Top 10 Games I Wish I Had as a Teenager 

I always click when I see Mike in a top 10!

I love that you guys brought in some games that y’all don’t talk a lot about regularly. The breadth of experience of the DT regulars is so great!! Thanks

Watching these three is like being a kid again and watching my uncle's sit around and goof off and pick on each other and reminisce. I just love it. Also they talk about boardgames and I love boardgames.

8:59 some of the best friends I ever had I met on the other side of a table when playing Magic in the 90's.

This is gonna be awesome, 3 amigos are back😁🔥

@MikeDiLisio I'm surprised you didn't pick Viking See-Saw. Personally, I'm back and forth on it

This is a great video. Absolutely loved seeing the board game trinity back together

As a kid/teen I played days long Risk and Monopoly games. I can only imagine how much I would have enjoyed some of these games.

Can confirm having Heroscape as a teenager was awesome! It was multiple times a week event for about 3 years for us. We kept stats on win-loss records and certain character kill rates.

In school we played a lot of playing card games like Euchre or Hearts at lunch or in study halls. No gambling so no Poker or Black Jack. We would have loved to have card games like Sushi Go, Love Letter, Coup, etc.!

I am surprised that "Twilight Imperium 4" wasn't on the list. If this was around in the early 90s, my friends and I would have played the snot out of it. It would have been right up our alley. I could see this set up on a table in the basement, and left there for 2-3 days while we played for 4 hours, and then came back to it again and again.

Great top 10 topic list. 25 years ago I was playing Age of Empires on the computer, 500 the card game, WWF on a gaming system, collected sports cards, loved NASCAR and was invested in fantasy football/basketball/baseball. Based on this, I am pretty sure these would be close to my top 10: 10. War Chest 9. Foundations of Rome 8. Disney Lorcana/Transformers TCG 7. Ready Set Bet 6. Age of Empires III The Age of Discovery 5. Heat: Pedal to the Metal 4. Crokinole 3. The Crew 2. King of Tokyo 1. Baseball Highlights 2045

Zee mentioned having time to learn the decks well for Smash Up. That's a Top 10 idea right there: Ten games you get better at the more you play/learn the game/cards. Or games you MUST play over and over to get better at it.

Super fun idea for a list. A lot of joy in this video, and fun to see the guys light up in a way we don’t often see. Teenage me would have been obsessed with any of the Star Wars games we have now, especially Imperial Assault.

Great idea for a list! I played a ton of complicated games as a teenager, so wouldn't worry at all about new mechanisms or rules scaring me off! We played stuff like Advanced D&D and tons of other RPGs, Car Wars, BattleTech, Games Workshop games, and the king of the hill was Phoenix Command!

Love this episode, its "retronostalgic"! I wish I had those too :D Especially the coops - all we had were competitive poker-deck based ones, that were passed through generations.

I agree with Mike and Zee, Marvel United would have been a HUGE hit with my friends and I. From around 1987-1989, we played the TSR Marvel Super Heroes RPG and loved that. I was a huge comic book collector at this time, as were a couple of my friends. I'm not sure I would have liked the Chibi style, actually, I would have probably hated it immensely, but the game, we would have loved.

I played MtG right when it exploded with the Revised set. I was in high school and, yes, it was A M A Z I N G to collect and play with friends. Card lists existed in a few places, but each pack was a sense of discovery. We were always trying new combos and trading to make decks. It did define my hobby life for a few years. I've circled back to the game a few times over the decades, but nothing ever came close to the initial experience with all the free time in the world and not enough money to burn out.

King of Tokyo was the game that got me into the hobby, back in the day. It introduced me to Richard Garfield, IELLO Games, and then the rest was history.

I had MTG as a teenager and loved it! So I would wish that again, but if I had to pick something it would be in line with Tom's list. I would have loved X-wing, summoner wars, or gloomhaven as a teenager.

For the crossovers you should have a sports-horn and confetti-poppers and a disco-ball effect! Epic!

I was wondering if this list had already been done. Glad to hear Mike and Zee's take on the subject.

My cousin, had everything for heroscape. We'd make giant maps that took out most of the room, and draft every character.

My favorite content is always Mike, Zee and Tom. Very happy to see this.

