Once upon a time, video games were often based on board games — because believe it or not, there were people back in the day who thought that the tabletop was King, and that these newfangled “computer-things” would never take off. That was a long time ago, though, and board games have definitely ebbed whilst the videogame market never ceases to flow.
With board games increasingly in popularity over the past five or ten years again, video game publishers have been watching. Not everyone wants the hectic pace of an online shooter all the time, and so here we have a list of 11 of the best digital adaptations of popular board games — and we’ve skipped the more obvious ones in the hopes that you’ll learn something when you read through these!
Perhaps the biggest breakout board game of the past five years, it should be no surprise to see that Dune: Imperium makes it onto this list. Dune: Imperium has now been expanded several times in real life, with additions and upgrades that change board spaces and rebalance large sections of the game, but the base game itself still stands up to scrutiny.
Based on a hybrid of deckbuilding and worker placement, Dune: Imperium is a thematic, incredibly tight experience with many paths to victory. Whether you choose war, politics, intrigue or economic strength, your choices are surprisingly broad. Definitely not a game for players who are new to heavy board games, Dune: Imperium is a connoisseur’s choice that has been superbly implemented on console.
Another heavy one — and perhaps the heaviest of the lot — Gloomhaven is a massive, 100+ hour experience that offers a mix of light roleplaying (if compared to a typical videogame) and tactical, turn-based combat. With a card based system that removes almost all aspects of luck, Gloomhaven requires deep thought and can be very tough at times.
Gloomhaven weighs in at some like 10 to 12 kilos in real life, and in my humble opinion it is practically impossible to get to the table unless you are a hardcore gamer. There’s too much to punch and set up, too many secret pockets and too much to learn. That’s why the digital adaptation is perfect — because you get to experience all of the brilliance of Gloomhaven, but with none of the setup and teardown. I should also note that the latest edition also includes a load of extra content from Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion, as well as a number of rules tweaks that have been considered over the years since Gloomhaven launched.
Istanbul is one of my very favourite “real life” board games. It features a pretty generic theme about trading in the titular city, but the real hook is the way in which you move around this city. Players must move their “stack” of assistants through the city, with one assistant left on a space when the action of that space is taken (this is basically your turn.) At some point, you’ll then need to collect them all back up at the fountain — so that you can send them out again!
What I love about Istanbul is how simple it is, and how thematic it feels to play. You’ll win by being the first player to earn five gems – and you’ll do this by upgrading your handcart, making gifts to the Sultan, visiting mosques and through amassing tremendous wealth. To do these things, you might trade, visit the smuggler or even make the most of the many bonus cards that can be drawn. Sadly, Istanbul on console lacks the nearly essential Mocha and Baksheesh expansion, but it is nonetheless a great, gentle introduction to modern eurogames.
A classic that almost anyone would recognise these days, Ticket to Ride remains one of the most widely sold – if not the most widely sold – board games of the modern era. With simple mechanics and lots of visual charm, Ticket to Ride is a classic gateway game that you can play with anyone from children to grandparents, and almost anyone will be happy to play it. Originally released on console about ten years ago, Ticket to Ride was delisted and then republished with a brand new coat of paint.
Ticket to Ride is focussed on the American market in its current form, so that’s the map you get out of the box (so to speak). However, the new version also has excellent support for some of the many map packs that exist in board game shops, and as such you can easily expand your game to include India, Europe and the Scandinavian countries. With a simple user interface and all the charm of the real game, Ticket to Ride is a great place to start your digital board game collection.
Another massive hit in the physical board game world, Wingspan is the brainchild of designer Elizabeth Hargreaves and experienced publisher Stonemaier Games. In both physical and digital forms, there are now three large expansions that add birds from all over the world, and in the purely physical world, there’s even a sequel called Wyrmspan that switches the theme from birds to dragons!
