Hello everyone!

I hope you’re all doing well and have started enjoying a few plays for this start of the year. I’m here today to review my 2025 through the games I played.

My 2025 in Numbers:

• 136 plays (118 solo)
• 45 new-to-me games, mostly from my own collection
• Around 128 hours of gameplay

It was a good year for board gaming. I had some moments when I didn’t have time to play, but on other occasions I played a lot. Overall, I’d say it was well-balanced.

My passion for playing, but even more for sharing my enthusiasm, encouraged me to finally start this blog. This is a great achievement and a good way to put into words my feelings about the games I’ve played.

My Top 5 Games of 2025

1. Anachrony
2. Trickerion
3. Galactic Cruise
4. Obsession
5. Underwater Cities

Games That Defined My Year

Anachrony – My #1 game of 2025. A time-travel themed worker placement game where you send resources back from the future to help your past self prepare for an impending apocalypse. The brilliance lies in managing temporal paradoxes while building your civilization and preparing for impact. The theme is deeply integrated into every mechanism, borrowing from your future self creates debt you must repay, and the asymmetric Path powers make each playthrough feel unique. The collector’s editions with the exosuit miniatures is stunning, and the strategic depth keeps me coming back. It’s complex, yes, but the theme makes every rule make sense. This is peak Mindclash design.

Trickerion – My #2 game of 2025. A worker placement game about rival stage magicians competing to become the city’s greatest illusionist. What sets this apart is how thematically rich it is, you’re not just placing workers, you’re preparing elaborate tricks, managing your theater, gathering components, and performing spectacular illusions. The darkness of the setting (set in a fictional late 19th-century city with occult undertones) gives it atmosphere that few worker placement games achieve. Learning your first trick and successfully performing it feels genuinely rewarding. It’s heavy, demanding careful planning across multiple rounds, but every action feels meaningful and thematic.

Galactic Cruise – I backed this game because I loved the graphics, story, and mechanics, and it became my #3 game of the year. Designed by T.K. King, Dennis Northcott, and Koltin Thompson, illustrated by Ian O’Toole, and published by Kingson Key Games as their first game. I heard someone say after its release, “It should be prohibited to have such a good game as your first.” I completely agree. You’re managing a luxury space cruise ship, balancing passenger satisfaction, ship upgrades, and navigation through a beautifully illustrated galaxy. The game is simply perfect, fun, gorgeously illustrated (you’ll feel a Vital Lacerda vibe since Ian O’Toole frequently works with Vital), and the mechanics are logical and intuitive. Every decision matters, but it never feels overwhelming. My discovery of 2025.

Obsession – My #4 game of 2025. An elegant hand management game set in Victorian England where you manage a fallen aristocratic family trying to improve their social standing through marriage. The servant rotation system creates interesting tactical decisions, and reputation management is crucial, you must carefully balance building your reputation with acquiring the cards and improvements you need. The courtship mechanic, where you compete to impress the Fairchild orphans, adds wonderful narrative tension. Each of the four families plays distinctly different due to their unique starting advantages. The Downton Abbey aesthetic is beautiful, and solo games run smoothly in about 45 minutes. It’s thematic without being heavy, strategic without being punishing.

Underwater Cities – My #5 game of 2025. A card-driven worker placement game about building underwater civilizations. I took too long to try this, but once I did, I realized I’d been missing out on tremendous fun. The genius is in the color-matching system, matching card colors to action spaces unlocks powerful effects, creating a satisfying puzzle every turn. It’s simple to understand yet complex in execution, with many strategic paths to explore. The game is tight, you’re constantly working with limited resources, carefully considering each move. I improved from 72 points in my first play to 83 in my second, showing the rewarding learning curve. The asymmetric player boards and variable card draws mean every game feels different. It’s frustrating in the best way possible, I immediately wanted to play again after each loss.

Other Mindclash Games I Loved

Cerebria – An abstract area control game about the struggle between Bliss and Gloom inside a human mind. The theme is unusual and brilliantly executed, you’re literally fighting for control of someone’s emotions and thoughts. Visually stunning and mechanically tight.

Perseverance: Episode 1 – A dice placement and area majority game where you defend your camp against dinosaur attacks. The solo mode with two AI “Dissidents” creates a challenging puzzle where you must carefully calculate dice placements to maximize efficiency while anticipating opponent moves. Strategic and tense.

All Mindclash games share common DNA: they’re typically heavy with substantial rules, but the themes are so present that mechanisms make intuitive sense. Set aside at least 3 hours for setup and gameplay, embrace the complexity, and you’ll be rewarded with deeply satisfying experiences.

Solo Gaming Gems

Robinson Crusoe – One of the best solo board games of all time, and perhaps the most brutal. If you struggle with losing and get easily frustrated, stay away, this game is merciless. It’s a survival game with scenario-based gameplay where everything that can go wrong will go wrong. The base game includes 7 scenarios with increasing difficulty, and the Book of Adventures expansion adds many more organized by difficulty and theme. Despite the punishing difficulty, or perhaps because of it, every small victory feels earned. The game creates emergent stories through your desperate decisions. I’ve played many hours over the years and I’m still in love with its cruel brilliance.

Oniverse Games (Onirim/Nautilion/Sylvion) – I played three games from the Oniverse world this year. My favorite is Nautilion, closely followed by Onirim.

