Shelf Update: 2025 Year in Review

It's shocking how much can happen in just one year. Life ebbs and flows, circumstances change, and shelves grow, evolve, and shrink. Maybe it's my current stage of life and the job I keep, but I'm realizing that my own shelf is growing lighter. I don't have the time or mental energy for heavier games anymore, so I'm gravitating towards simpler fare.

Let's kick off the new year with another Shelf Update! Here are all the board games I've acquired in 2025 and quick impressions of them.

Agent Avenue

Nerdlab Games was kind enough to send me review copies of this and Mindbug. Both games are great, but I prefer Agent Avenue (only by a little bit) because it's simpler yet more tense. It's my favorite two-player cat-and-mouse game and I'm always down to play it. (Agent Avenue review)

Alibis

Allplay was kind enough to send me a review copy of this... and it's fantastic! It's basically So Clover! for larger groups. It's harder, too. It's not a party game—more of a chill but thinky word association game with cooperative tension. I really like this one. (Alibis review)

Bomb Busters

Bomb Busters is one of my contenders for favorite new-to-me game of 2025. It's the perfect cooperative logical deduction experience, hitting the right balance of thinkiness and coziness. It has logical difficulty without being overwhelmingly hard, and the whole package is so inviting with its cute aesthetic. Highly recommended for families. (Bomb Busters review)

Canvas

I snagged this early in 2025 during a sale, but I still haven't played it yet. All I know is that it's gorgeously welcoming with its theme and artwork. I'm going to make it a mission to play it this month!

Captain Flip

Push-your-luck games tend to be exciting, so I haven't seen many that are cozy and calm—like Captain Flip. It's just pleasant fun without being over-the-top bombastic, and there's always something satisfying about pulling cardboard tiles from a bag. (Captain Flip review)

A Carnivore Did It!

This game is pure logical deduction in a small box. If you like sudoku puzzles and the like, you'll love this one. You have a group of suspects making various claims about who the culprit is and you have to figure out who's lying, who's telling the truth, and who the culprit actually is. It's a great game to pull out on a whim. (A Carnivore Did It! review)

Castle Combo

It's hard for me to think of another game that packs more of a tableau-building punch in just 30 minutes than Castle Combo. It's both tactical and strategic, it's approachable, and it's satisfying every time. Add this one to the pile of games I'm always down to play. (Castle Combo review)

Cat in the Box: Deluxe Edition

I went into this trick-taking card game with heaps of skepticism. It seemed like a flash in the pan, mainly hyped for the novelty factor of its Schrodinger-inspired any-card-can-be-any-suit design. But it's actually pretty good! I won't always suggest it, but I'll always accept an invitation.

Century: Golem Edition

I love hand management, but I'm not so big on resource conversion games. They tend to feel dry, mechanical, and uninteresting. I haven't played Century: Golem Edition enough yet to arrive at a strong conclusion, but so far I'm lukewarm on it. The art and components are fantastic, though, so there's that. Hoping to play it some more this year.

Coloretto

Coloretto shares some DNA with Push, except it's less of a pure blackjack hit-until-I-bust experience and more of a tactical game of chicken. It's tense without feeling serious or thinky. It plays fast and it's just a plain good time—one of my favorite 15-minute card games.

Combo (Surfosaurus Max)

I've only played this once, so I'll reserve judgment until I can get a few more sessions under my belt. First impressions? It's all right. Semi-collaboratively building a poker hand is an intriguing idea, but it can feel like you don't have much agency at times. And while the fruit theme is fine, the name is astonishingly generic...

Diced Veggies

Got this for $20 on Amazon. I was drawn to the unique "dice block" cutting mechanism, and the simple recipe fulfillment looked relaxing but engaging. I have a soft spot for "relaxing but engaging" games that aren't too thinky, and this one fits the bill pretty well. It has some flaws, but I came up with a variant that plays a lot better. (Diced Veggies review)

Flip 7

I'm so torn on Flip 7. It's a solid game that hits the same brain points that make blackjack so addictive. Push your luck and hope to hit! It's easy to pull out, simple to learn, and quick to play. But the CEO of The Op Games holds controversial views (to put it nicely) and I can't support that.

Floristry

If you've never played a game with Dutch auctions, you should try this one. The psychological tension of trying to drive the price as low as you can while laying off before your opponent does? It's fun! Floristry is app-assisted, so there's an objective referee running each auction, and it has a tile-laying puzzle with the auctions. It's also 2-player-only. (Floristry review)

Hot Streak

Here's another contender for favorite acquisition of 2025. Hot Streak is pure fun and excitement distilled into a potently wacky package. Who knew it could be so fun to bet on and cheer for a mascot race? A race where anything and everything can go wrong, mind you. It's as close as it gets to a party game without being a full-blown party game. (Hot Streak review)

The Isle of Cats Duel

I was always drawn to the original The Isle of Cats but could never pull the trigger because it just seemed so... bloated. So when I learned of this one—a streamlined 2-player-only version—I knew I had to jump on it. I've only played a few times and want to play some more before coming to a conclusion, but so far it's been pleasantly fine.

