The best games released in 1999📆 2026

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.

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.

Schotten 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.

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.

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.

Players score points by staying in the basket of a rising hot air balloon. Points increase as the balloon ascends from cloud to cloud, but so does the risk of a fall. Each player decides whether to trust the pilot to reach higher or to jump out and secure their current points.

Players engage in a manual dexterity game, attempting to place wooden branches and leaves on a wobbling trunk. If they knock off any leaves or branches, these pieces are added to their current stack. The first to get rid of all their leaves and branches wins.

The game is cleverly designed to resemble a swimming pool the size of a paperback, featuring 18 spaces around its edge. These spaces are randomly filled with 18 game pieces, three of each of six colors, while each player is secretly assigned a color. Players take turns lifting a piece, checking the number (1, 2, or 3) on its base, and moving it that many spaces, potentially pushing other pieces into the pool. The last remaining piece wins.

Frank's Zoo is a lively card game that challenges players to strategically rid themselves of all their cards across multiple hands, with scoring based on how quickly players can empty their hand each round. The game can be enjoyed in two modes: with consistent solo play or with alternating partners, adding a layer of strategy in team play.

Part of the Kosmos two-player series, Elk Fest is a dexterity game for two players. Players take turns flicking two discs that represent stones and moving their moose along these stones. The aim is to bring their moose to the opponent's riverbank while avoiding certain positions; the first player to achieve this wins.