have the numbers eat each other in fact leave the whole entire game is based on the principle of 789 why was seven F why was nine afraid of seven or whatever it was because seven eight nine and so what you're doing is you're trying to have the numbers eight each other you use the eight and the 8 has be the central number as you rearrange your hand and you're trying to effectively get down to only two cards left the eight and whatever card is the last one that eight something so if you're down to like you know a one eight three then you'll be able to use the one two eight the three and you're left with just one and boom you're good but then what asks the game is on the back of the rule book there's a little bit of a way you can check mark what's your final number I mean the goal ideally is to end with every single number in play except for a because it's always in play and so that means you can not just try to play and win the game you can try to play and win the game with an additional little mini game going on of how to ensure you have all the various numbers in play as you go through it then from there we're gonna go with the two uh again sprawl office in general is a system you know what I don't know it's let's go through all office naturopolis and combo office over here I didn't actually have a drop plus okay I should have them all so if I have comboopless but this is an entire system Stardust brawloffice Pro argue the game that made button shy famous this is a car laying game where you're laying cards over each other or next to each other in order to fit three different objectives you can have three objectives that are mixed and taken from those cards so the objectives are very varied every single time you play giving you different things to strive for as you go through it this is a system that's similar to what they have in circle the wagons but circle the wagons is a two-player drafting game this on the other hand is a solo game although playable too but really a solo game but we're going to do is you're trying to Overlay those cards and then you have naturopolis and agropolis which give different themes and scoring things and slight differences to the way they operate and finally combo office which lets you combine them all in different ways they're a great system of games I think small Opus is still my like my I mean it's the one I play the most no questions so in terms of we're looking at Play Count sproutless wins there if you're looking by other factors such as trying to keep these boxes up I'm trying to put three as one was as a problem but yeah if you look at other factors I don't know natureopolis is one that's currently I'm driving with the most but I have so many places for all of us under my belt that I can't fairly compare to natureopolis which is new and fresh and then we have ancient realm this is my recent discovery from them um my recent discovery that's my newest discovery not mine it's not my Discovery it's a game I found I didn't find it a game I played there we go a game I played by Stephen Amani same design as brawlopolis but I'm about to shy as well ancient Realms is a Civ building solo game you're trying to Overlay cars on top of each other to activate cards whenever you take a card you're not just activating the cards below it but effectively setting yourself up for which cards you're gonna activate not necessarily next but what possible card combinations you have to activate I find this delightfully challenging the only thing holding it back for me right now is that right now it's not so much goal based which is the way I prefer things I prefer things to be a very goal based the way you've seen in Trailblazers and Calico even in the introopolis while it is point based it's Point based based on variable goals so it still works as far as goal based because right now ancient Realms is purely goal based and that does take away a little bit for it from me I kind of want some sort of you know get this many points but also do these things along the way that's what I want from the system right now but I love it past that it's just a delightly satisfying little solo puzzle could probably be played on a plane it could arguably get tight depending on how you build it your board but I think it would probably be fine on most uh MO most plain trade tables and then from there we're going to move to my number six my number six is a big box I have to try to grab over here my number six is bear with me and number six May one day find itself in the same position as Mage Knight because this currently is Marvel Champions this is my uh collection or this is a box one of two plus like the three or four boxes I haven't even uh sorted yet plus all the various Marvel Champion stuff I have not purchased yet because I finally stopped purchasing Marvel Champions because I'm so behind I'm playing it all that I just don't need the consistent hit of new stuff but Marvel Champions is a delightful game that I I don't know I I don't know part is it's not about the game the I don't know is do I prefer a two player I definitely don't prefer three or four there's a case to be made of me preferring a two player but also just playing a two-handed works as well so and most of my plays of Marvel Champions have been solo I just know that when I do get to play a two-player with somebody who knows the game and appreciates the game you can have a really good time but Marvel Champions is a lcg a limited collectible game coming from Fantasy Flight bringing you the Marvel Universe and what you're going to do is you're going to be building out your decks from a non-collectible set of cars every month and new packs are released you go ahead and use those cards to build your decks to put