Every new year brings about a fresh start, a chance to improve oneself with new year’s resolutions (spoiler: they’ll be broken by President’s Day), and looking forward to a new year (spoiler: that’ll be a different post from our most anticipated games). It’s also a time to reflect back on the year that was. And in the board game space, that means making a list of our favorite games, which, for some of us, can be as anxiety-inducing as the Gen Con hotel lottery.

We live in a wonderful era of gaming, where no matter what style of game you like, there were probably quite a few quality releases last year. Here are the staff’s picks for our favorite board games from 2025.

The Best Board Games from 2025

Ada’s Dream

Chosen by Victoria
This game lives up to its title as it truly is a dream to play. Ada’s Dream is a heavy Eurogame featuring a dice-drafting rondel as a means of interacting with three distinct mini-games. Players embody contemporaries of Ada Lovelace as they work with her to build the first computer. The game leans into this theme with a gorgeous production featuring point-scoring objectives on adorable punchcards and dual-layered gears used to form basic mathematical functions that will help calculate your final score. If the theme alone doesn’t entice, there’s also some deck-building, track-bumping, multi-use dice (pips, colors, and draft location all have different effects), as well as set-collection, and area control. It’s an AP-inducing puzzle with a mixture of short-term tactics as well as long-term strategy that is sure to appeal to lovers of brain-burning heavy Eurogames with multiple routes to victory.

1-4 Players • Ages 14+ • 90-120 minutes • $45

Galactic Cruise

Chosen by Andy
The premier name in Heavy Board Games™ is Vital Lacerda, designer of such rulebook beasts as Lisboa, On Mars, and Speakeasy. But in my view, the best “Lacerda” to come out in the current decade, and certainly in 2025, is Galactic Cruise, created by three new designers:, T.K. King, Dennis Northcott, and Koltin Thompson. The similarity is enhanced by the art and graphic design, provided by Lacerda’s long-time collaborator, Ian O’Toole, who does a fabulous job with iconography that puts almost the entire rulebook onto the board in a form of 22nd-century hieroglyphics. The point of Galactic Cruise is to build luxury space yachts, equip them with food, fuel, and plenty of oxygen, then create and market interesting itineraries to three different types of travelers, finally launching them into space. You do this in a race with your fellow cruise executives to meet three utterly arbitrary goals set by your soon-to-retire boss, which get increasingly difficult if other executives achieve them first. Add up a salad bar of end-game points, and the winner replaces the retiring CEO. If you like sequential logic puzzles and sending meeples into space, Galactic Cruise could be a hit in your household. Singing the Gilligan’s theme song every time you launch is optional.

1-4 Players • Ages 14+ • 90-120 minutes • $120

Arydia The Paths We Dare Tread

Chosen by James
Arydia arrived late December 2024, and it was my favorite game from the first half of the year, and it’s the only game I’ve reviewed here on BGQ to get 5 Stars. Normally, I like to pick different games for the first half and year-end, but as much as I liked Smurfs Hidden Village, I couldn’t push it ahead at the end of the year. This is, for me, the quintessential co-op RPG-in-a-box with a nice mix of overland and location exploration, puzzle solving, RPG-like encounters with a broad assortment of characters, and combat. The combat system is slick, and rewards clever plays as different abilities and weapons do damage in different directions, with enemy health being pictures of the critters with spaces you’re covering with crystals for each hit. Leveling up is satisfying, and how you balance your choices for each ability and stat increase can have large impacts on your ability to pass various challenges. The game is expensive and delivers a premium quality product, but nothing gets destroyed in this green legacy game. I’m only partway through the experience but it’s been phenomenal. And I can’t wait for the fishing expansion—not because the game needs more, but it’ll be an extra thing for that second playthrough I expect to do in the future.

1-4 Players • Ages 10+ • 60-240 minutes • $240

The Old King’s Crown

Chosen by Zach
Pablo Clark descended from on High(lands of Scotland) to gift the world The Old King’s Crown. Created entirely by Clark—Designer, Artist, and Writer—plus an assist from none other than Ricky Royal in the Solo mode, The Old King’s Crown oozes theme and intrigue.
Players guide asymmetric factions, each vying for the titular Old King’s Crown in a stunningly illustrated aging Kingdom. The game runs through all four seasons 4-6 times to complete a game. Each player starts with an identical deck of multi-use cards, which can be used for various actions. The meat of this game is in the bluffing and gamesmanship of knowing what your opponents have in their hands, where they may deploy them, and how you can counter.