I got into Legend of the Five Rings ccg when it came out originally. Spent alot of money making decks and playing when i was in high school. Chiming in for what I had in stead of Magic the Gathering.

Sleeping Gods and Gloomhaven would've blown my mind. Especially since I grew up with Choose Your Own Adventure books.

We were so much into Risk that Risk Legacy would've been fantastic back when I was a teen.

This list is such a cool idea! My picks are below. 1. Marvel Champions 2. Cockroach Poker 3. Deception: Murder in Hong Kong 4. Project Elite 5. Massive Darkness 2 6. Star Wars Rebellion 7. Unmatched 8. Flamme Rouge 9. Splendor 10. Wavelength

Re: Magic the Gathering. I'm a year older than Tom, and this did come out when I was in highschool, however at that time, Ontario had an optional 5th year of highschool (OAC credits), but it was so new at the time, only a few people played it. I can remember friends of mine playing it at parties. Next year in college, I got into Star Wars and Wildstorm CCGs, My friends and I considered Magic, but one friend already had a large collection and felt that he'd just beat us non stop.

Fascinating. As a teen I would have liked the Crew, Betrayal on House on the Hill, Oceans, The Wolves, Pandemic, Legends of Andor, Chronicles of Crime, Dog Park, and maybe Lawyer Up.

I wish that Catan had been available during my teenage years. My friends and I would've loved it.

Funny thing, I actually got into board gaming when I was a teenager. A few of the games I had then were Catan, Agricola, Dominion, Cosmic Encounter, Eldritch Horror and Netrunner. I'm pretty happy with the games I had then!

When Mike was a teenager, he actually lived next door to H.P. Lovecraft. So Cthulhu: Death May Die is definitely a valid choice for him.

All 3 of the #1 picks were fantastic. Way to finish strong. Great list idea!

There's a handful of games I played as a teenager that I still play now actually. For my list I didn't use them but rather other games similar I know I would've enjoyed. I actually have a few crossover with the guys. I didn't have a lot of friends either as a kid so I often played games with the adults and played what they did. 10. Dragon Castle - I played Mahjong as a kid with my family a lot. Still love it. This game gives me that tactile joy the sort of similar pieces. 9. Jamaica - I loved pirates and racing stuff. I'd race toy cars and ships as a kid. So this would've been a great racing game I know I'd have loved. 8. Klask - I loved table foosball and stuff like that. So this would've been a big hit. 7. Pirate King/Nyet - I played a lot of hearts and spades as a kid and teen. I'd even play other kids in high school for lunch money. I'd have preferred Pirate King, or Nyet, over something like the Crew because at that point I wouldn't have enjoyed co-op trick takers as much. 6. Arkham Horror LCG - So I did read Lovecraft books as a kid, and horror novels in general. I also loved RPG games. With that in mind this would've been my jam. 5. King of Tokyo - I loved Yahtzee as a kid and I was super happy it won the best of the worst heh. So take yahtzee and add monsters kicking each other's butts? Yes please. 4. X-Wing - I loved, and still love, Star Wars. All things Star Wars. I used to play those Ace Combat console games and enjoyed those aerial or ship battle games. This basically combines the 2 things to me. Now this pick also assumes I had money as a kid to afford all the ships for all the factions. 3. Star Wars Deck Builder/Marvel Legendary - I played a lot of MTG as a kid. Still have a bunch of my old cards. As I just said I love Star Wars. I also loved Marvel comics growing up. Ghost Rider still rocks. I'd have played the heck out of either of these as well. 2. Crokinole - Yes this existed back then technically, but I didn't know about it. This would've been hours of fun. I could've played this with my few friends or my family. 1. Gloomhaven (or Sleeping Gods) - I LOVED rpg games as a kid. I still do, but I don't have as much time. I do play D&D and I DM a group as well. I know Gloomhaven is a bit heavy, but I think with my love of rpg's and fantasy as a kid I could've handled it. I would've had no problem being the one to teach others either as I would've been so excited. I would've played this night and day solo or with friends. Sleeping Gods or Oathsworn would've worked as well as a big fantasy story driven game for me to obsess over as a kid.

Rampage/Terror at Meeple City Kaiju monsters duking it out, wrecking the city, and eating people! Absolutely!

