The 8 Best Board Games for Holiday 2021

Board games can be beautiful, intricate masterpieces of design and gameplay that melt the mind and eat up a good chunk of your day. They’re great, but not what you want to bust out when playing with less experienced players, or when you just don’t have the spare time. Space Park differentiates itself, though, by offering fantastic gameplay and design and keeping games brisk (under 30 minutes) while supporting up to four players.

Exploring the galaxy has never been so convenient, and each location you explore grants you “Explorer Points”—the player with the most by the end wins. With fantastic artwork and a premise that’s easy to grasp, this game makes sure you won’t have to spend forever explaining it while still getting a satisfying play session out of it.

In this fairly recent hit, Cubitos has you partake in the Cube Cup—an annual race full of strategy and hijinks that is sure to be the center of attention for your next family game night. The fastest in the pack wins the game, and with plenty of items available to give yourself the edge, there are a lot of strategies to consider. But be careful—going too fast causes you to lose everything so even if it looks like there’s a clear winner, that could change with one misstep. With such a balanced system, it means it’s anyone’s game right until the very end.

Azul works with up to four players, but if you’re looking for a relaxed board game that still has a competitive edge to play with your significant other, it definitely delivers. Instead of civilization-building epics or planet-scaling wars, Azul keeps things simple–you’re just decorating mosaics after all. But with points rewarded for proper tile placement, there’s a lot of puzzle-solving and planning that must be done to ensure victory.

Are you ready for an adventure?

Gloomhaven merges strategic board games and tabletop RPGs into one intense dungeon-crawling adventure. You and up to three other players all play a different adventurer—each with their own skills—and work together to clear out tombs, find loot, and progress the story. Matches are long (up to two hours in length), but the in-depth decisions you make keep things engrossing the entire way through. With so many options and roleplay being actively encouraged, this game is highly replayable—especially as you get new people to try it out.

Competitive games are great and all, but working together is also fun and 60 Second City allows you to do that with infrastructure. Turns are quick, and both players will have to make the right choice for the city to prevent the corrupting pollution from taking over. Complete the necessary goals to protect the city and build the perfect metropolis, all in less than 30 minutes per match.

You don’t need fancy pieces or extravagant boards to have a good time; cards are enough to tell grand tales and provide excellent gameplay. 2019’s The Crew – The Quest for Planet Nine was a great example of this, and now the series is back. The new follow-up game, The Crew – Mission Deep Sea, takes you and up to four other players on an aquatic, co-op adventure where you progress the narrative, make strategic choices together and conquer the increasingly difficult challenges. Working together is key here, and one false move can put the entire team at risk.

Want an expansive, long-winded game that gives you something to show for it? The Ancient World sees you and up to three other players building expansive, fantastical civilizations to defend yourselves from other players and the invading Titans. In it, you can manage resources, enjoy the gorgeous artwork, and build a narrative for your kingdom as you fight these massive beasts. Matches take, at minimum, one hour to play through, but you can expect that to increase drastically if you have a game full of players who really know what they’re doing.

Settle in for the long haul, and see who’s best fit to rid the world of these massive terrifying monsters once and for all.