1-4 Players • Ages 12+ • 60-120 minutes

The Peak Team

Chosen by Andrea
I was about to be ‘that person’ and do the whole, ‘well it wasn’t published in 2025, but the best game I played last year‘ thing until I remembered that The Peak Team was published in 2025. As I said when I reviewed it, every time I play this game, I like it more than the last time, and I already love it. Peak Team plays co-op or solo, putting you in the role of rangers attempting to traverse varied terrain to document animals. In solo, you are a team leader directing three rangers. Movement is controlled by cards, and the game increases difficulty by adding challenges across 5 different levels. I love everything about this game, and looking back, I can’t believe that I rated this only 4 when I did my review.

1-5 Players • Ages 8+ • 60 minutes • $35

Warfighter: The Tactical Special Forces Card Game

Chosen by Tony
As is tradition for me, since I’ve already picked my favorite game of 2025 in my Top 10 Board Games of 2025 list, I instead choose my favorite “new to me” game of the year. And this year, it’s the 2014 card game Warfighter. I’ve been doing a lot of solo gaming lately, and I heard this was a good choice. And it turns out it is (and also for coop). As I am a graphic designer by trade, I found the layout and design of the cards to border on insulting, but the gameplay itself is top-notch. You assemble a squad of special forces units and send them out on a mission. This might be heading into the jungle to take out a narco boss, or into the desert to stop a warlord. In any case, the game has tons of variety, interesting card play, and quick combat resolution. I love how many options there are to kit out your squad and for choosing your mission. I’ve already gotten a ton of expansions for this one and look forward to playing it more.

1-6 Players • Ages 12+ • 30-120 minutes • $69

A Place for All My Books

Chosen by Emma
Social anxiety and book hoarding are two cornerstone elements of my personality, and when you add in my love of board games, A Place for All My Books seems like it was designed just for me. The game got a lot of attention this year as the Barnes & Noble Game of the Year, and I think it deserves the positive buzz. Players visit shops in town collecting books until their social battery runs out, and then try to place those book tokens in their house tableau in a way that matches certain pattern and goal designs. The pieces and art design are beautiful, and it strikes a solidly approachable medium weight that gives it a little more complexity than expected while still being playable with gamers and non-gamers alike.

1-4 Players • Ages 10+ • 45 minutes • $45

Great Western Trail: El Paso

Chosen by April
I’ve always loved Great Western Trail, but there are some things about the game that I find subtly frustrating. The worker track being one, and how darn hard it can be to get the workers you want. Also, as much as I love the game and as much as I want to be a crunchy gamer who adores loads of strategy, sometimes it could be a bit much for my tired mom-brain at the end of a busy day. So I decided to try El Paso, which was supposed to be a somewhat lighter version of Great Western Trail, and I wasn’t really sure what to expect. Yet… I sort of fell in love. This game tones down the parts of the original I found exhausting—the tedious upkeep and calculations—while playing up on the things I liked best about it: the deck building and the satisfaction of getting a good sale at the market. I really like how the workers get discarded when you use them, but they’re shuffled back into your deck so you gain access to them later, adding a small element of luck and excitement to the game. While I intend to keep the original and usually am not big on owning multiple variations of the same game, this is one I intend to add to my collection because I think it will get played more often.

1-4 Players • Ages 12+ • 60-90 minutes • $35

Vantage

Chosen by Brian B
Vantage is my game of the year. While I loved Elder Scrolls, I played Vantage significantly more. It is so easy to teach, to set up, and to play. Gamers and non-gamers both have enjoyed playing Vantage with me and have asked to play again immediately after finishing our game, which hardly EVER happens. They loved the open world design, as well as the dice allocation system; however, their favorite aspect of Vantage was the crazy stories the game created. We still talk about Chris the miner, or when Tom had a gang cruising around the world with him. It is by far the best open-world game I have played, as well as my favorite game I played in 2025!

1-6 Players • Ages 8+ • 30-240 minutes • $79

Moon Colony Bloodbath

Chosen by Dawn
You’d think a game you always lose wouldn’t be fun, but you would be wrong. In this shared deck-builder designed by Donald Vaccarino, players must quickly build their separate engines before things start to collapse. Simultaneous play makes the game move along briskly. Colonists are currency, and the goal is to keep them alive. Between accidents, robot attacks, and various other unpleasant events, it’s a bloodbath for everyone. Essentially, there is one loser, whose colony extinction triggers the end of the game, and the rest of the players take a grim count of their survivors to see who has lost the fewest. Morbidly good.

1-5 Players • Ages 12+ • 60 minutes • $49

Parks: Second Edition

Chosen by Kerry
Two games from 2025 stand out for me: Parks and Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship. The newest iteration of Parks has me bringing it to the table regularly for a relatively quick visit through the National Park cards. The game consists of moving your hikers along the board while you compete against other hikers to collect resources to help you accomplish goals, visit parks, and ultimately gain points. Trekking along the board, timing moves, collecting resources, and turning them into points doesn’t lose its charm for me, no matter how many plays. The second edition brings together the best of the expansions with some helpful setup and game-play improvements in one package. Whether playing with a group or playing solo, this game brings me joy.

