Blog Archives
Best Week 2023! Puzzle Time!
According to some folks, a puzzle is a game with only one solution. Fortunately for those of us who don’t take such an essentialist approach, dwelling in a deterministic universe means that everything has only one solution. Hence, every game is a puzzle!
Okay, maybe not. Today we’re applying a broader touch. These are my favorite games of 2023 that are all about combinations and solutions; games that feel like puzzles even if they don’t meet certain thresholds. These are the best puzzles and puzzle-alikes of the year.
Best Week 2023! Tricksy!
2023 is the year I learned to love trick-taking games, a process chronicled in my series This Trick-Taking Life. As you can probably imagine, there were a number of contenders for today’s list. Quite a few favorites were left out, including some that were simply too old to qualify. What follows is therefore an imperfect cross-section of a genre that may as well have all been new to me this year, but one that yet reflects my newfound affection for one of our hobby’s oldest genres.
Best Week 2023! Making Memories!
Not every game is meant to be replayed endlessly. Some are valuable for the experience they provide in the moment, generating memories that stick around long after everything has been stuffed back into the box. Which is why this second day of Best Week 2023 is all about the year’s best board games that provided exceptional impressions rather than demanding session after session.
Best Week 2023! Family Stuff!
You know what Space-Biff! has always been about? Family. Okay, it’s more often about board games. So consider today a synthesis. These are the past year’s best board games that I played with my extended family or nine-year-old. They’re light, they’re fluffy, and there’s a good chance they contain anthropomorphic animals in some degree of peril.
How Space-Biff! Will Be Using A.I.
As the world’s premier board game critic, the question I receive most is “So, are your parents, like, verbally disappointed, or are they more of silent letdown people?” Number two is “Do you intend to use A.I. generated text and images so you can focus on the important stuff, such as getting your family back to work at the steel mill?”
A luddite at heart, I’ve spent my fair share of time kicking against the future. No more. Today, I’m ready to unveil the steps I’m taking to embrace artificial intelligence art.
Best Week 2022! The Index!
We do this for posterity. Presumably, posterity will care very much about which board games we liked best each year.
Below the jump you will find links to each day of Best Week 2022. It was an excellent year, filled with games that were playful, meaningful, intriguing, and (ugh) fun. Here’s to another. May it be brighter and more rewarding than the last.
Best Week 2022! Mind’s Eye!
Gimmicks. Brinkmanship. Trauma. Tradency. Little by little, board games have been growing up, encompassing new ideas and new spheres of empathy and expression. This year, Best Week has been a celebration of that expansiveness. It’s a grand time to be pushing cardboard.
Sometimes, though, a game is about sussing out an opponent’s move before even they know what they’ll do. Playing 4D chess. Wheels within wheels within wheels. Today we turn our inner eye toward the exemplars that let you get into your loved ones’ heads.
Best Week 2022! Corrective Tradency!
When it comes to the transmission of culture, board games are an uncommon medium. Partly literary, largely oral, and entirely ludic, we’ve yet to see many games leverage their particular strengths to communicate effectively. Every so often, though, one shows up: a game that uses its language of play to set the record straight.
Today is about the best titles of 2022 to act as tradents of culture and history, leaning on their unique advantages as playthings and tablebound artifacts to open a clearer window to the past.
Best Week 2022! The Traumatics!
We are all broken. As board games grow more ambitious and tackle more mature topics, it’s inevitable that the traumas that are an inseparable part of life will receive treatments of their own. This is to be expected. Maybe it’s also to be expected that such games will be dour and full of halfheartedly ingurgitated meaning. What’s notable is when the games produced by this impulse are worthy of engagement. When they’re playable, interesting, thought-provoking, and yes, even my most despised curse word, when they’re “fun.”
Gah. I need to get that taste out of my mouth before it settles in for the night. So let’s talk about some board games. Today, we’re celebrating the best titles of 2022 about trauma, whether personal or systemic, hidden or overt. These are the traumatics.
Best Week 2022! Seeking Thrills!
Press-your-luck. Brinkmanship. Good old-fashioned hassling. Whatever you call it, this past year featured a wealth of great games that were about seeing how far you could escalate a situation before it blew up in your face. Today, we’re celebrating our hobby’s thrill-seekers.
SPACE-BIFF! 