This is not a comprehensive list of all the games we’ve tested. We’ve included the finalists from our original testing, plus other notable alternatives that folks might enjoy in different situations.
Azul’s strategy and theme are unique—you’re a Portuguese artisan decorating the walls of a palace, and you gain points based on tile placement. Once you master the slightly tricky rules, the game is easy to play, with short rounds, and it has beautiful art. We enjoyed working our brains while playing Azul, and it won the 2018 Spiel des Jahres award. But it’s not interactive, and we don’t think it prepares players for next-level strategic Eurogames as well as some of our picks do.
Betrayal at House on the Hill is too complex for beginners, but some of our staffers love this game.
Camel Up isn’t as popular as our picks, and reviews report that the directions can be a bit confusing.
Catch the Moon has a lovely, calming theme, as you stack ladders in precarious, gravity-defying towers that wouldn’t be out of place on a Cirque du Soleil stage. But its charm wore off after a few plays due to its simplicity. Overall, it lacked the interesting choices and tension of our dexterity-game pick.
Clank is a deck-building game that came recommended to us as a more fun and accessible alternative to the popular Dominion. But it took us far longer to play than the estimated time on the box, and players can “die” with zero points and then have to wait out the rest of the game.
The Fuzzies is a colorful and weird game reminiscent of Jenga, as it tasks players with pulling fuzzy spheres out of a tower and placing them higher. But the gravity-defying nature of the fuzzies makes it feel a bit more magical than Jenga, and the penalties you’re saddled with if you cause any of them to fall (covering one eye, putting your arm in front of your face like an elephant trunk) give this game a wacky edge. Overall, it’s best suited to younger players, especially compared with the other games in this guide.
Mostly a game about slowly pushing discs onto a table, Kabuto Sumo lacks a lot of the splashy look of most of the dexterity games we played. It’s a cerebral game that presents players with some interesting choices, but we concluded that most people would appreciate the more active energy of our dexterity pick.
King of Tokyo has a host of wacky characters, from aliens to zombies, that battle players to become the King of Tokyo. But we cut it because players could get eliminated early on.
Kingdomino is a 2017 Spiel des Jahres winner that tester Kimber likened to Carcassonne. In it, you build a map and gain points by grouping land types together, but on your own board. Although it’s fun, Kingdomino is less interactive than our picks, and its rulebook is less straightforward.
Kingdom Builder is a tile-laying, settlement-building game that we dismissed because the experts we interviewed told us that there were better games in this genre, and it had a weaker BoardGameGeek rating—7.0 out of 10, across 15,000 ratings, at the time of our testing—than similar games like Carcassonne and Catan.
Love Letter is a wonderfully portable game, fitting into most pockets that would hold a cell phone. We liked the concept and gameplay. But whereas Coup led to a lot of energetic talking, interacting, and accusations among our group, Love Letter was mostly furtive, suspicious glances as we quietly tried to assess who held which cards. That could be good for some quieter outings or settings—such as at a coffee shop, or at a restaurant while you wait for your order—but our test group preferred the interaction and conversations that Coup facilitated.
Munchkin wasn’t as compelling or as fun in our experience as our party picks.
Mysterium is a cooperative deduction game that Wirecutter staffers like, but compared with our party-game picks, it has a drawn-out playing time and lower replay value.
We were excited to play Photosynthesis, which has stunning art and a rare theme that doesn’t center on capitalism. Unfortunately, the game was extremely slow and not very interactive.
Power Grid felt too challenging for our next-level specifications, but we tried it again when testing strategy games.
We like Qwixx a lot but dismissed it in favor of party games that could accommodate more players. Instead it’s featured in our roundup of roll-and-write games.
Rhino Hero: Super Battle is a simple dexterity game designed for younger players, and in our testing we found that it wasn’t particularly satisfying to play as an adult. Additionally, its foldable paper components are so flimsy that we suspect they wouldn’t hold up well over time.
We love the look of Sagrada—you use dice to make stained-glass windows on an individual board—but it involves lighter strategy than you can find in our picks.
Santorini was our previous pick for a great two-player game, and it’s fun and easy to learn. Kimber described the strategy as a “mash-up between checkers and Connect Four.” Although god cards can add oomph after you’ve played a few times, this game has a short play time and light strategy, and if more than two people are involved, players can get knocked out early on.
Secret Hitler is a deduction-based party game with complex rules and a difficult learning curve. Although it was fun once our eight players understood how to play, we dismissed this game because of its potentially offensive theme.
Several staffers recommended Sheriff of Nottingham. This bluffing party game is a lot of fun once you get the hang of it, but it takes longer to master than our picks. We played with a group of four, and though we enjoyed a second round, it took us more than 20 minutes to explain the rules—not ideal for a party game.
Sushi Go wasn’t as compelling or as fun in our experience as our party picks, but Sushi Go is one of our favorite games for families.
Terraforming Mars felt too challenging for our next-level specifications, but we tried it again when testing strategy games.
We loved Tokyo Highway. Everything from the minimalist aesthetics to the breezy setup helped us enjoy this dexterity building game that, while similar to Men at Work, was distinct in its challenges and goals. But in the time since we tested the game, it has become much harder to buy. If you can find Tokyo Highway, it’s a great game to add to your collection.
Welcome to the Dungeon is another push-your-luck-style game, with more strategic depth than Zombie Dice—especially because your choices in each round add more pressure on the other players—but it wasn’t as engaging as Coup.
Wordle: The Party Game is an attempt by Hasbro to capitalize on the popularity of the word-guessing game that captured the internet’s attention in 2022. (Like Wirecutter, Wordle is part of The New York Times Company.) At $20, it’s cheap, but it doesn’t do much to translate the joys of the digital game to a tabletop setting. It also introduces new annoyances, some of which feel like lazy oversights—such as providing four whiteboards but only three dry-erase markers (and no erasers). It’s worth picking up if you’re a die-hard Wordle fan and you want a conversation piece for your shelf, but you probably won’t pull it down often.
Zombie Dice is a quick, simple push-your-luck game that everyone in our test group picked up on quickly. But overall it was too simple compared with the other options, and it didn’t hold our testers’ attention for very long.