Kariba

While this tiny card game isn't going to knock anyone's socks off, I like it as a comfortable time killer. The ring-based card-shedding concept is fun and offers enough tactical/strategic meat that it doesn't feel random.

Las Vegas Royale

I bought Las Vegas Royale in a user auction over on BoardGameGeek and I probably overpaid for it. But I have no regrets! This game is unadulterated dice-chucking fun, and it can be as simple or as gamey as you want (thanks to the modular extras). It's another strong entry in my growing collection of don't-call-it-a-party-game board games.

Link City

Got this for about $19 on Amazon at the very start of the year because it pushed me over the same-day shipping threshold for another unrelated item I needed. I'd heard it was a good party game, so I played it a few times with my family. What a dud! I sold it on BGG soon after. (Link City review)

Mantis

The Exploding Kittens company has put out some good games in recent years, and Mantis is one of them. It's really basic and lucky, but it scratches the same blackjack-style itch of other ultra-simple push-your-luck games, and it's great with medium-sized groups.

Mindbug

Nerdlab Games was kind enough to send me review copies of this and Agent Avenue. It's a super-streamlined take on Magic: The Gathering, with a crazy "steal your opponent's card" mechanism that gives it a unique identity and ratchets up the tension. I like it. (Mindbug review)

Mountain Goats

Roll dice, pair them up, and climb the mountain to collect as many points as you can at the summit—until someone else reaches the summit and kicks you down to the bottom again. It's like Can't Stop but better! I bought this on a whim and I'm glad I did.

Odin

Odin is a simple card shedding game that's reminiscent of traditional card games, except it has two small tweaks that make it refreshingly new. I've enjoyed every game of it, but to me it's more of a time killer than something I actively seek to play.

Quiddler

Quiddler disappointed. Maybe my expectations were too high for a $10 card game from the early 1990s? I mean, I liked the idea of a hand management word-building card game, but what I got was a random luckfest where the word-building wasn't even that interesting. Fortunately, I brewed up a variant that feels a lot better and salvaged the whole thing for me! You can learn more about that in my review. (Quiddler review)

Railroad Tiles

Railroad Tiles is a cute little tile drafting, tile placement game that remixes the usual genre experience but doesn't add anything special on top. It's enjoyable enough and an improvement on Railroad Ink, but not worth getting if you already have something like Cascadia or Kingdomino Origins. (Railroad Tiles review)

Sky Team

Here's a gorgeous game that's unlike any other. You've seen games with limited communication, but not one with this much tension, modularity, replayability, and visual pop. It's fast, it's thematic, and it's 2-player-only. One of the hottest games ever and for good reason. (Sky Team review)

Spots

What an absolutely adorable package! And a dud of a game. Spots is the worst aspects of push-your-luck design, with too much randomness that it gets frustrating at times. While the idea is nice—and the artwork so lovely—there just isn't enough to outweigh the bad. (Spots review)

Stella: Dixit Universe

Ever wanted to play Dixit with fewer than 5 players? Well, Stella isn't exactly the same, but it's a pretty good spin-off that captures the vibe while making it more suitable for smaller groups. Though it's a smidge more gamery than Dixit, it's still quite accessible—and fun!

Tag Team

Next to Bomb Busters and Hot Streak, Tag Team is one of my favorite gets of the year. Who knew the war card game could be evolved into something a amazing as this? Technically, it plays itself—it's an auto-battler, after all—but your decisions as you modify your deck determine everything, and it's fun to watch those decisions play out in front of you. (Tag Team review)

Telestrations

Telestrations might just be the funniest party game I've ever played. It's something I've enjoyed over the past few decades with many different groups—some as large as 15 players!—but this year I found it at a thrift store for just $2 and I couldn't pass that up.

Trio

Trio was a surprise! This card game mashup of Go Fish and Memory Match subverts all expectations with one big twist, resulting in a lightweight game that's far greater than the sum of its parts. It's perfect for families and it has more depth than you'd think.

The Vale of Eternity

This one I bought because I got caught up in the hype train. The drafting, the hand management, the unique way currency works—it all sounded interesting, and I'd heard it was pretty darn good at 2 players, which was icing on the cake. But I've only played it one time since getting it and that wasn't even at 2 players. It wasn't bad but not sure why I'm struggling to get it to the table. Maybe this year. (The Vale of Eternity review)

Vegas Strip

Got this one as a review copy from Allplay. I had high hopes for it because I love the theme and I love psychological mind games. Unfortunately, Vegas Strip is a slog. Way too thinky, way too serious, without much of a fun factor to save it. My biggest disappointment of the year. (Vegas Strip review)

Vegetable Stock

Another one where I fell for hype. I love the idea of lightweight card games with minimal rules and the hope of emergent-like gameplay, but I'm starting to learn that maybe there's such a thing as too lightweight even for me. Vegetable Stock is one such game, as it hasn't been landing well no matter who I play it with. A bit too random? Maybe.

And That's a Wrap!

I acquired a lot more games than I realized in 2025, far more than I was capable of reviewing or even playing. Looking ahead at 2026, I'll probably scale back on acquisitions and focus on playing through what I have and reviewing what's still to be reviewed.

How's your own board game collection looking? Have you gotten anything cool lately? Regret getting rid of something? Tell me about it!