I got the original Dark Tower as a teen in the 80's, in an unusual way. I was visiting a Boys Club with a friend who went regularly, and they had some carnival games going, which earned you tickets for completing. They had a variety of prizes you could redeem your tickets for (probably donated items). Dark Tower was some ridiculous number of tickets (I have no idea how many, but it seemed like it could take all day to get enough tickets to afford it), but I heard one of the workers tell someone that if they were short, they could simply use money as a replacement for tickets. I used some of the money I had brought to play the carnival games on Dark Tower instead, and went home extremely happy (I can't imagine I went with more than $10, so I'm guessing the game cost about $5). It was used, but it seemed like everything was in the box.

They’re not wrong about the big chunky set pieces. My brother and I used to love to play E.T. with it’s 3D cardboard spaceship center, Ghostbusters with the house walls with plastic dangers triggered by the random directional rolling skull, and Crossbows&Catapults! 😎

Enjoyed this list a lot, thanks guys!

Props to Tom. For me, 3 - Heroscape, 1st equal - Descent, journeys in the dark 2nd edition and Memoir '44.

- Star Wars: X-Wing - Marvel Dice Throne - KeyForge or MotG - Gloomhaven - HeroScape / Magic Arena - Marvel United - Risk Legacy - Formula D - Pitch Car - Cards Against Humanity 🙄 Bonus pick: Axis & Allies, and Zombies to replace my copy of A&A o.g. Made my list before knowing mt cross-overs with Tom :-) Rampage & King of Tokyo were good picks I also had *arcadiaQuest on my short list TI4 was also on my short list

Tech issues aside I think I would have gone crazy for Awkward Guests as a teen. I still love it now but I was even more into logic puzzles and murder mysteries as a teen. Also not a board game, but DnD 5e. I tried getting into 3.5 and 4e as a teen but found them both so mechanical when all I wanted to do was roleplay.

Thanks, guys! We had good memories as kids playing board games... I would pick Return to Dark Tower because we actually played Dark Tower.

i have two teens. always on the look out for games suitable for them. this is exactly what i need. thanks guys!

My father got me involved early into gaming, Dungeons and Dragons. Majority of my teen games would've been a cross between, Dungeon Crawl games, dexterity games and similar row games on Tom's list? Toys for sure would've been used, even today, I would've make up rules because I would've thought it should've been played this way kinda thing too! I also would've talked to the rich kids too! Many games I played as a teen were out when I was a teen. A perfect example "Dungeon!", D&D, Risk, Decent, TSR Marvel, Star Trek TNG: CCG, Magic TG, & Talisman.

This was a great list... my wife and i both thought about it. Some of my games would include: * Star Wars Rebellion * Flick Em Up * Arcadia Quest (could totally see me and my friends beating each other up instead of finishing the campaign) * Dodos Riding Dinos (chaotic racing...yes please)

A played a ton of Magic in middle school-high school. Great times, but wouldve loved something lime TI4, Gloomhaven, or Western Legends growing up!

What a great idea! I was only saying the other day that if I'd have owned Thunder Road Vendetta or Heat: Pedal to the Metal when I was a kid if have spontaneously combusted! 🔥

I could see myself playing any one of those games. Ones I would add our dicethrone and champions of Midgard dice chucking battling would been great.

I basically memorised 40k rulebooks and codexes as a kid. Thousands of pages of rules and lore committed to memory. I too would have loved games like Aeon Trespass, etc, and would have found them rules-light.

Top ten Popcorn movie Games. as soon as Mike said it, I knew it had to be a dedicated list.

Massive Darkness 2 has many different campaigns (Heavenfall, Demon Dragon, Rainbow Crossing, Four Horsemen), surprized to not see Project Elite, and Thunder Road Vendetta on this list, but I would've also LOVED Catacombs, and Mike was RIGHT ON with FlipShips, good call on that one for sure, and I think Spire's End Hildegard would've gotten me into solo gaming back then as well because I loved to read choose your own adventure books, and rolling dice and that game perfectly combines those 2 for me.

War of the Rings, I was on a fantasy reading kick in my teens. Xwing, Imperial Assault and Outer Rim would of been my jam too. Thunder Road. Marvel United. I was playing the Marvel rpg and TMNT rpg in my early teens. Lovecraft came on my radar in my early 20's when I started playing Call of Cthulhu. Cyberpunk 2020 was late teens.

