The best board games from the 20th century🏛 2024
Are you looking for a really good party game? In the last century🏛 many really good games have appeared. We have listed the best games that were published between 1900 and 2000 for you.
Not almost exclusively card, dice & skill games.
Until the 20th century, more card, dice or skill games have been published. On the one hand, this is due to the simple production of these games - but also the richness of variants or the compact dimensions. In addition, the new production methods of the 20th century eliminated the limitation to easily produced game elements (e.g. Loopin Louie).
Many smart new game concepts
But that doesn't automatically mean that good games will result. In contrast to the 19th century, more and more companies and game developers were formed, who dedicated themselves purely to the invention and production of social games. This resulted in great games like Reiner Knizias Ra, Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective or Loopin Louie.
List with the best games of the 20th century🏛
Enclosed is the list of what we think are the best board games of the 20th century that you can still buy in the year 2024:
PitchCar
PitchCar and its earlier version Carabande are dexterity-based board games that create a fun and competitive racing experience. Players use finger flicks to propel small discs (representing cars) around a track constructed from wooden pieces.
Nominated for 4 awards and won 3.
⭐️ Spiel des Jahres 1996
More details for PitchCar- 2 - 8 Players
- 30 Minutes
- 6+ years old
- Immediately playable
For Sale
For Sale is a fast-paced, engaging game about buying and selling real estate, involving strategic bidding and sales to maximize profits.
Nominated for 1 award.
More details for For Sale- 3 - 6 Players
- 30 Minutes
- 10+ years old
- Immediately playable
Time's Up!
Time's Up! is a lively and entertaining charades-based party game, ideal for playing in teams of two or more. It's particularly engaging when played with teams of two. The game revolves around guessing famous historical or fictional characters, with each player contributing to a communal deck of names used across three distinct rounds.
Nominated for 5 awards and won 2.
More details for Time's Up!- 4 - 18 Players
- 90 Minutes
- 12+ years old
- Immediately playable
Lost Cities
Lost Cities is a two-player card game focused on building profitable archaeological expeditions. Part of the Kosmos two-player series, it features a deck with cards ranked 2–10 in various colors, including a new sixth color added in 2019. The game also employs "handshake" cards as multipliers for scoring.
Nominated for 3 awards and won 2.
More details for Lost Cities- 2 Players
- 30 Minutes
- 10+ years old
- Immediately playable
👍 Good price!Check for best price now at*Take 5
6 nimmt!, also known as Take 5, Category 5 and other names, is a card game focused on scoring as few points as possible. It combines elements of strategy, prediction, and a bit of luck.
Nominated for 5 awards and won 3.
More details for Take 5- 2 - 10 Players
- 45 Minutes
- 8+ years old
- Immediately playable
Can't Stop
Can't Stop is a classic dice game designed by Sid Sackson, renowned for its blend of luck, risk-taking, and tactical decision-making. It's a game that challenges players to wisely balance their boldness and caution as they aim to complete columns on the game board.
Nominated for 1 award and won 1.
More details for Can't Stop- 2 - 4 Players
- 30 Minutes
- 9+ years old
- Immediately playable
Survive: Escape from Atlantis!
Survive: Escape from Atlantis! is a thrilling and competitive board game where players aim to evacuate their pieces from a sinking island. The game is known for its intense gameplay and strategic decisions.
Nominated for 1 award.
More details for Survive: Escape from Atlantis!- 2 - 4 Players
- 45 - 60 Minutes
- 8+ years old
- Easy to learn
High Society
More details for High SocietyHigh Society is a competitive auction-style card game designed by Reiner Knizia, where players vie to acquire wealth and status while avoiding financial pitfalls. The game focuses on strategic bidding and careful money management.
- 3 - 5 Players
- 15 - 30 Minutes
- 10+ years old
- Immediately playable
Schotten Totten
More details for Schotten TottenSchotten Totten is a strategic card game that combines elements of poker with a battle for territory. Players compete to capture boundary stones by creating powerful card formations, with a clever twist on using logic to claim victory.
- 2 Players
- 20 Minutes
- 8+ years old
- Easy to learn
Loopin' Louie
Loopin' Louie is a light-hearted, action-packed board game that is as silly as it is addictive. Designed for players of all ages, this game centers around protecting your chickens from a looping airplane piloted by Louie.
