400+ New Games To Play

How would you like 400+ new board games and card games to play?

Well, if you’ve got the money I guess you could have flown to Germany and picked up over 400 new board games, card games, and roll playing games that released last week at the largest game conference in the world. Over 120,000 people converged in Essen, Germany at Internationale Spieltage SPIEL – the annual 4-day game trade fair – to get a glimpse at the latest and greatest in the gaming world.

And according to all the reports we’ve seen, it was another huge success this year. There were hundreds of gaming companies promoting their games to the extremely large crowd of attendees from all over the world. If you’re interest to read about all the action, a great place to read various reports is on Boardgamenews.com. One series in particular is by Dale Yu and he covers the convention in great detail with a number of photos.

But we really can’t imagine what it would take even take a peak at over 400 new games, let alone try to play them. Add those to the 10s of thousands of games already in existence and you have no shortage of games to play with your family.

Be Selective
Of course, we have no plans to even attempt such a feat. Compare it to other forms of entertainment or things you do for enjoyment like watching movies and reading books. And how do you go about being selective in which movies you see or books you read. By no means will you attempt to see or read them all.

Typically we know what type we like and then we selectively choose which ones we’ll watch or read. To get a taste of a different type of movie or book that we’re not as familiar with we might rely on the opinion of family, friends, and neighbors. Or as my wife and I do on occasion, we read a book that our kids are reading just to get a feel for what they’re experiencing.

So don’t expect that we’ll get anywhere near reviewing all the new games that come out every year. If you need that extent of coverage, then we’d recommend checking out The Dice Tower – since they’ve reviewed thousands of games and continue at a hectic pace.

Yes, we’ll continue to review new games that come out and tell you about those that we think are great for families. There are also a number of games we’ve played that we haven’t enjoyed as much. You won’t hear us talk about them because we know you’re after good game recommendations for your family.

So would we love to go to Essen and check out the largest game convention in the world?
Absolutely!

And would we end up picking up a number of new games in the process?
Most likely – because there are a number of games that just came out that look like they’ll be tons of fun to play. But we’ll be patient and see if they slowly trickle in to our game library – after all, Christmas is right around the corner and the wish list is still long.

And if you’d like to get some suggestions on games you might consider for your family for Christmas, then check out our Family Favorites or our Recommendation page.