Wander: The Cult of Barnacle Bay would have blown our group's minds as teens. Also love MIke's pick of Gatefall. Yaaaaaas

Gatefall, Smashup, and X-wing are all great picks! .... As someone who was a teen in mid 2000's and a big Pokemon and big LotR fan i would have loved the idea of the Lord of the Rings LCG.

Great list idea guys!!!

I would have loved Cards against humanity! That would fit my teenage sense of humor perfectly, being as outrageous as possible.

Amazing top ten. Loved it!

I played Axis and Allies and many hex wargames as a teenager, so I think I would have really enjoyed playing EVERY Memoir '44 scenario

Small World was the first game that came to my mind. Rampage is an inspired choice.

Twilight Imperium existed when I was a teenager but I didn't know about it. If I did I could see me and my friends having an awesome time with it. Plus you have so much more free time as a teen.

- "Camel Up" - "More gambling" That's what we enjoyed best from The Game of Life 1982 version. The gambling board.

Yay back to the era of pandemic games being #1 on Zee's lists!

One Night Ultimate Werewolf is the first one that came to my mind.

Unmatched....I love the system. Kabuto sumo, Hive, and War Chest as well.

I would love a breakdown of why Tom loves ATO so much, whilst it seems like he mostly bounced off of oathsworn

Cosmic Encounter I played as a kid and still love it!

Oh my gosh I love this list and this topic! Best top 10!!

The first game that came to my mind was King of Tokyo.

For solo play I'd likely have enjoyed Spirit Island even more than now. Solo strategy video games could never cut it since the AI was never good enough, so a board game I can setup where it would be a brutal battle for survival would have been perfect. As for group play Mechs vs Minions. Rolling dice to just move silly little metal tokens or plastic pieces around the board was all we had and it was horrid. Giving me a colored mech model for my piece and telling me to move around blowing away hordes of enemies is way better. Project Elite would likely fit this too but I've never gotten to play that.

I think the games I have now that I wish I had as a teen the most is Arcadia Quest or Marvel United, based on my gaming loves back then. I had MtG and Legendary as a teen so those are out.

I think it’s interesting how many older games are on this list. I wonder if “modern” game design has left behind a certain simple/fun/toy element.

best i had as a teen was some Avalon Hill games like Panzer Leader and Magic Realm.

I would put Flick 'em Up on this list because I used to do a similar thing with green army guys.

After getting a glimpse of young Tom Vasel, and us being the same age... Tom, I would have LOVED to have you as a friend growing up!

I heavily played MTG until about 4 years ago when I first learned about hobby games. So my list will be the same now as for when I was a teenager I'm pretty sure but of course I play a lot less now. 10. Dice Throne 9. Western Legends 8. Beast (hidden movement) 7. Zombicide Undead or Alive 6. Dark Rituals: Malleus Maleficarum 5. Titans 4.Unmatched 3. Frosthaven 2. Summoner Wars 2nd edition 1. Skytear Hmm I guess my tastes are different now that I made the list since I enjoy games like Bitoku, Scythe, My father's work, and Resurgence which I don't believe I'll enjoy as a teen. Though probably still not on my top 10 games of all time (probably)

I was a teen when Heroscape came out and was what really got me into games, I just didn't have the money to buy them. I think I would only have 5 on my list though, I was pretty content with MTG, Heroscape and D&D at the time and my dad had a lot of 70s and 80s board games that we played sometimes so there was that, but these would've been really neat to have too. 5 Agricola, I really liked Harvest Moon and a board game that is about farming would have been great and I was kind of like Tom, I read rule books often, I knew games inside and out so this would've been really neat to have plus a game with no dice? What? How quaint. 4 Suburbia. I really liked Sim City as a teen and it's just a board game version of that video game. Plus I just like building stuff and money games as a teen. I was the master of Monopoly in my family, only my dad could beat me. 3 Hero Realms, I played a lot of MTG at that time and having a card game that you can build your deck as you play(my favorite part of magic btw) would have blown my mind. Plus you're fighting each other or even better do a campaign as you play would've have been super cool. Dominion could've made it for the deckbuilding slot, but I would've liked the fantasy theme way more as a teen instead of medieval Europe. 2 King of Tokyo, my dad and I love this game, I should have bought it years ago but pushed it off as a kid's game. It's amazing and I was somewhat into Godzilla as a teen, so making Kaijus fight each other would have been amazing. 1 Twilight Imperium. I know that the first and second editions were around when I was a kid, but I would've loved playing it as a teen. I already played a lot of Heroscape and D&D but to tell me that you could have a space civ and rule a galaxy that's not a computer game would've really been the icing on the cake and probably would've made me put all the other games I listed as well as any of the other ones away in the closet.

