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The Academy Awards were announced recently, and they covered a huge variety of categories within the world of cinema. But there was one category they neglected, to their SHAME! And that is the best board games based on films. We at Zatu think this is an outrage and we must rectify this slight on our cardboard companions immediately. We have created our own awards to celebrate these masterpieces. It’s time for the Meepies.
The Game Rewriting Cinematic History Award – Luke Pickles
We all know the general premise of cinema – good will ultimately triumph over evil in some form or another, and nowhere is that more regularly hammered home than in Disney movies. Scar gets his comeuppance, the puppies escape from Cruella De Ville, and Olaf melts into a puddle. What do you mean Olaf isn’t the baddie?
Anyway, Disney Villainous is the game where players take on the role of the famous Disney and Pixar villains and try to enact their evil scheme. They bounce about within their film (realm), collecting power, playing allies and items, and Fating their opponents, letting the heroes of their film get in the way. The base game gives you six characters to explore – Prince John, Ursula, The Queen of Hearts, Captain Hook, Jafar and Maleficent.
However, the world of Disney Villainous is ever growing, with a whole bunch of expansions available so you can start with whichever box of characters you like. And that’s what I think makes this an excellent entry level game to introduce new players to the hobby. Something they’re familiar with but with a twist that won’t melt their brain.
The production value of this game is excellent, with every character getting their own coloured representation to move about the board, and their own unique powers and objectives really makes this game a challenge to master. Everyone will have their favourites, but you’ll have to overcome those horrible heroes and re-write history in your favour.
The Sci-Fi Deck Builder Award – Dan Street-Phillips
Frank Herbert’s Dune is possibly one of the most influential Sci-Fi books of the last century. Without it we don’t have Game of Thrones or perhaps, more scary, we never get Kevin Bacon in Tremors! There have been many screen adaptations of Dune, including the iconic 1984 film from the mad mind of David Lynch which sees Sting in gold pants seared into our minds. However it is the 2021 adaptation that is the theme of the monster hit Dune Imperium.
Because of the global pandemic the film was delayed it’s release until 2021 meaning that Dune Imperium was released a whole year before anyone got to see the much anticipated movie. A risky move! The artwork was all designed around the actors cast in the new screen version but luckily the publisher (Dire Wolf) commissioned original artwork instead of the usual, lazy, screen shots. This means that the game has its own identity.
Paul Atreides may have the look of a Timothee Chalamet but it doesn’t make you think of the film when you play the game. And what a game it is. Based around worker placement and deck building mechanisms, you move your agents around Arakis as you gain resources and build alliances with the different factions. You might want to befriend the Fremen in order to gain valuable water or you may even want to get into (figurative) bed with the Emperor to gain power in the council which can be expensive.
All this whilst also adding cards to your deck by spending influence. And then you get combat! At the end of each round, those with troops in the fight compete for powerful prizes. Points are tight and the tension is high at every turn. Life on Arrakis is tough but worth every drop of sweat!
The Fantasy Deck Builder Award – Seb Hawden
Let me set things straight, I am not the biggest Harry Potter fan in the world but my friend Kieran is. So on his birthday, after getting into board games recently, I bought him Hogwarts Battle. It’s a sort of Dominion-lite deck-builder with a light campaign that takes you through all seven Harry Potter films. So don your sorting hat and let’s Revelio this bad boy.
If you have played any deck-builder from the last few years you will slide into this one like a cosy wizard’s robe, it's light and breezy, not too complex and full of references from the films. You start at the first film, The Philosophers Stone, with the basic rule set and the game evolves from there. In the first film, Harry and his chums are inexperienced and they get better as you open further boxes and work your way through this treacherous tale.
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle includes seven boxes and each one introduces new enemies, new cards, new spells and even new components. It was always nice to spice up the next game and watch our young wizards grow into their wands. The game, especially early on, is quite easy but does get a bit trickier in the last few games. You draw your hand and assign damage to your enemies, then spend your hard-earned cash on new cards and allies. Just beware, if the enemies ever take over all the locations from the current game you have lost. You are a rubbish wizard Harry!
I am here for the deck-building but seeing my little friends' face light up when seeing new Harry Potter characters and items from the show is worth its weight in gold. Not only is this title a great intro into this genre but a buffet for Harry Potter fans. Hogwarts Battle may not be my favourite deck-builder but I will never turn down a chance to smack up Voldemort with a bit of Avada Kadavra.
The Movie Based On A Game That Isn’t Jumanji Award – FavouriteFoe
Board games based on films are ten a penny. But what about films based on board games? Now there’s a rarer beast! As much as I love crunchy euros and fun roll and writes in my gaming, they don’t really inspire on-the-edge of your seat viewing. And I love me some big-bang action when it comes to moves.
Battleship came out in 2012 starring one of the grandaddies of action aka Mr Taken. It also featured Rhi Rhi and a host of others. I have the film to thank for the phrase “chicken burrito” forever planted in my head. But the film has the old skool, strategic warfare game Battleships to thank for its box office brags and, ahem, 33% Tomatometer rating!
Battleships by HASBRO is a classic strategic game for two. Having evolved from a very basic pen and paper game devised during WW1, there are now all sorts of versions including this cool Grab and Go version. But whatever way you play, the basic idea remains the same. Each player has a fleet of warships located on their own board which is hidden from the other. Taking it in turns, one player calls out a grid reference (a “shot”) in the hope of hitting one of their opposition’s Boaty-Mc-Boatfaces! The idea is to deduce and gradually narrow down where your opponent’s fleet is located so that you can destroy them!