together some sort of way to take down the enemy you're trying to take down and it is cooperative you're not fighting each other you're fighting the various baddies along the way then there's all this campaign mode there's scenarios there's characters there's a million different things and again I have two full boxes of this and I can easily justify a third I need to go ahead and build my third I have it somewhere off the side but there's so much Marvel Champion stuff and there's so much content for the game I don't play it nearly enough to benefit from that content but I do play the game and I do like the game and I do enjoy the game it is tactically rewarding the game I'm looking forward to the most in fact I almost wanted to push off doing my solo video to this game coming out because I think it would make the cup but Primal Primal is a game that has a very similar gameplay system to Marvel champions in terms of the fact that you have hands of cards but the cards of both the economy for other cars while the actions themselves so every time you have a hand of cards you're trying to figure out which um what cards am I using for my hand versus what cards am I giving up that sense of tension is something I love very much in Turf pointing Mars as well terrified Mars which is not on this list it does have great solo play but I prefer it multiplayer so didn't make the card over here but terrifying Mars has that same principle like you have hands of cards you're strongly choosing what you're able to actually make work and that concept makes every decision so delightfully tense in both Marvel champions in Primal and terrified Mars I love that system combined with the Marvel IP with a good good or good production presentation all that stuff and over here we have Marvel Champions one of my favorite experiences to go ahead and go through and I'm realizing now I'm gonna have to go ahead and move this to the side because I will cause issues if I try to adjust this stack we have I don't know if you noticed earlier we we lost it game on the floor it's going to be gone forever that's my number five my number six which means we're down to the final five we are halfway through the list and if it doesn't feel like we're halfway through the list because technically we have like seven button size two bonus picks things like that but my number five is for Northwood and it feels it feels bad to put the survival Champions but right now I'm really liking for Northwood and right now this past year I've played four northward more times than I played Marvel Champions so for right now for Northwood does get that pick for Northwood is a solo trick taking game and I love the puzzle I love the puzzle of it in the game you're going through a trick-taking experience you have these eight I think it's eight uh you know various Kings or people you're trying to defeat the various not really King you're trying to negotiate with these leaders of eight different regions and every time you do so you're going to earn their their abilities for future conflicts that you have with other leaders but you're trying to effectively beat these tricks and everyone has the ways that they're trying to operate and work but each kingdom has different number of tricks that you want to win as you're trying to Vie for you know obviously the winning all the tricks opening another tricks is the hardest because you have to delicately pick which hand you think works for that but even anything in the middle you're trying to go for a precise exact management while using various abilities of characters along the way the game gives you so much variability to the way you have different starting characters if you have like I think it's Kickstarter version of this in terms of if you have let's say Kickstarter version on this anywhere I don't know for sure I don't know if specifically deluxe version or in general but they have not just the the basic cards they have more cars all these various Royals in them I think there's like 24 worlds in the game I think I double check and you're only using a selection of 12 in any individual scenario and so you have a wide degree of variability of what gets mixed in and which ones your starting Royals are because your starting Royals are going to be used so much more than the various Royals you go ahead and influence and negotiate with and then make deals for and try to use their powers and so that means every single time you play this game there's a different challenge there's also a little campaign book of different scenarios you can go through but ultimately it's a solo trick taking Challenge and I feel like with the solo tricks taking even work well if the answer is this game then the answer is yes because this game works it is a puzzle to pair up the cards you need to try to figure out how to use your abilities to try to predict how the deck's going to play out and feel like you have perfect control even though you can be hit with things that come out of the blue for you for Northwood is one of my highlights on this year for sure and easy Contender for this list my number four I lied I lied earlier I said under Falling Skies is the newest of this list and there's an argument to be made that under fines guys is that I said Trailblazers the newest one this list and there's an argument to be made the Trailblazers is the newest there's also an argument we made that ancient Realms are the newest and there's also an argument to be made that 20 strong is the newest one to this list at number four the only reason I wouldn't make that argument is I play 20 strong before ancient Realms and before Trailblazers granted as a prototype copy so that's why I think of it as being but if in terms of pure most