Nominated for 4 awards and won 3.
⭐️ Spiel des Jahres 1994
⭐️ Kinderspiel des Jahres 2006
More details for Loopin' Louie- 2 - 4 Players
- 10 Minutes
- 4+ years old
- Immediately playable
👍 Good price!Check for best price now at*Ra
Ra is an engaging board game that combines elements of auction and set-collection within an Ancient Egyptian theme. Players are immersed in a competition of power and fame across 1500 years of Egyptian history, condensed into an intense gaming experience.
Nominated for 2 awards and won 1.
More details for Ra- 2 - 5 Players
- 45 - 60 Minutes
- 12+ years old
- Easy to learn
Bohnanza
Bohnanza is a unique card game about planting, trading, and harvesting beans. Unlike typical card games, you can't rearrange your hand, adding a strategic twist. The core of the game lies in trading beans with others to manage your hand effectively.
Nominated for 3 awards and won 1.
More details for Bohnanza- 2 - 7 Players
- 45 Minutes
- 12+ years old
- Easy to learn
👍 Good price!Check for best price now at*Unanimo
Nominated for 1 award.
More details for Unanimo- 3 - 8 Players
- 30 Minutes
- 10+ years old
- Immediately playable
Video reviews for Unanimo
Modern Art
Engage in the captivating world of art commerce with Modern Art. As both buyer and seller, players navigate the vibrant art market, aiming to turn their transactions into lucrative endeavors. Five unique artists have contributed a plethora of paintings, and it's your task to strategically auction them for maximum profit. Each turn, players auction a painting from their hand, gaining wealth if others purchase it or incurring costs if they buy it themselves. The key lies in shrewd decision-making.
Nominated for 6 awards and won 3.
More details for Modern Art- 3 - 5 Players
- 45 Minutes
- 10+ years old
- Easy to learn
Tichu
Tichu is an intriguing partnership card game that combines elements of Zheng Fen with traditional card play. It stands out as a strategic and competitive game, requiring players to be both tactically astute and keenly aware of their partner's actions. Typically played by four players in partnerships, the game is a race to get rid of all cards in hand, while aiming to score points.
Nominated for 1 award.
More details for Tichu- 4 Players
- 60 Minutes
- 10+ years old
- Easy to learn
Bandu
Bausack is a unique and engaging game that combines elements of strategy, dexterity, and auctioning. Players challenge each other to build precarious structures using a variety of uniquely shaped wooden blocks. The game tests your architectural skills and your ability to make strategic decisions under pressure. Players must balance the risk and reward of accepting or refusing blocks, using 'beans' as currency in auctions to influence decisions. The game ends when a player's structure collapses, leaving the last player standing as the winner.
Nominated for 2 awards and won 2.
More details for Bandu- 2 - 8 Players
- 15 - 45 Minutes
- 7+ years old
- Immediately playable
Dutch Blitz
More details for Dutch BlitzDutch Blitz is a fast-paced card game that combines elements of speed, strategy, and quick thinking, where each player uses a unique deck of forty cards divided into four colors. The game's objective is to be the first to empty your blitz pile by playing cards onto the center Dutch piles in ascending order by color or onto your post piles in descending order with alternating Pennsylvania Dutch boy and girl images.
- 2 - 4 Players
- 1 - 15 Minutes
- 8+ years old
- Immediately playable
Chinatown
Chinatown is a dynamic negotiation board game where players engage in the strategic acquisition and development of city blocks to establish profitable businesses. It emphasizes trading and deal-making to succeed in a competitive urban landscape.
Nominated for 2 awards.
More details for Chinatown- 3 - 5 Players
- 60 Minutes
- 12+ years old
- Easy to learn
Video reviews for Chinatown
Zopp
- 2 - 4 Players
- 40 Minutes
- 6+ years old
- Immediately playable
Wizard
Wizard is a captivating trick-taking card game that adds a twist to the traditional deck by including Wizards and Jesters. It's a game of prediction, strategy, and adaptability, where players must accurately gauge their chances of winning tricks.
Nominated for 1 award.
More details for Wizard- 3 - 6 Players
- 45 Minutes
- 10+ years old
- Easy to learn
Guillotine
Kingdom Builder is a strategic board game where players shape their domains by building settlements, with the ultimate goal of earning the most gold by the end of the game.
