The real secret power of codenames is that you can easily have people drop in and out of the guessing teams, which is very good in a casual party environment.

Grandma! This suitcase is full of crossbows! We've *talked* about this!

It's crazy how apt your description of Skull is! I bought it a while ago off your recommendation, and the first time I played it with my friends I could almost visibly see them go "So how is this going to be fun?" Then, during the first three rounds, I saw the revelation of this game's subtlety grow in their minds, and now they ask me if I brought it pretty much any time I come over! Such a good game!

Finally a game board channel that is quick, informative, and no annoying graphics every 5 seconds. Subscribed.

The image of Matt in a reindeer outfit was not one I thought I needed.

@korenn9381

5 жыл бұрын

Same here. Turns out, I was right.

@davidwit7749

5 жыл бұрын

It's right up there with the shot of Paul in the Cuddle Room during their "Caverna" review.

@nathansurgenor

5 жыл бұрын

My immediate thought was "I can't let my wife see this"; she has enough of a crush as it is!

@blueseqperl

5 жыл бұрын

'Draw me like one of your French girls.'

@TravisPrebble

5 жыл бұрын

Heck, that just became my Christmas card.

The other edition of Skull has a Día de los Muertos theme, which is nice-looking and quite appropriate.

Sheriff of Nottingham = "What's in yer bag, ye bastard!" LOL

15. Pictomania 14. Cockroach Poker 13. Codenames 12. Decrypto 11. Mysterium 10. Flamme Rouge 9. Flick 'em up 8. Sushi Go Party 7. Magic Maze 6. Shift Eyed Spies 5. Diamant 4. One Night Ultimate Werewolf 3. The Resistance: Avalon 2. Sheriff of Nottingham 1. Monikers 1. Skull

Great list! Alternate title: "Matt moans while touching good games"

@TrevorusPrime

5 жыл бұрын

This is scarily accurate

@worldtraveler721

4 жыл бұрын

Well I wonder what else that he touches makes him moan 🤔🤭

I felt like Sheriff of Nottingham had a weird game theory problem. As sheriff, it's never in your interest to take a bribe to not check someone's bag if you believe it has contraband. Being zero-sum, they're not going to bribe you for more than half of what the bag could benefit them--otherwise the sheriff would be getting more from the exchange than they would. As a result, it only makes sense to *_at least double-bluff,_* e.g. pretending to be an innocent-person-pretending-to-be-guilty while you are in fact guilty, or pretending to be a guilty-person-pretending-to-be-innocent while you are in fact innocent. It really hurt the experience for me because the core draw of being able to simply bribe to get contraband through... just doesn't actually work at that level.

@horserage

3 жыл бұрын

Variant it, mess with giving king status to contraband at the end of the game. Many people have problems with it, but it is fixable for the group.

One remark about Monikers.. I love it and own it but if this is meant to be a family list, note that this one is for "adults" and non prudes. Don't end up in a situation where you're inadvertently explaining what a "fluffer" is to some kids or churchy extended family or something.

@werewolfkai

5 жыл бұрын

Time's Up is the variant for that audience. Same three round tiers. Time's Up Title Recall is my personal favorite.

@blessingoc3731

5 жыл бұрын

It is also an extremely short run game that is out of stock / expensive everywhere

@dynamicworlds1

5 жыл бұрын

Hahaha!

@llouie4999

4 жыл бұрын

My sister purposefully went through the box and pulled out the "awkward" cards when we played with a group that included our mom. A couple still managed to slip by. Oh well, explaining amusing memes made up for it! *Cue dramatic squirrel*

Loved the sugar callback during Flamme Rouge :)

@philidips

5 жыл бұрын

"Its for energy"

@andrewmoss5770

5 жыл бұрын

I was half expecting quinns to appear

@Anergyne

5 жыл бұрын

I was half expecting that track to play.

Got cockroach poker to play with my wife's family. It was a blast. Thanks!!