recent-ness to my collection 20 strong is the most recent thing here and even this even this is a pre-production copy that is not final 20 strong from Chip three games there are two games I've been pushing off doing a solo video for a long time now I had to know my list to redo my top 10 solo games for easily six months plus and then I kept on waiting because I was like you know what I know 20 strong is coming I know Primal is coming I'll just wait because I think those are both contenders I can't keep waiting forever so Prime will have to wait for another three years now when I next do my solo lists but 20 strong made the cut by doing so by the way it also gave me the opportunity to include Trailblazers and uh ancient Realms and arguably for Northwood depending on how far back I would have done this video but 20 strong made the cut I played this game like 10 times or so in the I don't know three weeks since I've had this I've played this game a decent amount I have multiple game multiple film gameplays on the channel actually I should say I have one film gameplay on the channel and other film gameplays coming to the channel and I have it's such a good experience right now there's three decks to the system the solo Essentials was the base 20 strong deck there's hop moccas and there's too many bones and the core const between strong is your rolling dice allocating towards your adventures trying to ensure that you can power yourself up more and get your recovery stats back up and get what you need back up so you can ultimately achieve what you need before running out of resources it's all about trying to it's all about understanding that you're running towards a cliff and you are slowly running out of steam and you're slowly running out of opportunity to utilize these resources but if you can do the right things along the way you can get your engine up in gear fast enough that you not only stop losing but you start setting yourself up for the win as well each game has slight differences to the ways they operate solar Centos is going to be the most straightforward but even then the missions they have which are optional the missions though give you a clever little additional twist as far as how you engage with them hop mock is going to have you dancing around from location to location as in half of Marcus it has that feel to it while engaging in three different types of Adventures challenges and uh death matches uh I think it's called Deathmatch called something else blood fights whatever it is called as well as uh Sports Arena's matches I'm forgetting all the names here we have the three different challenge types uh too many bones is going to have you going through a sequence of encounters as you fight stacks of increasing numbers of baddies hoping you've leveled yourself up enough that you can take them on it's very it's very challenging there's more and more baddies every single turn and you choose which stock to engage with but you also choose these other Tyrant encounters and lock picking events and all these other things until eventually you take down the big bad or don't take down the big bad the games are all challenging in different ways and they all have ways to level up the game if you're finding it too easy but along the way you have your dice you have your character which picked from a pool of different characters you have your dice pool which is going to be managed to mitigate the entire time as you level up your stats it is a delightfully good time with a high degree of variability each of the experiences feels noticeably different from each other while having enough core overlap I'm excited for everything they do with this system because 20 strong is so far delightful and I want to see where the system can go they're also going to have Tangles coming out a set of three decks of Mandy trembly that are not even a chip three games universe but are still being brought to the table there's a lot to be done with 20 strong and it's very very cool I'm excited to see where it goes what they build I I like it a lot it's my number four pick of my number four solo game of all time as of right now my number three is a game that has been on my original list and that is Spirit Island now I have Jagged Earth in front of me here no particular reason it's the first box I grabbed but this Jagged Island there's nature there's this Spirit Island there's nature encounter this Jagged Island this branch and Claw there's all these different expansions for Spirit Island and I've only played some of the expansions but Spirit island is the game that made me realize solo gaming could be something that I loved there were a lot of solo games that I tried before Spirit Island they all felt like puzz in a way that I enjoy now but they didn't necessarily give me that same Vibe I didn't get the same sense of of heavy gaming from solo games until I played Spirit Island I was like this this is why people play solo games this is why people are obsessed with this Hobby and this section of the hobby because I sat down one day there was just we had our game night every single Thursday we had game night for years on end and one day no one showed up and I was like I don't care I'm having game nights because I said Thursday night is game night so I pull this very Island I played a single board and I understood the appeal not a spirit Island I already knew that people Spirit Island I played Spirit Island cooperatively already and enjoyed it but I understood the appeal I was like that was a puzzle that was satisfying that was something that was mentally stimulating to go through that process myself I mean sure we did it as a team before but like doing it myself was just as mentally stimulating Spirit Island