Nominated for 1 award and won 1.
More details for Guillotine- 2 - 5 Players
- 30 Minutes
- 12+ years old
- Immediately playable
Wildlife Safari
Wildlife Safari, originally introduced as Flinke Pinke and later reissued under various names such as Quandary, Loco!, and Botswana, is a deceptively simple yet strategically rich card game designed by the renowned Reiner Knizia. This game, through its various iterations, has maintained its core gameplay while adopting different themes and presentation styles to appeal to a wide audience.
Nominated for 1 award.
More details for Wildlife Safari- 2 - 5 Players
- 20 - 30 Minutes
- 7+ years old
- Immediately playable
Jungle Speed
Jungle Speed is a lively and fast-paced game that tests players' observation skills and quick reflexes. It's a game filled with excitement and often leads to bursts of laughter due to its frantic and fun nature.
Nominated for 1 award.
⭐️ Nominated for Kinderspiel des Jahres 2003
More details for Jungle Speed- 2 - 10 Players
- 10 Minutes
- 7+ years old
- Immediately playable
Chicken Cha Cha Cha
Chicken Cha Cha Cha is a delightful and engaging memory game that combines the whimsy of chickens learning to dance with the challenge of strategic movement and memory. Players become chickens vying to out-memorize and outmaneuver their opponents around a circuitous path, aiming to collect the tail feathers of their rivals by accurately recalling the images hidden on octagonal tiles.
Nominated for 4 awards and won 4.
⭐️ Spiel des Jahres 1998
More details for Chicken Cha Cha Cha- 2 - 4 Players
- 15 - 20 Minutes
- 4+ years old
- Immediately playable
🔥 Great price!Check for best price now at*The Great Dalmuti
The Great Dalmuti is a light and engaging card game that revolves around players striving to improve their social status by being the first to discard all their cards. The game is a commercial adaptation of the traditional card game President, and it offers a fun, fast-paced experience.
Nominated for 2 awards and won 1.
More details for The Great Dalmuti- 4 - 8 Players
- 60 Minutes
- 8+ years old
- Immediately playable
🔥 Great price!Check for best price now at*Circus Flohcati
More details for Circus FlohcatiCircus Flohcati brings the vibrant world of the flea circus to your table, offering a fast-paced game of strategy and risk-taking. Players aim to collect a variety of acts, each represented by ten types (colors) and point values ranging from 0 to 7, to amass the highest score. Your turn could involve adding a face-up card to your hand or unveiling a new one from the deck, which might just force an action upon you—like pilfering a card from a rival. But beware, revealing a card matching the color of one already face-up means you end up empty-handed. The thrill of the game lies in deciding whether to secure a card in sight or gamble for a potentially better draw.
- 2 - 5 Players
- 15 Minutes
- 6+ years old
- Immediately playable
Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases
Embark on a captivating journey through Victorian London alongside the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes in Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases. This immersive and challenging game allows you to step into the shoes of a detective, matching wits with Holmes himself.
Nominated for 4 awards and won 3.
⭐️ Spiel des Jahres 1985
More details for Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases- 1 - 8 Players
- 60 - 120 Minutes
- 13+ years old
- Medium difficulty
👍 Good price!Check for best price now at*Video reviews for Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective: The Thames Murders & Other Cases
Samurai
Samurai is a strategic board game set in medieval Japan. It immerses players in a contest of influence and power among three key factions of the era: samurai, peasants, and priests.
Nominated for 2 awards.
More details for Samurai- 2 - 4 Players
- 30 - 60 Minutes
- 10+ years old
- Easy to learn
Video reviews for Samurai
Der wahre Walter
- 4 - 10 Players
- 60 Minutes
- Immediately playable
Ave Caesar
Ave Caesar is a race game set in ancient Rome, where players maneuver chariots around the Circus Maximus using cards. The track design includes challenging elements like bottlenecks and lane restrictions, reminiscent of modern racing games like Detroit-Cleveland Grand Prix and Daytona 500. Players must complete three laps and make a strategic stop to 'Hail Caesar' before crossing the finish line. The game balances light strategy with the need for careful planning, especially when navigating corners.
Nominated for 2 awards and won 2.
More details for Ave Caesar- 2 - 6 Players
- 30 Minutes
- 12+ years old
- Immediately playable
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