Batman: The Animated Series: Shadow of the Bat would've blown my mind as a teenager. The series came out when I was 13-14, and being able to play out the episodes on a board game would've blown my mind. It would've been my #1 and likely kicked HeroQuest to the curb. Both X-Wing, Imperial Assault, and Nemesis would also make my list. Similar to Batman, the X-Men cartoon started up early in my teenage years. So, I'd have loved to play a game that captured that. But, I don't that there's a game that would've captured that. I'd have probably wanted Marvel United, but I'd have likely repurposed the miniatures for use in a skirmish or dungeon crawler game after a few plays. I ended up cannibalizing a fair amount of board games as a teenager to create the kinds of games I wanted to play. Of the ones mentioned... - Masters of the Universe: Clash for Eternia would be high up on my list. - Nexus Ops would've been amazing (and why aren't there more games like this?) - Magic: The Gathering was one I was playing as a teenager and I loved it. I just wish I'd have had more money to spend on it.

For a kid who played Axis and Allies, you would have been really excited to play 'The War Room' (its successor).

Yes, X-wing!!! It is a shame that Asmode turned it over to AMG. They have just about killed it for casual play. Used to have close to 100 local players, now just two.

MtG as a teenager was indeed epic. I think the one I would have added was Mechs vs. Minions

Well I was a teenager 50+ years ago so yes Avalon Hill was where it was at but there are so many games out now that it would be hard to pick just ten.

Toms joke "pick up sticks" is the title of one chapter.

For me, the only one I know for sure would be Marvel Legendary. Same story as Tom: I would have played all the sets and combinations and been running to the store for each expansion. Marvel United would have been a maybe. I'd say Millennium Blades, but I didn't have the TCG context then. Maybe Imperial Settlers for some more solo "building things" satisfaction. By the time I got into Magic, I could drive, but yeah… It pretty much took over. Apart from that, I'm still waiting on a couple games I would have loved as a teenager and would still love now. Someone needs to make a kind of Clank! that has a Pokémon theme-instead of a dungeon, going on a Pokémon journey, capturing monsters, collecting gyms, etc. I also need an X-Men version of Descent/Imperial Assault. I wanna level up Iceman and Nightcrawler with cool powers as I go on missions to beat Apocalypse, Sinister, and The Brotherhood while protecting Xavier's Mansion. Ideally there'd be a procedural campaign generation system so teenage me could play infinitely.