1-5 Players • Ages 10+ • 30-60 minutes • $59

Nemesis: Retaliation

Chosen by Tahsin
Certain movies leave an indelible mark—creating “before and after” moments that change our world for the better. Aliens (1986) was one of those cinematic experiences for me. I missed the first film in theaters and had to suffer watching it on TV, but the sequel was pure terror, excitement, and non-stop, edge-of-your-seat wonder. While I can’t claim it fully replicates that specific exhilaration, Nemesis: Retaliation comes incredibly close. It distinguishes itself from typical dice-heavy dungeon crawlers, blending elements of adventure, social deduction, and cooperative nail-biting survival. This installment successfully carries the Nemesis legacy into a new era and, simply put, stands as my favorite game in the series. I won’t say it’s the most straightforward game in terms of mechanisms and play style, but the blend it offers is unique and deadly, especially for players in it for the experience rather than the win.

1-5 Players • Ages 12+ • 120+ minutes

Star Wars: Battle of Hoth

Chosen by Brian W
I had high hopes for Star Wars: Battle of Hoth and this game blew away my expectations. I own Battle Cry and have played Memoir ’44, but Star Wars: Battle of Hoth is my new favorite Command and Colors game. This game just rocks, with it being highly thematic with scenarios that closely mirror and compliment scenes from The Empires Strikes Back and has great production values. The campaign books use the scenarios that will vary based on the victor which is a simple but great mechanic to add variety and replayability. Also included are leader and support cards which are smart additions to help balance the game and add great options to a player’s command deck.

2-4 Players • Ages 8+ • 30 minutes • $55

Wroth

Chosen by Bailey
In my review for Wroth, I called it “my neon-soaked, unicorn-vomit Game of the Year.” This statement has held true through the latter-half of the year. Hot Streak brings joy, but sits well with games like Ready, Set, Bet. Magical Athlete is amazing, but for my money, doesn’t count as a 2025 release. Moon Colony Bloodbath is a blast, but I have found that after repeated plays, it begins to feel a bit stale. While it may seem like Wroth is my Game of the Year by default, that couldn’t be further from the truth. As an avid area-control fan, the fact that this is the only area-control game I still own should stick out as a sign of the game’s quality, variety, and depth. It’s easy to learn, hard to master, and a conniving, cheeky experience where anything is possible, and only the sneakiest of snakes have a chance to win. It deserves Game of the Year, even in a year as crowded and top-notch as this one.

1-4 Players • Ages 10+ • 60 minutes • $65

Magical Athlete

Chosen by Chris
I played 36 games that were released in 2025. I don’t know if that’s a lot compared to the rest of the staff (or even you, Dear Reader), but it does mean that I had a lot of options from which to make a selection. A few of my favorites I’m not picking are Moon Colony Bloodbath, Spooktacular, Tag Team, Zenith, Ra and Write, and Citizens of the Spark. All of these landed near the top of the charts for me and will be getting votes when (SPOILER ALERT) the folks here at BGQ start picking our annual awards. The game I’m ultimately choosing is a bit of a cheat since it’s a reimagining of an old game, but this new edition is spruced up, tweaked, and an absolute blast. Magical Athlete is a concept so simple and goofy that it’s easily dismissible, but never before has a roll and move with limited choices been this much fun. Since its arrival, I’ve played it way more than any other game from last year, and I’ve never not had fun. And there’s even a decent strategy when deciding which characters to draft and then when to actually run them in a race. The only real problem with the game? I want more. More athletes. More tracks. More magic. And I want all of it yesterday.

2-6 Players • Ages 6+ • 30 minutes • $29

Star Trek: Captain’s Chair

Chosen by Marcus
This is a bit of a cheat, since it wasn’t actually widely available till 2025 (and mine not arriving till April), despite early copies being available in 2024. Being a big fan of Star Trek-themed games, I’m always interested in trying new ones, and I was pretty excited for this one after reading Tony’s review in late 2024. It is a deck-building game in a literal sense, but it doesn’t feel like much of the genre. Building a deck is certainly a core concept, but only to a point, to allow you to complete very specific missions efficiently. Finding the way to get there is always a strategic challenge. The thematic conceit of the game is that you are in a training simulator in the time of Star Trek Discovery seasons 3-5, and it has been programmed with various captains and enemies from across time and space. So just a good excuse to mash everything up, basically. With 6 different captains in the base set from across the franchise’s history, and a progressively more brutal A.I. difficulty scale for the solo player, there’s a lot of replay value (i.e., it’s a great way to lose a lot of time). With the next two sets coming out sometime in the near future—or at least the near future in WizKids time—the possibilities will be endless.

1-2 Players • Ages 14+ • 60-120 minutes • $59