Steve’s Top 100 Games of All Time 51–60

My top 100 games of all time, 2026 edition continues with 51–60.

*Note This article contains an Amazon Affiliate link as an ad.*

Introduction

If this is your first article in this series, welcome. Every year around this time I sit down and set up my top 100 games list. Actually, last year was the first year it was top 100, before that I was stopping at 50. To make the list I used the website PubMeeple. I ordered these games by which ones I wanted to play the most. Thus, this list might change if I were to do it again tomorrow. This is more of a snapshot of my opinion at the time.

With that said, here we go.

60: This Game is Killer: Alien on Board

Publisher: Smirk & Dagger

Designer: Ivan Turner

Previous Entries: Entered the list last year at 99.

This Game is Killer is a party game based on the movie Alien. You are the crew of a legally distinct ship that has an alien sneak on board and begin killing the crew. Each round you’ll be dealt two cards and you’ll take turns playing them one at a time. One card is played for its action and the other is played for the location on the ship where you are hiding. After everyone has played both cards you’ll flip the aliens location on the ship and then perform all the actions. Where the humor comes from is that each of us have only two cards. I may have had a card that does a really great action, like vent the airlock into space. Unfortunately, you hid in the air lock. Because of how the cards are laid out, it’s hard to avoid spacing your friends. Also, the alien is randomly going to appear in a location. It won’t appear in the same location twice so you get a better chance at hitting it, assuming that its random location isn’t the one where you are hiding. I have a lot of fun playing this game. It has player elimination and can be a bit scattershot when two players go before you and are each killing everything in both locations you have access to. But the game is fast, fifteen minutes, and if you can enjoy the theme it’s a good time.

If you’d like a copy of this you can purchase it here.

59: Marvel Champions

Publisher: Fantasy Flight Games

Designer: Michael Boggs, Nate French, and Caleb Grace

Previous Entries: Started in thievery first list at 16 and slowly dropped to 61 a couple years ago where it has floated around since then.

If you’ve been around here for a while then you’ve probably seen my attempt to fill in the back bits of my collection that I’m missing from Marvel Champions. This is a cooperative game where each player gets a deck built around a different hero. You’ll take a villain, their schemes, and add a side problem to complicate things. The game works great. Each hero feels like the character the deck represents. All of the heroes are different levels of complexity but thematically are easy to figure out if you know the character from the comics, movies, or cartoons. All of the villains add fun twists and turns to the game forcing you to think of new ways to fight them and win. There is a deck building component to the game that I do a little bit of, but not much. Still, I enjoy my time playing this one.

If you’d like a copy of this you can purchase it here.

58: Mariposa

Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Group

Designer: Elizabeth Hargrave

Previous Entries: It debuted on the list last year at 98.

Elizabeth Hargrave is one of my favorite designers. I don’t know if she’s number one, but she’s absolutely in my top three. Mariposa is a game about the Monarch butterflies and their journey north into the US and back to Mariposa Mexico. Each round your butterflies will move north towards goal cards, pick up flowers, and try to be in a good position for later in the game. Some butterflies will spawn a new generation and those will move on going forward. At the end of the game, you’ll need to move back towards Mariposa to bring the journey full circle. I like how this game is put together. It’s strategic but relaxing. You can score points from a number of different ways and never feel like you’re out of the game. As with all of Hargrave’s games, this one is based in a lot of natural research which adds a level to the game.

If you’d like a copy of this you can purchase it here.

57: Let’s Go to Japan

Publisher: Alderac Entertainment Games

Designer: Josh Wood

Previous Entries: Entered the list last year at 28.

Let’s Go to Japan is a game about planning a vacation in Japan moving between Tokyo and Kyoto. Over the course of the day you’ll play cards on one of the different days of the trip balancing different activities, with travel between the two cities, as well as relaxation. The game has a lot of difficult decisions and gives bonuses for different actions. Plus, I’m pretty sure when you’re done you could fully use your end game state as a vacation planner. I like this game so much that I’m looking forward to Let’s Go to France coming later this year.

If you’d like a copy of this you can purchase it here.

56: Libertalia

Publisher: Asmodee

Designer: Ben Carre and Stephane Gantiez

Previous Entries: Entered at 25, fell to the mid thirties for a bit before dropping to 79 and then rising to this point this year.

In Libertalia you are playing the captains of various pirate crews. You start with a hand of nine cards randomly chosen from a set of thirty. Each player has the same cards in the beginning. Each round you’ll simultaneously play a card and then use its various effects in an order based on the card’s power. You’ll play six cards over the course of a round. At the end of the round you’ll get six new cards. You play three rounds and while everyone starts with the same nine cards, you only play six of them and then add six new ones each round making your final hand different from everyone else’s. You might be able to remember what cards each player has left, but the game gets a bit muddled with everyone playing different cards. I love how much fun this game is and the stories that come from it. Ask me about the time my friend John threw himself off the ship; actually, this has happened a couple of times.

55: Finspan

Publisher: Stonmaier Games

Designer: David Gordon and Michael O’Connell

Previous Entries: Came on the list last year at 56.

