Over the years, there’s been an extraordinary number of boardgame adaptations of popular media, especially movies and TV shows. Games like Dune Imperium/ War for Arrakis, Alien and even Jaws have popular adaptations, but what board games based on IP’s we love are lesser known?
In this post I want to look at surprising games based on a beloved movie or TV property that even surprised me that it had a game adaptation.
American Psycho: A Killer Game
This is the first of two games on this list I actually have in my collection. Taking inspiration from the very famous business card comparison scene this game is a trick taking game of one-upmanship where you have to indulge your yuppie side whilst trying to supress that psycho killer inside.
This captures some aspects of the movie well, leading a meeting with colleagues and playing cards to see who wins the contest for best business cards whilst managing your body count as these act as negative points. It’s a simple concept but also has an advanced rules mode where you add detectives and other special cards to the deck to make things more challenging.
For fans of the movie this is a must play. Now excuse me while I return some video tapes.
The Last Kingdom Board Game
Based on the epic Netflix series The Last Kingdom is a game of war and politics in Medieval England and is played over two rounds as you take control of your favourite character, build alliances between Saxon and Dane and choose to build Alfred's vision for an united land.
Mostly played out by placing armies and playing cards this one shares some mechanics with Blood Rage and Risk although it seems to be more centred around building affinity with factions and bringing peace to regions rather than all out dominance of the map.
I’ve not been able to find a copy of this one yet but as soon as I do it will be added to my collection.
Breaking Bad: The Board Game
Based on one of the most popular series you take control of one of the factions Heisenberg, Salamanca, Los Pollos or DEA and the objective is to either eliminate the other factions or produce the target amount of Blue Sky before the other factions. DEA faction doesn’t produce meth but is taked with taking the other three factions down.
As you build your meth stash, you play cards from your faction deck and as the stash gets bigger the danger builds as well, the higher your danger level the more cards the DEA faction can play against you. You must avoid being taken out by the FEDS.
Factions can take each other out by destroying eachothers labs, capturing their chemist or by dragging eachother into a gunfight. You can even break out of jail if the DEA have you in custody.
This genuinely looks like a lot of fun and I really hope I get a chance to play this one soon.
Escape from New York
In the near future Manhattan island is a high security prison cut off from the rest of society, unfortunately Air Force One has crashed on the island and only the badass mercenary Snake Pliskin can save him.
Playing as Snake and his crew you need to explore the city, find the president, retrieve his briefcase, pick up the map of the island and escape before the time runs out. You explore by flipping over tiles on the map to reveal routes, events and items. Combat is played with an action deck and your hand of action cards doubles as your health. If you run out of cards you run out of health.
On the board there is the countdown card and every time you need to heal you can spend a countdown card replenishing your hand. If the Countdown deck runs out, the game will be over. Each character plays slightly differently and as the map tiles are drawn randomly from the city deck, there should be a lot of variety from game to game.
As a huge fan of the movie, John Carpenter and of course Kurt Russell I really want to add this one to my collection.
Spartacus: A Game of Blood and Treachery
This is the final game on the list that I own and is one of my favourites in my collection. Based on the epic TV show of the same Spartacus lets you take control of a character from the show and build your Ludus by buying slaves and gladiators and try to crown your champion of the arena.
Heavily relying on deception and cunning this game has you buy guards, servants and fighters in auction, manage your finances, build alliances, break alliances, betray other players and kill gladiators in the glory of battle. It has it all!
This isn’t a quick game to play and can be mechanic heavy but with the right group of players this is one hell of a fun game.
If you’re not betting on fights, you might be tricking players into paying over the odds for resources in the auctions or maybe even building you Ludus to generate income at a faster rate so you can outbid everyone and take charge of the arena weakening another players standing.
Just like the show this is an absolute barnstormer of a game and I highly recommend it.
I hope you enjoyed the list and if you have any other suggestions please let us know. Some of the games included on the list are available on the Zatu store so please check them out and maybe add one to you your collection.