at this point is a game that I very much enjoyed at two players I very much enjoyed solo three plays is already it's good but it's a step back from Solo or two players for me and four starts getting into chaos but I love Spirit island cooperatively or solo I enjoy the game very much and I enjoy what the expansions have added or at least the expansions I've seen the vast variety of characters in the game you're basically trying to stop the Invaders from coming to the island and trying to protect the Dahan and you have different boys depending on if you're multi-handing it you could multi-hand it I've done it I've done pure solo I've also done multi uh multi-handing it as well it's called it's not called multi-handing it is it's called something else I know it was called lead the way I played multiple characters at once and I've I've had so much satisfaction from the puzzle of leveling up your spirit building out their decks finding their own unique ways that they can add to the chaos the fear to the damage of the island in a good way because you're damaging the Invaders and you're scaring the Invaders pushing them away as you protect and navigate the Han as you use the Han for your own Advantage moving them around the board well for your own Advantage but really for their advantage because ultimately you're doing it to protect them you're doing it for their interest there's so much going on there's so much complexity it's a game that solved so to speak of the alpha player problem because there's so much going on that this is a game I generally prefer to do it playing a single character true solo because it's so hard to mentally keep in mind what's going on with two characters and that's true when you're playing the full game the combination of the fear cards coming out of the way they pop out and randomly to some extent and the fact that you also have so much complexity in the characters means that this is a game where you can't really go like you can't tell them what to do on their turn you have to just do the best you can and hope you're able to defeat the Invaders enough and keep things protected enough and hold out long enough that you eventually terrify them away from the island which will happen one of the things I love about Spirit island is the fact that the game always feels like you're going to lose even when you're winning which means it gives you that that high of of feeling like you overcame a challenge even if it wasn't that much of a challenge even if you don't realize it but you were always in control you just didn't sense that level of control it could be a metaphor for our own lives honestly but and if you do start to realize that the challenge is not as hard as you thought it was that you're winning everything there are so many ways to escalate and Elevate the level of decisions level of complexity the level of how much is going on Spirit Island is just so good but it's not as good as my number two pick which I have to get to now which is unsettled unsettled from Orange nebula games is my number two pick and it's a game that I wrestled whether this deserved my number two pick I did mess with that because I haven't played unsettled nearly as much as many games on the table I played 20 strong more than sell I played Spirit Island more I've played Marvel Champions more I've played most of the button chives more I've played Trailblazers more I've played under Falling Skies or I've played caloo every every single game every single game amazing I perhaps not amazing is the only one that may not have played more than unsettled but that's not even unless it's a bonus pick so unsettled is the least played game with the possible exception of Mage Knight from any other game on this list I don't know exactly my place I have but it's under 10 which makes it the least played game on this list but it's so satisfying and it's satisfying in a way that tells a story and it's it's great to play it solo it's great to play at more players and that's another thing I debated by the way because this is one where I I do prefer playing unsettled with more players I do but I like the game enough that I I I have to have on this list I've played this game solo plenty of times as well and it's such a good experience it's a a tactical puzzle Vindication is one of my favorite games of all time from Orange level as well and unsettled gives you that puzzly feeling but it does so while doing so in a cooperative and or solo environment which is just very different it does so while improving the degree of story and immersion and the humor of being lost in whatever deserted planet that you are trying to explore the game sense of General concept General puzzle of you're trying to explore these planets there are core rules in place you have to follow the core rules but every planet has different things going on and so you find a planet and then each planet has different scenarios you can go through so even when you find a Planet even as you get used to what a planet is there's still different reasons why you're visiting that planet at any given point in time and so things continuously change there's three levels is the game the planet and then the individual scenario and those all give you different ways or things to think about as you engage with the game it also allows the opportunity for players to have a full planet and then just get a different set of objectives that are given out in expansions that give you more gameplay to existing Planet structures at play this is a game game that is all about the puzzle you're trying to survive you're trying to manage your dice you're trying to manage your resources you're trying to manage everything in the game while being mindful of time running