How Many of These Best Board Games Have You Played?

In 2008, the sale of the best board games jumped 23.5% to $808 million. This may sound odd, considering that we’re in a recession and all, but it seems that Americans are cluing into the fact that a Scrabble board game costs a third of the price of a new video game and can provide just as much entertainment, and more social entertainment to boot!

So what best board games are hot ticket items during today’s recession? Byrne says games like Blokus, Settlers of Catan and Wits & Wagers are some of the hottest selling games for 2009. If you’re looking to buy games, then here are some of this year’s favorites.

Writers on the site about.com recently weighed in on some of their favorite party boardgames and family games of the year. Scene It is a new game that teenagers particularly love that works with a DVD player, where opponents have to guess which movie different scenes are from and shout out answers to movie trivia. There are also variations like Disney Scene It, Seinfeld Scene It and Harry Potter Scene It for the devout fans. Quiddler is a fun word game that works well at teaching kids their language skills.

The “Best Family Game” is Pandemic, which has you racing to cure four diseases before mankind is wiped out. The “Best Family Card Game” is called Palastgeflster, which involves courtyard martials, kings and magicians tangled in a royal mystery. The “Best Party Game” is Go Nuts, which awards players points by rolling dice and adding up acorns. Additionally, Doris won the best of the puzzle board games and Jumbulaya won the best of the word board games.

Whether you’re having a couple of friends over, hoping to break the ice at a party, or looking for some post-dinner family entertainment, the best board games provide hours of entertainment. Looking in your closet, you notice the usual suspects: Connect-4, Operation, Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly and The Game of Life. Seems like it’s time to update your game collection! As you grow older, you’ll need to buy games that are more suitable for parties and group fun. You’re in luck, as we’ve scoured the Internet awards lists, blogs, news articles and best sellers lists to find the hottest games of 2009.

The 2009 American International Toy Fair in New York City introduced some great new boardgames this year. Pants on Fire (3 or more players, ages 10+) is a fun story-telling game, where a player writes brief stories about each of the three topics revealed. For example, a “bad date” or a “first job,” and the other players have to guess if the story is “true or false.” Another fun boardgame, Pressure Point (3 to 8 players, ages 10+) has players racing against the clock to give answers down a list of questions as quickly as possible, while other players bet on the number of correct answers they think the player will give.

Masters of Venice (2 to 5 players, ages 10+) uses games strategy where players must act as 15th century Italian merchants trading spices, silks, gems, iron and grain, while playing alternate characters like thieves, harbor masters and gondoliers. Time’s Up: Title Recall (4 to 8 players, ages 12+) is a fun party game that asks players to guess the famous person associated with famous books, movies, songs and albums. A new 10th anniversary edition of Time’s Up has also been released this year.

The Dice Tower Game Awards has identified some of the top boardgames of 2009. Their site says, “The BEST GAME OF THE YEAR award goes to a game that is the ‘cream of the crop’… this is a combined result of the games’ physical presentation, strategic choices, and most of all – a sense of fun.” This award goes to Agricola, Battlestar Galactica, Dominion, Pandemic and Stone Age. One of their goals is also to reward SMALL PUBLISHER awards to new up-and-coming developers who may get overlooked in the shuffle because they have five or fewer published games. This award goes to Galactic Emperor, Snow Tails, 2 de Mayo, Pizza Box Baseball and Tinner’s Trail.

Dominion is a strategy game where players try to earn the most victory points by building the best deck including buying action, treasure and victory cards. Marrakech has everyone role-playing salesmen who are rolling dice, moving pawns and making decisions, while trying to outwit the competitors. Stratum has players layering pieces to cover their opponents. Tic-Tac-Ku is similar to Tic-Tac-Toe except that there are nine playing areas.

As you can see, there are lots of choices from the best board games categories. Pick one out that you haven’t played before and have some fun tonight.