Wingspan is a dream to play on console, with soft watercolour visuals that enhance the experience beyond the basic tabletop experience, whilst never interfering with or changing the core mechanics. The game itself is all about attracting the right birds to your aviary and then using their unique skills to generate additional food, eggs and cards in order to score the most points – with both secret and public objectives adding focus to the experience.
In all honesty, Talisman is not my favourite board game ever — and having first appeared in the 1980’s, it’s definitely showing its age. That said, many people love Talisman and enjoy the nostalgia that it brings — and the digital implementation of it is surprisingly slick and actually quite attractive to look at.
The base game is essentially based on a large chunk of luck as players roll their way around the outer edge of the board trying to avoid mishaps whilst attempting to gain access to the inner sections of the board. With expansions (which can become quite costly) there are additional boards, new characters and a lot of additional options, but the base game itself should be enough to get you up and running.
If you love the classic card game of poker, then you may well love this unique and digitally exclusive remix. Balatro is a bonkers of mix classic poker where runs and flushes are the most reliable to win – and roguelite, where there’s a consistent increase in your basic power level from one game to the next.
This is undoubtedly a hard game to explain in just a few lines, but imagine that rather than playing with a “straight” hand, Balatro has you play with a hand that might have more cards (or fewer) depending on the challenge you face. When you succeed, you’ll win money, but rather than banking it as you might in normal poker, here you’ll have to reinvest it in booster packs filled with unique cards. Balatro has a killer hook that kept me coming back hour after hour, and if you’re a fan of classic card games, this is one you should definitely check out.
The original Darkest Dungeon was a videogame that went on to inspire a sister board game that wasn’t perfect, but which nonetheless offered tough-as-nails roguelike gaming on your tabletop — along with a whole ton of miniatures. The sequel, Darkest Dungeon II, strays away from the tabletop a little bit, but shares the same fundamentals as the original game and still retains tough, turn-based combat.
Whilst I could recommend Darkest Dungeon as well (because it’s quite good), the direction taken by Darkest Dungeon II makes it feel like a more exciting, modern and perilous adventure. One of the best things about it is the incredibly morose narrator, who delivers some of the darkest lines I’ve heard in a video game — all in the spirit of good fun, of course!
An almost direct digital translation of the board game, Overboss has players acting in the role of an end-of-level boss in a 8-bit inspired dungeon crawl. In Overboss, the aim of the game is to create the best possible dungeon, and you’ll do this by placing tiles onto either a 3×3 grid or a 4×4 grid depending on your preference.
Spaces come in many different habitats including forest, snow and desert, and each habitat has a linked kind of mob creature who thrives there. Overboss awards points for where habitats are placed, what minions are on them and how groups of minions (on adjacent habitats) link. There’s a drafting aspect to the game, but Overboss is generally simple and so it’s one that your younger gamers can also join in with.
A bit of a wildcard entry this one, because Shotgun King is just a very cool variant on chess — perhaps a bit like Balatro is to Solitaire. In this crazy twist on the timeless classic, the player takes control of the black King — who has been forsaken by all his other pieces. There’s a basic “Throne” mode that takes place over eleven levels, and then an endless mode.
The twist in Shotgun King is that the king still has his trusty shotgun. Moving as a normal king and facing an ever larger army of white pieces, the King must blast his way through whilst still respecting the check (or the checkmate!) After every level, both the King and his opponent will receive a rule-bending new perk, and with each successful run, the game gets progressively harder. It’s not chess as you know it, but Shotgun King is bloody brilliant all the same!
Kingdom Rush: Origins is one of a series of games set in the Kingdom Rush universe, and I can’t actually remember whether the board or video game first, but I do know that we reviewed Kingdom Rush: Rift in Time back in 2020 and really enjoyed the light, simple tower defence gameplay and mild polyomino puzzle.
The Kingdom Rush: Origins video game plays very differently to the board game, and to be fair, I don’t think it’s meant to be the same – it’s more of a classic tower defence style game that works in real time. That said, it shares the same visual appeal, and for younger gamers in particular, it’s enjoyable to round out the complete story of Kingdom Rush.