Monikers is my all time favorite party/social gathering game for gamers and non-gamers alike. SO much fun. Lol ...and while the expansions seem a little expensive they're all SO good and you get a ton of cards with each one.

I bought my family Codenames last year for Xmas and they never ended up playing it so I taught it to them this year because I visited and needless to say, they regret not opening that box sooner.

Congratulations. Your best review so far IMO. Great overviews, great insights. and some good recommendations to boot.

@buffalobear160

5 жыл бұрын

No mention of the reindeer onesie?

WE NEED AN UPDATED ONE OF THESE! PLEASE AND THANK YOU! Grandma, get off my keyboard! Now, as I was going to say... Oh.. nevermind. Good job grandma!

"It's not even 10am!" Me watching this video at 9:59am: :0

The hook for Sushi Go is "KAWAII"!

I have the majority of the games and whole heartedly agree with the list. Kochroach poker and sheriff of Nottingham are our most played

hahaha 'whats in ya bag bastards' cracked me up far more than it should of. great video guys.

code names is perfect. Great with young kids learning words, and easy for people to hop in and join or leave and go check on that turkey

"Grandma! This suitcase is full of crossbows! We've talked abut this!" 🏹👵🏹 🤣🤣🤣

So good and funny reviews. Matt is definitely the best presenter of SUSD to me! Keep up the good work! Not interested in any of these games (or i already got them) but boy that was entertaining!

If these look too complicated or if you're family is not big on deception/bluffing games. I suggest the following games: Catch the Moon (Dexterity), Skull King or Parade (Trick-taking Card Games), For Sale (Bidding), Rise of Augustus ("Gamer Bingo"), Just One and Wits & Wager (Party games).

16:00 I was not expecting a sad panda reference on this channel lmao

I hadn't heard of that spy game, thanks for mentioning it!

For Sushi Go I'd recommend playing the unofficial variant rules "Sushi Nope", where you have to minimise your points. Very fun.

@zerarch77

5 жыл бұрын

Never tried that. Neat idea!

Got Skull, Cockroach Poker and Mystrium in this list. All are excellent

I love this channel so much.

I clicked on this eager to see Matt in a turtleneck sweater and got rewarded with him reclining in a skin-tight raindeer costume! Nice!

Is anyone else not surprised that Matt has a reindeer onesie?

@GPlewright

5 жыл бұрын

Carpe Mkarzi But is there a link to buy a reindeer onesie?

I bought my dad flamme rouge for christmas last year. The family was super dubious about sitting around with a board game, but after a few rounds of flamme rouge (and a few rounds of port) everyone was clammouring to keep playing

Great list. Thanks! I hope to play Skull, Shadows: Amsterdam and Downforce with a family this year.

Very well done video. Clear, brief explanations and clever humor. This guy's good!

Excellent video! Excellent list! I'm planning to bring games to our family gathering this Christmas and I already have some of the games mentioned :)

@jadonwilder2653

5 жыл бұрын

U

What I love about any of the guessing games - Mysterium, Codenames, Monikers, etc. is watching other players that better "get" what the other was trying to say trying to to make sense of someone on a completely different track (and vice versa of course!)

How do y'all think of these one-liners? "It couldn't be more simple if you concussed it with a shovel" I'm rolling on the floor oh my goodness hahahahaha

My folks really got on with Hey That's My Fish 🎏 really good!

Code Names is a hit with my bf's family. People shuffle in and out of the room, teams change, it's a blast. It's educational for the kids and just good plain fun for the adults.

What a great video! Thanks for the recommendation on Cockroach Poker; my wife is a fan of the movie "How to lose a guy in 10 days" in which they play a similar game; I think I can easily get her on board with this :-D

It's Nov 23, 2020, and this video hits differently

I love RoboRally for gatherings, too. There is enough chaos and luck to make people feel like they aren't inherently at a disadvantage for not being familiar with board games. It can run long on big maps, though.