out while being mindful of what tools and abilities and things you're going to find abilities all along the way you're going to craft stations you can utilize you're going to find cards that give you different things you're going to slowly unlock proficiencies and masteries that give you more stuff that you can do things that are unique and different and allow you to manipulate the board state in front of you to manipulate the things you need to do in order to achieve the win which is where it's so satisfying this game feels like someone just handed you a entire box full of powers and abilities for you to puzzle through what the best way to survive in space is I adore and settled I straight up a door unsettled it is I mean I Endure Vindication more Vindication is higher for me but Vindication is not this is because this is a solo list for me and unsettled is so very good I'm looking forward to what orange level does next I know they have Spirit Fire coming out soon so spiritfire is one that'll definitely keep my my eyes peeled for I want to see where that one goes because so far they have made two of my favorite games of all time they've done a lot of a lot of good stuff my number one pick my number one pick though is the only company that has two games on this list and honestly they almost had three Brewing cycle was one that I was debating but instead too many bones not specifically unbreakable I just have the smaller box here too many bones from Chip three games who've done 20 strong it's the only company that has two games on this list well unless you can't count button shy they have like seven games on this list that's not really entirely fair but too many bones is amazing too many bones gives you such a incredible experience and most of my players have too many bones have been solo I'd say maybe 70 80 some of my plays haven't solo as I go through this experience and then I enjoy playing with two I think I played three players once I don't know if I've ever played before I have to look at my logs and whatnot but too many bones gives you one of the best experiences I've ever received in terms of the ways you can have intricate characters giving you a smorgasbord of powers and abilities giving you different ways to approach how you level up the characters how you approach the game State how you try to overcome the various baddies in your way as you work your way through just too many characters too many enemies and you try to level yourself up you try to power stuff up and every character has their own twist on how they operate then each character gives you their own little puzzle of what they're doing and those puzzles are all so satisfying learning a new character in too many bones is the equivalent of learning many new entire games and if that scares you off there's a chance that it should it is not an easy game to pick up it is not a accessible game to pick up and it's a complicated game it has a rulebook that is manageable but is a lot to understand it is not the hardest if you have someone holding your hand through it if you're playing with somebody else who knows the system and they're running things to a degree you can often get enough of the system that you can go ahead and have fun with it while not necessarily fully understanding all the concepts at play yet and that might be the best way to start off I don't know I started off by setting up on the table powering through a rulebook for like four hours and continuously trying to plug away at it and eventually getting it and then seeing the charm behind this game seeing the reasons so many people are in love with the too many bones system and I am very much one of those people too many bones gives you character depth gives you character variability gives you scenario variability the amount of these uh little admissions or encounters you go on in the game there's so much going on gives you expansion variability as far as different things you can add in tweak adjust there's so much going on in this game but the depth of the characters and the ways they operate and the puzzle you are facing off against while you try to tackle various enemies who range in the difficulty of how bad or hard they are too many bones is a game that I'm absolutely in love with like many others on this list too honestly the top four here are killer the top the top four 20 strong Spirit Island unsettled too many bones the rest of them are great too make no mistake this is this is a list of my favorite solo games for a reason ultimately these right now are my 10 favorite solo games there are things coming that will challenge this list there are things coming there's I mean even we have Elder Scrolls coming from ship 3 games burn cycle narrowly missed the list it's such a good solo experience we have uh agamonia which I think would do better with more than once I don't know if that's gonna make a solo list but we also have a video iridia is an excellent game both solo and multiplayer a lot going on it we have Primal like I've mentioned already which should really challenge whether what gets kicked off the list in favor of Primal and those are just the big box experiences we're not even talking about the any number of games like uh for Northwood that show up on my doorstep without me having have her ever had it on my radar there are so many amazing incredible experiences out there these are just my current top 10. until next time I'm Alex Radcliffe from board Gameco hope you found this video useful or helpful in some way and as always I hope you have a good one

Channel: BoardGameCo

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Id: ceC1_hpj_uw

Length: 35min 25sec (2125 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 07 2023