Game popularity fluctuates throughout the year, with some titles gaining traction while others fade. Sometimes the year’s biggest trending game makes a significant impact. For example, 2025 saw titles like Vantage, with its open-world choices and character development, and The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Ring, a war game set in epic high fantasy. Hot Streak, a recreation of the classic noughties party game, also made a splash.
These are just three of the year’s newest games, but what about our bloggers’ favourites? What have they been consistently reaching for?
Kavango – The Wellbeing Gamer
Kavango has been on our table a lot this year. A game focusing on the conservation of nature where players concentrate on building a diverse nature reserve and compete for the highest end score. It’s brilliant and a favourite in our home.
We keep coming to this one for so many reasons. The artwork in the first instance is brilliant, with every creature being unique and all hand drawn by Matt Reid, the artist, it looks stunning. Then it is just quite relaxing to play and has now become so familiar that minimal thought is required when playing. The game mechanics are so simple to get to grips with making very easy to pick up and get into.
It is a game for 2-5 players but my wife and I have been playing a lot of head to head, mainly because she has been on a brutal winning streak and won the majority of games which I am struggling to come to terms with. You may find this statement at odds with the last in the game being relaxing but this game but for us it is. It’s a comfortable one to unwind with at the weekend as we both find it so enjoyable.
The other challenging element of this game is you cannot achieve everything you want to in this game, you just cannot and that is part of the puzzle, which very much aligns with the reality of the real world and the message the creators of the game are trying to send out. There are decisions to make every step of the way.
It is a game we cannot wait to introduce to our children when they are old enough and will very much be an ever present go to in our home. It’s a true modern classic.
Dominion – Kacoplays
Dominion has completely owned my 2025 game table. Since January, I have played it 63 times and I am still discovering the magic of this game. On paper, it does not sound flashy. Just a box of cards. No miniatures. No board. No dramatic artwork. But what it does have is endless variety and the kind of gameplay that hooks you fast. Each session feels fresh because the mix of kingdom cards changes everything. Sometimes it is a race to pile up money. Other times it is attack heavy chaos. Or a combo puzzle where you are chaining actions like a mad scientist. What keeps me coming back is how approachable yet deep it is.
The rules are simple. Buy cards. Play treasures. Use actions. Repeat. But the strategies are endless. I can play Dominion with hardcore gamers who want to optimize every turn or with friends who just want a new, fun challenge.
Either way, it delivers. It also helps that it is a game that fits into life so easily. Quick turns. Flexible player counts. A setup that does not eat your whole evening. I even keep a travel copy in my car, because sometimes you only need 30 minutes for joy to strike. Dominion might not win beauty contests, but for me, it is the game that keeps proving you do not need flash to be brilliant.
Faraway – Ian Paczek (not sure of their name on Zatu)
Faraway is a very quick game. Quick to play and quick to teach. I’ve played it quite a few times this year – the board game stats app on my phone says six times, but I’m sure that’s a huge underestimate.
The concept is simple – there are eight rounds and in each round you play a card. Play from left to right, then replenish your hand of three from the market. After the eighth round, you score your cards, but going from right to left. You’ve journeyed out into the world, discovering places, and on the way home you tell tales of derring-do, achieving fame and greatness.
Everyone that I’ve introduced this game to, struggles to get the scoring right on the first try. It’s like one of those bicycles where the handlebars are geared in reverse – the first time you try riding it you inevitably fall off. But, just like the backwards bike, the response is always “let’s play that again”.
Play in Faraway is simultaneous, except when it isn’t. Each card has a number and the lowest number gets first pick from the market to replenish. However, playing a card with a higher number than the previous round grants a bonus card, known as a sanctuary. Sanctuaries are always available for scoring, providing an icon, maybe a card colour, and possibly a scoring opportunity too after all locations have been scored.
Faraway is a highly addictive, fun, puzzle of a game. You won’t be disappointed.
Poetry for Neanderthals – Ben Ying
This game fun to play with my friends who use big words, bring them down to earth and use small words in short short time”. Poetry for Neanderthals has been a hit amongst friends and family alike. My partner and I have played this somewhere between 30-40 times this last year with many different groups of friends. A very simple word based game that everyone enjoys, we often take this out as a palate cleanser after a 4 hour game session, or as a fun way to end a dinner gathering before everyone heads home.
Gameplay is very simple, you have words on cards you describe as quickly as you can using on single syllable words – or get knocked with the inflatable NO! Stick. It’s this simplicity that has kept us coming back to Poetry for Neanderthals so often this year, 5 minutes to explain and 15 to 20 minutes of laughter as you and your friends struggle to describe a driving instructor. It isn’t quite the most replayable game, particularly for myself and my partner who have played this so much that we can roughly remember a lot of the words at this point, but we just sit on opposing teams and laugh through the session! It is just about small enough to bring along on travels as well (maybe leaving the stick and score counters at home. Easily our favourite sub 30 minute game by a mile this year and looking forward to bringing this out again this weekend!
Railroad Ink Challenge: Lush Green Edition – Phil Follett-Laing
Some games reach the table due to their intricate mechanics, but for my wife and me, Railroad Ink has been our most played this year. The reason for its success in our household is twofold: it’s incredibly quick play time and the inherently satisfying nature of its roll-and-write gameplay.
Railroad Ink offers various iterations, but the Lush Green Edition embodies all the elements for a long-lasting appeal. Each round, you roll four dice, forming a shared pool that guides your choices. This is a key engaging aspect of the game, eliminating random card draws and unfair moments. Everyone plays on a level playing field. It’s always fascinating how my wife and I consistently make different decisions regarding bonus placements.
Once you have grasped the simple premise and the scoring rules, your group and you will quickly become evenly matched, with multiple games easily fitting within a single hour. This accessibility is crucial for repeated play. The game design brilliantly facilitates this high level of replayability. The use of wipeable sheets and whiteboard pens makes the clean-up and reset process virtually instantaneous. You simply wipe the boards clean, grab the dice, and you’re ready to dive back into a new network-building challenge again and again.
Flip 7 – Director Dan
I don’t think there is any game that I have played this year more than Flip7. A simple push your luck, card game where players are given cards in turn order.
Each card could be numbered from 0 to 12 with as many of that number in the deck as the number itself. You are trying to get as many unique cards as possible before you go bust by drawing a repeat of one you already have. If you manage to stop before going bust you total the numbers and that’s your score for the round with rounds continuing until someone reaches 200.
There are also extra power cards to spice things up like ‘freeze’ cards allowing you to force another player to stop, or a ‘second chance’ give you, well, exactly that if you draw a repeat card as well a few others to make it more exciting. But the thing that drives the game is if you ever reach 7 number cards without going bust, the round immediately ends and you get a bonus for doing do.
It is fast and energetic and I currently have over 80 plays under my belt this year. Flipping great game!
Conclusion
So, there you have it! A wide range of gaming tastes and styles. From the wildlife Euro-style of Kavango to the fast and fun Flip7. I hope our bloggers have inspired you to play games that you love. Don’t worry about how old they are or if they aren’t part of the latest hype. Play board games you love; that’s what matters most.