For me: I tried to make each game a different style - I didn't want to full the list with multiple games of the same type. I also disqualified anything that required an app. Most of the games on this list would have been played solo as I lived a long way from my friends and didn't meet them often. 10 - One of my favourite computer games from my teenage years was Dungeon Keeper and Dungeon Keeper 2. So a game with the same theme would have attracted me. Boss Monster would have been higher, but it would rarely have been played since my friends didn't live near. 9 - I always liked Star Wars, and being able to hide the Alliance from the Imperials would have fascinated me. I would have painted all the models. Again Star Wars Rebellion would be higher if it could have been played solo. 8 - I would have played all the characters, tried multi-handing it, and I would have written several custom campaigns for Pathfinder Adventure Card Game. 7 - My dad really enjoyed Chess - he was a local grandmaster in his youth. So of course I never stood a chance against him. Tak is far simpler, but still very strategic. I expect he would have liked this. 6 - Another of my favourite computer games was the Commandos series. So being able to play a game in the same settings would have been great. (And yes I am still calling it V-Commandos rather than V-Sabotage. :) ) 5 - A lot of my childhood was spent reading, playing single-player computer games, and doing puzzles. Having the 7th Continent to explore and many puzzles to work out would have been amazing. 4 - A large campaign, lots of models to paint, and Star Wars? Sign-me up for Star Wars: Imperial Assault. Especially with the fan-made expansion that provides cards and rules to automate the Imperial player. Many other dungeon crawlers could be on this list - I have around a dozen of them on my shelves now, but this one wins for theme and gameplay. 3 - I played a lot of Yahtzee when I was a child, so a horror-themed game that is basically Yahtzee with a reason to roll? Yes please. Elder Sign is great. 2 - As previously mentioned: I loved reading and solving puzzles, plus exploration. Could Sleeping Gods not be on the list? 1 - My favourite book is The Lord Of The Rings. Most of the games I played as a child / teen used a deck of playing cards. Combining those two with being able to build your own deck? I no-doubt would have built dozens of decks for The Lord Of The Rings The Card Game and have completed all the missions on nightmare, which I have not had time to even complete them all on normal yet. I almost put Arkham Horror The Card Game here since the story is so much more prevalant in that game, but as much as I did like Horror, I had not at that time discovered Lovecraft's writings, so Tolkein's world wins out. 10 - Boss Monster 9 - Star Wars Rebellion 8 - Pathfinder Adventure Card Game 7 - Tak 6 - V-Commandos 5 - 7th Continent 4 - Star Wars Imperial Assault 3 - Elder Sign 2 - Sleeping Gods 1 - The Lord Of The Rings LCG

This has been one of my fav top 10s, mostly for the unabashed enthusiasm

I would have love any dinosaur themed games such as finosaur Island also civ type games so through the ages. To mention 2

This top 10 made me realize that my game group in 2016/2017 went through a teenage phase

Loved this Top 10. The theme. The three amigos. Just great. Yes I am also born in the 70s.

I would love Terror Below. Still do but I would have played so meny more times.

Really surprised Project Elite didn't come up as a pick. I really like the Klask pick by Mike.

It's nice to see Tom's number 1 get respect, even after all those years. Top 5 game for me.

I got into MTG as a teenager in 1997 (I think?) with Tempest (100% sure about the set tho) and it definitely changed how I spent my lunch hours at school :-) I'd say I'd like Android: NetRunner, L5R LCG or DoomTown: Reloaded to be teleported back in time to eat my attention in place of MTG. Better games with a better distribution model, what's not to love :-)

Heroscape and Brikwars would both have been on my list. Marvel Legendary as well.

one thing I learned from Tom is that he is a bigger dork than I thought. While he was playing games as a teenager, i was out hanging out with girls!!

I was the weird kid that started a D&D Rainy Day club (for indoor recesses) in 5th grade and was writing campaign rules for Games Workshop big box games (Dark Future, Blood Bowl, Advanced Heroquest) as a teen, so I am with Tom in knowing pretty well what I would have liked because I know what I was playing. My list would be 10: Cuba Libre (yep, weird kid) 9: Attack of the Jelly Monster, 8: Fortune and Glory, 7: Cockroach Poker, 6: Star Wars: Rebellion, 5: Xia, 4: Sleeping Gods, 3: Argent: the Consortium, 2: Duel of Ages II, 1: Shadowrun: Crossfire (Shadowrun RPG came out my senior year of High School and was played a bunch the summer before college for me). Not sure how Duel of Ages didn't make Tom's list. Teenage me would have loved it and not seen any of the clunky rules or would have just house ruled around them. Would have been so much fun! I should probably look at my list on the prior video and see if they are similar but...

The game I saw advertised as a teenager, and really, REALLY wanted, was the original Heroquest

I’d like probably any of the giant lifestyle games that I struggle to get to the table now like Aeon Trespass, Gloomhaven, Oathsworn, and/or Kingdom Death Monster! I would need my rich uncle to pay for these though.. lol🎉

I think I would be crazy about these games. I left out games like Pitchcar/Klask/Crokinole. I would be crazy of any of those games so that could be a complete separate top 10. King Tokyo Western Legends Ethnos Clever Rising Sun Gloomhaven Pirates Cove Cockroach Poker Risk Legacy Marvel Legendary

I have Gatefall still in its plastic wrapping.