Hello! My name is David Galindo, aka chubigans, and I run a small little indie company, Vertigo Gaming Inc., known best for the Cook, Serve, Delicious! series and a new Twitch-only free game called ChefSquad! I love making games and will continue to do so until the company either makes one hundred million dollars or declares bankruptcy, whichever comes first. Woo!
The Tabletop Zone
Before we get into my games list I wanted to talk a little bit about my favorite tabletop games of 2021!
- Super Mega Lucky Box is like Bingo mixed with strategy. With each number that’s called you get to choose which number to cross off on your number cards. Get a row or column cleared and you win a prize that can help modify numbers or add to your end score, and completely black out a card for lots of points. Easy to teach and extremely fun for any skill set, whether that’s your hardcore tabletop player or someone that’s only played (ugh) Monopoly in their life.
- Splurt is a game you can just throw on the table for a quick 10 minute fun session as you reveal the letter of the word you need to shout out as well as the theme (“stuff you pack in a suitcase” or “things you eat”, while the letter card can be “starts with B” or “ends in T”, etc.). Shout it out first to win the card, and the player with the most wins. Party games don’t get much simpler and fun than this.
- Project L is a fascinating Tetris-like game that mixes the satisfaction of sliding those tetrominos into place with the strategy of deciding when to gain pieces, boards and points. This is a more advanced game to put on the table but even novice tabletop players were able to catch on fairly quickly as you trade up tetromino pieces for more complex shapes as you fill in boards to score points. Its beautiful in its presentation and satisfying as heck to play, and is one of my all time favorites.
- Wonka’s Golden Ticket is one of those instant family classic boardgames that works for just about any skill level. You choose one of the kids as your character as you wander the town collecting money and Wonka candies and powerups to exchange for actual Wonka bars. These little Wonka bars are incredibly cool to use as a game element as a few of them contain a golden ticket slipped in and shuffled around beforehand. Once all the Wonka bars have been distributed everyone opens up their bars to see if they’ve won. I played with my family over New Years and despite my Wonka bar pile being twice as big as everyone else’s I had no golden tickets- while my mom with the least amount of bars ended up having all three (and played as Charlie to boot). Is that fair? Who cares, it was hilarious and exciting at the same time. Highly recommended.
- Finally the Back to the Future: Back in Time game is one that captures the spirit of the classic film while adding tabletop friendly elements that make it feel like both a great adventure, fun co-op and a throwback to film that is loved by so many. In fact every bit of this game feels like a love letter to the movie, and it’s very fun to play as you run around Hill Valley trying to gain all the parts for the DeLorean as Biff wanders about, while also trying to make your parents fall in love before lightning strikes the tower. While it’s replay value is a bit more limited than the other games on this list, it’s still a blast that any major fan of the movie should check out.
I’d love to see Project L in videogame form to be quite honest…speaking of which, let’s break down all the games I loved in 2021!
The Videogaming Zone
10. Shovel Knight: Pocket Dungeon/Loop Hero
Two games that fall short of being instant classics in one way or another, but deserved to be talked about- you can almost think of this as my Honorable Mentions list!