Our Top 5 games that came out in 2023

We are not just a sleeves provider, we are also avid board gamers in our house hold... from the young to the old, we just love playing games.

Some of us love to play the good old games that have proven their worth with time (I will probably have to make our Top10 list of all time.. one day), while others love to learn new games as well. I personally fall into both categories :) So let's see which 5 games left the best impression on me and my close ones in 2023:

5. Darwin's Journey

A heavy worker placement game with a great theme. Discover all the secrets of the Galapagos Islands and try to beat your opponents by providing the most to the scientific world by publishing your discoveries and your evolution theories.

If you like worker placement and heavy euro games, I would suggest you to try this game. It is a brain burner where the destination is totally worth the trip.

4. Dragonkeepers

Are you strong enough to herd dragons?

This game that is played in 20 mins, packs a good amount of decisions. Not only you have to decide how many cards you will draft each turn (yes, your mind is saying always take all 3 cards.. but the game will soon show you many reasons why you shouldn't be greedy), you can then play some cards to your tableau according to what cards are left on the two decks where you drafted your cards from... and this is not the end of your problems. Opponents can follow your action if they have the needed cards.. so you cannot make it to easy for them to do so or they will get the upper hand by getting free actions.

I strongly suggest this game for players that like drafting and the follow up mechanism. You will be enganged the whole 20 mins.

3. Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game

Zombicide editions were just a copy/paste of an average game that let you have some fun.. but once you played one game, you didn't have to buy other versions.

... and then Marvel Zombies arrived and we were surprised. It was a big surprise indeed.

Yes, it's still the "throw a handfull of dice and see how many enemies are dead.. repeat till game is over" kind of game... but the designers removed the annoying/fiddly parts of noise and searching for items in the houses etc. This version is pure action... and when you have an action left because a move would put you in danger.. you can use the leftover action to get a "feat" which is an one time use bonus for a later turn.

The IP can be a deal breaker for some, for us... it's a bonus. Kids love to play this one.

You can read our indepth review here.

2. Daybreak

It can be a bit of recency bias here.. but the whole ECO production and the gameplay left a good impression on me.

You are playing against the clock from turn 1. This pressure gets to you as you try to maximize the output of every single action that you will take. Most of the cards are great in a certain situation and good in other.. but you cannot play them all. So you have to decide for a tactic that will hopefully bring good results. Just to change your mind next turn as the new hand of cards give you an even more interesting option down another road.

The extra QR codes that let you read ton of material about every single card, that explain why a certain technology is good/bad for earth.. it's a cherry on the top.

1. Raising Robots

Another last minute addition to the list but this one we managed to play a few times.

I love the "simultaneous action selection" mechanism in games. When you manage to read your opponent correctly and you get a free action from their choice... amazing feeling. There will be times that you will make a mistake and the whole turn will fall apart but that is the risk that you should be willing to take from time to time.

Of course the luck of the draw can be a problem in games with so many cards, but once you are used to the gameplay and you know what is needed for your engine to run smoothly, the tons of robots give you tons of options.

If you like a game with a lot of choices and on top of that, you want to guess what your opponents plan to do, this is a game for you.