In Nautilion, you race to reach the Lighthouse in the Oceanic Depths before the Phantom Submarine reaches your homeland, the Happy Isles. You roll three dice each turn and choose which to use to advance your submarine, advance the Phantom. Your submarine needs a full crew of different specialists, and the placement rules (filling positions adjacent to your starting cabin) add satisfying spatial puzzle elements. The game includes several different submarines and expansions for variety. It’s tense, quick (20-30 minutes), and perfect when you want meaningful decisions in a short timeframe.

All Oniverse games share a dreamy aesthetic and are designed specifically for solo play (though they support two players). I haven’t tested multiplayer because they’re simply perfect as solo experiences, compact, quick, and deeply satisfying.

Legacy of Yu – A solo campaign game that’s story-driven with a clever deck-building mechanism. You play through the story of Yu the Great, the legendary Chinese emperor who controlled the floods. The campaign evolves as you make decisions, and the deck-building creates a satisfying sense of progression. Each scenario builds on the last, and your choices have consequences that ripple through the campaign. Engaging storytelling combined with solid mechanics.

R.A.V.E.L. – A compact dice puzzle game perfect for short sessions or travel. You manipulate dice on a grid to solve Cog cards with specific requirements. It’s pure puzzle satisfaction in a tiny package, 10 minutes of clever spatial reasoning and resource management. The adjustable difficulty means it scales from casual to genuinely challenging. One of my favorite “lunch break” games.

Challenging Strategy Games

Endeavor: Deep Sea – Lead a submarine on missions to develop sustainable ocean projects and preserve marine life. This surprised me as one of my favorite discoveries of the year. It’s fresh, thematic, and hard to win, exactly how I like my games. You must carefully balance research, exploration, and conservation, calculating several moves ahead. Do you research new technologies or investigate your surroundings? Deploy your submarine or focus on base upgrades? Every decision matters. For puzzle lovers who enjoy 2-hour strategic journeys with a strong environmental theme, this is excellent.

Civolution – A civilization development game with complete player control wrapped in an unusual sci-fi premise. You’re a student in the far future taking your “Civolution exam” by simulating the rise of a civilization on a giant console. You gather resources, migrate populations, and guide your people through ages of development. Trait cards provide special benefits, gills for underwater adaptation, claws for hunting, various evolutionary advantages. What could feel dry (civilization building, resource management) becomes captivating through clever framing and intuitive mechanics. It’s challenging to beat but deeply satisfying when your civilization thrives.

Great Western Trail – A rancher game about the cattle drive from Texas to Kansas City. You collect cow cards while navigating a hazardous trail filled with obstacles and opportunities. The deck-building combined with the trail movement creates interesting decisions, do you improve your herd, build structures along the trail, or hire specialists? The learning curve is accessible, and the game reveals its depth gradually. It’s become a modern classic for good reason, every playthrough tells a different story of your cattle empire.

Classic Euro Games

Viticulture – It took me time to try this because I thought wine-making wouldn’t interest me. How wrong I was! This is worker placement done beautifully, thematic and streamlined. You plant vines, harvest grapes, age wine, and fulfill orders across the seasons. The visitor cards add variability and help smooth out bad draws. It’s accessible enough for newer gamers but has enough depth for experienced players. Now I understand why it’s considered a modern classic, and I’m eager to try the Tuscany expansion.

Relaxing & Beautiful Games

Meadow – A peaceful tableau-building game where you create the most beautiful meadow environment with various animals, plants, and landscapes. The artwork is gorgeous, watercolor illustrations that evoke nature walks and quiet observation. It’s competitive but gentle, perfect for unwinding after heavier games. The card combinations create satisfying moments of discovery, like assembling a nature journal page by page.

Verdant – A game about houseplant care that’s more engaging than it sounds. You arrange plants and furniture to create the most aesthetically pleasing and thriving indoor garden. The spatial puzzle of plant placement, considering light requirements, pot matching, and room aesthetics, is genuinely satisfying. Quick to play (30-45 minutes), relaxing in theme, but with enough decisions to stay interesting. Perfect for a calm evening of gaming.

Creature Collection Games

Dragon Eclipse – A narrative game from Awaken Realms with a Pokémon-style collection vibe. The story is engaging, and the artwork is absolutely beautiful, each Mystling feels unique and characterful. However, I must highlight a significant weakness: the gameplay becomes repetitive. Despite loving the illustrations and narrative premise, the repetitive nature of encounters and actions started to feel tedious. It’s a game I want to love more than I actually do, the presentation promises more variety than the mechanics deliver for me.

Wondrous Creatures – A 2025 release that achieved well-deserved success. Like Dragon Eclipse, it features creature collection with Pokémon-style appeal, but without the scenario structure, this is pure collection and tableau building. The illustrations are stunning, and the gameplay stays fresh through variable card effects and strategic depth. Each creature feels special, and building your collection is consistently satisfying. For anyone who loves beautiful creatures and light-to-medium strategy, this is excellent.

Looking Ahead to 2026

For 2026, I’m taking on the Alphabet Challenge that consists in playing at least one game for each letter of the alphabet. I hope to discover some lesser-known games and find new favorites along the way. I play for fun, so I enjoy both simple games and heavy board games equally. The journey matters more than the complexity!

I’m particularly excited to explore games that don’t get as much attention in the mainstream board gaming community. If you have recommendations for hidden gems, I’d love to hear them!

What were your standout games from 2025? Are you taking on any gaming challenges this year? Let me know in the comments!