@jasonjanisewski78

5 жыл бұрын

Robo Rally is an amazing game

Great job as usual, Matt. Small correction though... Diamant actually came out before Incan Gold. This is a new release of the original, which I liked a bit better than Incan Gold (even though they're mostly the same).

I love Sherrif of Nothingham and Mysterium. I haven't played any of the others.

Don't you get to choose which coaster you discard if you hit your own skull? Anyway, Matt in a reindeer suit is the biggest Christmas treat of all. Great video SU&SD

I really like your energy and enthusiasm. Subscribed

Diamant is an upgraded version of Incan Gold with less ambiguous stay and go cards and about the same price? I never knew this existed!

"Jungle Speed" is always a hit if you need something for 5+ people

Best "spirit of Christmas" ever!

I played Skull & Roses years ago but could never remember what it was called! I'll have to get that one

Thought this was a great list. I'd have added Dice Throne to the list, for sure, and maybe a couple others... I hadn't considered Magic Maze seriously before, but now I'm very curious. Skull seems simple and easy as well.. will have to check it out.

You guys are the best. I wish I had friends who liked board games so I could show your videos to them! I don't have any friends though so I'll just have to watch the video over and over! :D

@josephvanderhoven9967

5 жыл бұрын

me too man

@Veslanjejezivot

5 жыл бұрын

maybe go to the local club or shop where people with the same interest are hanging out?

This made me giggle a few times.

Remember when we were worried about family descending on us at Christmas?… hopefully this year!

LOL. The spirit of Christmass.

I’ve done it but over several separate games . Imperial assault skirmish 2 games . For every rebel victory the player gains one sabatage token to place on any imperial system in the rebellion game. every imperial victory an extra probe card . For legion every rebel victory you reduce the number of imperial ground troop units by three and vice versa . Same principle in armada . Rebel victory reduces the number of big ships by 2 units and vice versa . And X wing same principle only with small ships . All these games are played before playing the final game showdown of rebellion. Also if any of you decide to field hero’s in the smaller games before rebellion ( say you use Han Solo in your legion game and he gets killed he is taken out of the hero pool in the rebellion game .

"Couldn't be more simple if you concussed it with a shovel" caught me so off guard wtfff

1:15 Mermaid! Anxiety! No, Plymouth!

All with a family-friendly rollneck jumper!

I think a game everybody should have played is TAC. Maybe not that much of a family's game, but we still play it in our family once or twice a month. It's just so good and clean! :D

Perfect timing, I always pick up a new game for Christmas and I am looking for this years.

Sushi Go Party is really fun

Give also "Get The Gun Shoot THE SNITCH" a try.

First 50 seconds have been amazing!

One of my favourite games for bigger groups is Kill Doctor Lucky, although it’s terribly hard to find

I've been hungrily seeking Monikers for so long. I may not have any friends to play with, but it's just a nifty box! Decrypto also looks like a really interesting next step on something like Codenames that I feel like i should get, but I again have no friends... Board games is hard.

@celinedeknop8888

5 жыл бұрын

Decrypto is awsome ! (But can start fights with picky people. I had to ask the creators on facebook to end the argument x) ). Beware that it can't be played by less than 3, and plays better starting at 4, then every even number above that ;)

@josephbromley3364

5 жыл бұрын

Grab Time’s Up: Title Recall, it’s the same game but better (using movie, TV, book and song titles rather than famous people).

@kas9402

5 жыл бұрын

I was sort of interested in decrypto too, but my friend I often play games with is colorblind so it might be a problem...

@celinedeknop8888

5 жыл бұрын

@@kas9402 It shouldn't be, unless they can't see red *at all*. The "put the text behind a colored sheet of paper" is actually a trick used by color blind people to be able to know the color of something ;)

Cockroach poker sounds like a slightly modified version of the card game “BS” haha.

@MrFett-od3xn

4 жыл бұрын

it does i like its aesthetic though

Such good games. I want them.