Finspan is the latest of the Span games where you build a tableau of a type of animal, gather resources, and trigger abilities. Finspan has you collecting fish. In this game you play fish into columns representing different parts of a water table and the column portions being the various depths the fish are found at. As you play out fish to the area you’ll occasionally send a diver to interact with a column and gather resources and trigger abilities from various fish on your board. finspan also includes an egg laying mechanic and school of fish mechanic where some of the baby fish (doo-doo, doo-doo, doo-doo) can be moved into schools that will score based on some cards in your tableau. This is the most welcoming of the Span games and can be played as a nice afternoon with folks who are just getting into the hobby.

If you’d like a copy of this you can purchase it here.

54: Apiary

Publisher: Stonemaier Games

Designer: Connie Voglemann

Previous Entries: Debuted last year at 16.

Apiary is a worker placement game where you are space faring bees exploring the galaxy in your hive ships. As with most worker placement games you’ll take actions, gain resources, upgrades, and abilities. How well you do will be based on the strength of your bee. Each of your bees has a strength of one to four and when you place them on a space they’ll stay until someone else uses that space or the bee is recalled home. When a bee is recalled, it goes up a level unless it’s going above four. Once a bee reaches what is normally level 5, it instead heads to the crypt securing you a long term bonus. This balancing act of when to send a bee to a location to force your opponent to take it back and get a stronger bee or when to send your bee to an area hoping your opponents will send it back to you is a nice, tense part of the game. That said, being forced to use a turn to recall all of your bees comes with some fun upgrades that work well. There are a lot of decisions and board sections to interact with and I can’t recommend enough.

If you’d like a copy of this you can purchase it here.

53: Tales of the Arthurian Knights

Publisher: WizKids

Designer: Eric Goldberg and Andrew Parks

Previous Entries: debuted last year at 18.

In Tales of the Arthurian Knights you are taking the role of Arthur’s Knights from the round table. You are tasked with a quest and must set off to explore Britain and solve the quest. The game is heavily narrative based with each turn ending with you getting a bit of story where you’ll need to make a decision, maybe use a skill, or have an item present. Story bits are randomly determined based on what sort of terrain you’re in, what ear it is, and what creature you’ve discovered. Creatures are created by drawing cards from two different decks. One deck is creature type, and one is an attribute. You could end up with an angry hermit, and helpless peasant, or a bloodthirsty princess. Whatever you’re facing you’ll need to decide how to interact with them based on context clues. The game comes with different lengths; short, medium, and full game; where each length has you interact with a different number of acts for the story from one to all three. The game is fun, has a lot of nice decisions, and the writing is excellent. This is based on an older game called Tales of the Arabian Knights. This one is a bit more serious than the first so if you want a more serious tone then this is the one for you.

If you’d like a copy of this you can purchase it here.

52: Shadows of Brimstone

Publisher: Flying Frog Games

Designer: Jason Hill

Previous Entries: Debuted in my first year at 44, rose to 8, and then dropped back to the mid 40s and 50s.

Shadows of Brimstone is a procedurally generated campaign dungeon crawler. Brimstone is set in the weird west where a series of portals to other realities have opened in various mines that have been used to harvest a mysterious mineral called dark stone that offers great power with great dangers. You play typical western heroes; saloon girl, sheriff, ranchers, and others. You explore the mines trying to complete a mission. The mines are developed by drawing cards from a mines deck and using them to determine what rooms you’ll encounter, monsters you’ll fight, and loot you’ll discover. Some of the doorways can lead to different planes of reality which will unleash a whole different series of enemies on you as well as themed loot that can be grabbed to make you stronger for your next foray into the mines. The game is a fun campaign with lots of fun choices and interactions. I sadly don’t get to play it as much as I’d like because I have the entire first Kickstarter which includes a metric ton of stuff making it difficult to take the game to someone else’s home. Still, when I do get to bring it to the table, I love bringing my six guns to bear on the unspeakable horrors.

51: Fortune and Glory: the Cliffhanger Game

Publisher: Flying Frog Games

Designer: Jason Hill

Previous Entries: Debuted in the first year at 16 and steadily fell to here.

And we’ll finish up with a second Flying Frog Game. Fortune and Glory is an adventure game set in the 1930s and has you playing an explorer working to secure treasures from around the globe. You can play the game competitively or cooperatively. Either way you are moving around the globe, exploring ancient dig sites, and securing treasures. Either way you play the game you’ll also deal with the forces of evil which can include Nazis, the Chicago Mob, or Cultists. The game has a fun mechanic where you face an encounter at the end of your turn. If you succeed then you get a reward and end your turn. If you fail then you flip the card to look at the back and receive a cliffhanger. This is an encounter you’ll have to take on at the start of your next turn. Cliffhangers have a minor reward for succeeding and a penalty for failing. The game is so much fun and brings up memories of Indian Jones or the Librans. It’s tons of campy fun, and works best if you steer into the theme; maybe play a soundtrack.

If you’d like a copy of this you can purchase it here.

Outro

There you go folks. Those are the next set of ten games. We’re now at the half way point with just fifty games left to look at. I’ve looked ahead a little and the next bit has some reflections of this set of ten as well as some sports of different types. I’m excited to see where we go from here.

Let me know in the comments, how do you feel this year’s list is going?

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Until next time, stay safe and be well.