Eight great games from 2025
Every year's a great year for board games, and 2025 is no exception.
Now that six months of 2025 have officially passed, I thought it would be interesting to write about some of my favorite games I’ve played that were released this year. There are far more games that I haven’t played than I have, of course, and I do think we need to normalize not playing every game ever released. That’s in part because it’s impossible — no person has enough time to play a fraction of the games released in a given year.
That said, I’ve played some games released this year, and I’d love to tell you about some of them. Some of these have been online, in which case, I’ll tell you.
Ruins: Climbing/shedding with card crafting
At least, I think they call it card-crafting, don’t they? Ruins (Clair, 2025) is a climbing/shedding game in which you have the ability to modify the cards in the game. You’re playing straightforward melds, or combinations, of singles and sets, and the cards are unsuited. That part’s pretty simple on its own, but each card has two sides, a day side and a night side. Each round, you’ll turn one from day to night, and those night cards have both a different value and often a special ability — like increasing the value of the card, they can be used as any number, or they can allow you to draw from the cards left out of the round, that sort of thing.
Beyond that, you also have the ability to add ‘discoveries’ to cards, which are clear cards that slot into the included sleeves. Those discovery cards have those special abilities baked in, and you can have up to three attached to a single card. That all can lead to you having cards outside the natural range of ranks, like a 14, or it can lead you to having an unnatural number of cards of a certain rank — maybe you’ll play four 9s in a two-player game when there are only two in the box.
Throughout the game, you can also add claims to two cards, and those cards always come back to you if they’re dealt out. Those enhancements stay throughout the course of the game, which is played over multiple rounds.
Ruins is a reimplementation of Custom Heroes (Clair, 2017), which I’d long heard about but never played. While I’m a bit split on which theme I’d prefer, the art here is lovely, with additional art elements on discovery cards that really improve the look and feel. It’s a cool little game that gives you an opportunity to imbue your own chaos into the game. Unlike Haggis (Ross, 2010), which is a tight, focused climbing game, this is a game that feels unusual, and every time you play, it’s going to be a little bit different depending on what discovery cards come out from the deck.
Designed by John D. Clair, illustrated by Jake Morrison, and published by Allplay in 2025.
Hot Streak: Chaotic racing mascots
Hot Streak (Perry, 2025) is a race-betting game in which the subjects of your bets are cut-rate mascots. They’ll run off the track, plot into each other, and generally sow chaos on your bets. The twist: You have an opportunity to influence the race each round after placing your bets. It’s a game that doesn’t take long to set up or play, but you have a few important decisions to make each round. It’s not just about being right in your bets — it’s about how you make sure you’re right. Every other player is doing the same, so you’re always going to run up against something you didn’t expect.
I’ll be brief here, as I wrote about Hot Streak not long ago. While I love this game, in retrospect, I think fixing a race might be at least slightly illegal in some jurisdictions. Hmm.
Designed by Jon Perry, illustrated by Cécile Gariépy, and published by CMYK in 2025.
The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game
Campaign-driven trick-taking games had a bit of a moment when The Crew: The Quest for Planet Nine (Sing, 2019) and its sequel, The Crew: Mission Deep Sea (Sing, 2021), made significant waves and drove players toward the traditional genre. Sail (Koryo and Yusei, 2023) continued in that direction, and promises to with its upcoming legacy sequel, Sail Legacy (Reiner, 2025).
It’s been a bit quieter on the scene outside of those games, but The Fellowship of the Ring: Trick-Taking Game (Bornmueller, 2025) entered with a roar. This is a campaign-based trick-taker that starts much like The Crew. You’re trying to complete character goals in each mission, and each subsequent mission advances the story and adds new complexities to the game. I can’t talk about this game much without spoiling it, but each mission has felt unique and carried with it a certain amount of excitement. There’s a real unfolding of the gameplay here that happens, and I’m excited to see what sequels to the game look like.
While this game starts like The Crew, but it rapidly moves into different territory. Where there are some distinct similarities, I think that’s largely because of the design space they both occupy as cooperative trick-taking games and not because its derivative. It would of course be a bit silly to imagine that there was no influence on this game, but I think they each offer something unique.
Designed by Bryan Bornmueller, illustrated by Elaine Ryan and Samuel R. Shimota, and published by Office Dog Games in 2025
The Fate of the Fellowship
I’ve been playing Matt Leacock-designed games since I got into board games, with his classic Pandemic (2008) my introduction into cooperative games. (Another introduction: The Lord Of the Rings (Knizia, 2000). Full circle moment.) I’m well-acquainted with his cooperative games, and I thought I knew exactly what to expect out of The Fate of the Fellowship (Leacock, 2025). I thought it would be a game that fit very neatly into the now-classic Pandemic system. What came out instead feels a bit like the Pandemic system game Fall of Rome (Leacock, 2018) with objectives and character abilities, with each player controlling two characters that move along the map.
There’s so much flavor in what you’re doing, whether you’re moving around at rapid speed as Gandalf, somehow appearing exactly where you’re needed, or you’re carefully, slowly carrying the ring to Mordor as Frodo and Sam. Maybe you’ll play as Legolas, and you’ll dispatch enemy troops from afar.
I’m still very much dipping my feet into this one, but it’s not yet been released physically. You can play it on BGA, but I understand it’s just a portion of the game. I do have to add that the art and graphic design here is lovely, and it really makes the game work. I’m even starting to recognize where places in Middle Earth are on a map, which is nice. I’ve known the books since I was a child, but this actually puts a map in front of me.
Uniquely among many Lord of the Rings-themed games, this game doesn’t need the specifics of the story to tell the story of the trilogy. The actions you take and the objectives you complete tell the story, and that’s such an interesting accomplishment. When I’ve played this game more, I’m excited to talk about it in more depth.
Designed by Matt Leacock, illustrated by Jared Blando and Cory Godbey, and published by Z-Man Games. Not yet available in wide release physically.
A few more interesting 2025 games
I wrote a few weeks about Oddland (Schumacher, 2025), which is a fun little game with just the right amount of depth for younger players. The art and theme are great. https://donteatthemeeples.substack.com/p/two-great-games-to-play-this-summer
Lepidoptery (Karesh and Vasudevan, 2025) is still a fascinating melding of Connect Four and trick-taking, though it’s better than a description that insufficient might lead you to believe.
Eternal Decks (Hiroken, 2025) is a cooperative game that feels genuinely tough at times — it’s a card game, but it’s so much more. I suspect this will get more play in my house come autumn.
Crisps (Bhat, 2025) is one of my favorite climbing games. I’ve played it a ton, but it’s not had an official release until now. It’s available for preorder from one of my favorite small-run publishers, New Mill Industries.
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Thanks for joining me today! Apologies for the lateness, as I’ve come down with a bit of a cold. (It’s a funny thing, living in the desert and raising a two-year-old. You spent more time inside in the summer than in the winter, and it turns out, spending time with toddlers sort of leads to these things.) Next week, I’m planning to take a deeper look at a few games, but we’ll see what the week holds. Hope you have a great one!