Spirit of Christmas was the best!

That's a sweet 'meet me at mcdonalds' going on.

playing skull at the pub with coasters good times

For an extra laugh keep your eyes fixed on the Shifty Eyed Spies box.

Onscreen graphic says Skull plays "2-6 players" -- from what I can tell, it's actually 3-6. :)

Great choices for sure. Btw... your hair is bangin! Merry Christmas!

oh, deer Matt.

Good list. Personally I'd change a couple of games, just my own taste: - Replace Mysterium with Deception: Murder in Hong Kong. Very similar feeling games but Deception is more streamlined and easier to get into. It also has the traitor mechanic which makes things interesting. (If traitors aren't your thing though then Mysterium would be the way to go since it's fully cooperative.) - For traitor games my favorite is still Secret Hitler, I prefer that game to both One Night Ultimate Werewolf and The Resistance (Avalon). It's easy to teach, the retail version has great looking components and it has some interesting twists that make things kind of interesting (e.g. Hitler doesn't know who his fascist allies are) - In terms of team versus team word guessing games I think Werewords (or if you prefer the very similar game Insider) is fantastic. It's 20 questions with a traitor trying to throw the guessers off the scent. (I haven't played Decrypto so I can't say how it compares, just that Werewords seems like a good fit to the list.) Finally, regarding Codenames, I highly recommend getting Codenames: Duet as an expansion to allow you to play Codenames as a two or four player cooperative game. It plays almost exactly like normal team vs team Codenames but in this case the two teams are trying to jointly clear their agents on the board before time runs out. It's a great variant on the original game for people, like myself and my friends, who like cooperative games as much or more than competitive ones.

@kas9402

5 жыл бұрын

I came to the comments to recommend Secret Hitler! I don't actually like playing it myself because I don't like games where you have to lie. It's a mechanic that just makes me uncomfortable personally. However, most people love this game and every time we play there's always laughter and loud arguments and witnessing your friends being totally horrible at understanding each other's personalities, so yeah!

Thanks, some great suggestions

Fantastic list, many thanks.

That deer do be packin tho

Really great! Wonderful choices

Dixit would be another great choice!

@BardicLiving

5 жыл бұрын

That's definitely one of the better clue-guessing games, and easy for any group to pick up. Maybe they thought it was too similar to Mysterium.

Camel Up is missing! Such a great family game

@MagikanVearlae

5 жыл бұрын

Victoria Bishop Camel Up is my favoured choice with larger groups. The races always seem close thanks to the oasis/mirage mechanic and nothing gets a bigger laugh than being half way round the course and somehow all 5 camels are on the same space and you just hope your camel bet is the one left on top after all the shuffling!

I would have to Celstia to this list. Push your luck shenanigans are always fun.

@MagikanVearlae

5 жыл бұрын

Andrea Grisell Great suggestion! Whilst I haven’t played it with family yet, it has become a fast favourite with my more casual board gaming groups.

Funny, Creepy, and Oddly Informative. What a perfect formula for a KZread video. 😜👍

My family tried playing Magic Maze once. It ended up just being me silently yelling at everyone with that "do something" token.

Oh yeah ---great suggestions!

Waaaah! Awesome. Some SUSD in the morning!

I love Christmas too!

Best game reviewers on KZread.

You in your PJs is disturbing but wow great job on this video. Very entertaining and I put 4 of your your recommendations in my Amazon cart for later purchase!

Diamant came first, in German, French and Italian. Incan Gold, the English version, came out in 2006, the following year.

You can see his Rudolph

Ahhhh! Wizard sugar!

“Bit Rulesy”

Those curls....real or augmented? Nice porcelain on the wall too

bought cockroach poker right away thanx

What's in yer bag ye bastard, that's when this video went up a notch in my estimation. Good video and good game choices

I have DEFINITELY gone "whoa-a-a" when playing Skull.

Thanks! This is great!