Battleships can’t promise the popcorn popping thrills of the silver screen but it’s a solid game. And, given that it has been around for more than a century, it’s likely to last endure a lot longer than the film or the chicken burrito in it!
(And before I go, on the subject of action movies, Die Hard is most definitely a Christmas movie!) [Editor’s note – yes. Yes it is.]
The Reason I Have Trust Issues Award – Lauren Skinner
Are you naturally suspicious of your friends and family? Justified, I’d say. At least, it is in The Thing: Infection at Outpost 31, a social deduction/hidden identity game based on the 1982 sci-fi cult classic.
You are one of twelve crewmembers stationed on U.S. Outpost 31 in Antarctica—1000 miles from nowhere in the first goddamn week of winter. Not too long into the mission, some…thing…attacks your dogs and you quickly put it down. But things get even stranger fast. You don’t know who to trust, but you do know that there’s a thing on board, waiting for you to let your guard down.
What if it’s already impersonating one of your comrades? What if you’re next?
Work together with your fellow crewmates to collect equipment, complete missions, and hopefully escape the outpost. But keep your flamethrower close, as “somebody in this camp ain't what he appears to be”, and one wrong card can spell disaster. Ultimately, the humans need to get to the helicopter without taking any infected players, preventing them from spreading to the rest of humanity.
If you love suspense and social deduction, this one’s for you. Forging risky alliances and accusing friends of lying to your face is fantastic fodder for a ferocious games’ night. If you’re infected, bluffing your way through missions is great fun. Plus, blood tests administered throughout the game means that there’s a chance for the infection to spread. You could be innocent right until the end, when you must suddenly and secretly turn on your friends. It’s an even greater betrayal that will shock both you and the teammates you have been passionately defending throughout the story.
Whether you’re Blair (he’s Senior Biologist, don’t you know), BENNINGS, or The Thing itself, you’ll love re-enacting this fantastic film.
The Not Safe To Go Into The Water Award – Craig Smith
Jaws is one of Steven Spielberg’s most loved films, and widely said to be one of the scariest films ever made. Does a film like Jaws translate well into a gaming experience?
Jaws is a one versus many game played over two halves. The first half pits one person as the shark, against the other player or players as Hooper, Brody & Quint. In the first half, the shark is trying to evade capture and eat as many swimmers as they can. They also have four one-time abilities to help avoid being caught. The others are trying to locate the shark with tracking devices. Find the shark twice, and the first half of the game ends. The more swimmers eaten by the shark, the less equipment the good team will have for the second half.
The second half is very much a fight to the death. Quint, Hooper and Brody use their equipment to try and kill the shark, whilst the shark attacks their boat, causing parts of it to be damaged or even destroyed. Games often come down to a tense finale.
The aesthetic of the Jaws game is stunning, exactly the kind of quality I’ve come to expect from Prospero Hall. The artwork certainly evokes a 70s feel, and it’s a game my partner and I often get to the table. The great thing about the game is that even if the shark wins handsomely in the first half of the game, it doesn’t mean they will win overall… trust me, I’ve learned this the hard way.
If you’re a fan of the film, I would strongly recommend adding this to your collection… but if your friends enjoy playing it too, you’re going to need a bigger table.
The Game You Play Time & Time Again Award – Hannah Blacknell
For me this was a no brainer on which film had been accurately portrayed in a really great board game. Back to the Future: Dice Through Time is a co-operative family weight game that has you calculating the best road to victory for the whole team. “Roads? Where we are going we don’t need roads!”
We have our first quote kids! Fire up the DeLorean and tell us what the game is about though, Hannah! No problemo, dear Reader. This is a dice chucking game where you play out all the main events from not only the cult classic 1985 film Back to the Future, but films 2 and 3 as well (to a lesser degree thankfully). You are frantically trying to roll out the correct die face combinations to ensure that you can help Doc and Marty repair the space-time continuum before the paradoxes rip the world apart forever. You will be jumping into the time machine, completing memorable events, and returning items to their correct location and/or owner.
The game feels frantic not just from the dice rolling, but also from the fact that the timer of the game is tracking down until you are OUTATIME. Although not a real time game, we found ourselves getting drawn into the theme so we felt like we needed to rush to complete the game. If you love the film series and you want something that you can play with kids from about 9 or 10 easily then look no further than this one!
The Incorporates Cult Horror Movies Game Award – Rob Wright
Darkness falls across the land… The midnight hour is close at hand… Creatures crawl in search of blood… To terrorise your neighbourhood.
That isn’t taken from a movie, true, but like Thriller, Horrified is a tribute to the classic drive-in horror movies of the 50s/60s produced by Universal. This is a cooperative game where players work together to defeat the forces of darkness in the shapes of Dracula, Wolfman, Mr & Mrs Frankenstein’s Monsters, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man and the Mummy. The difficulty of the game depends on how many Creatures of the night you decide to pitch yourself against.
Each monster has a different goal and drives… and needs (just because they’re monsters, don’t mean they don’t have feelings), and will need to be defeated in a different way. This means that players may find themselves spread a little thin when it comes to coping with the denizens of evil. Not only that, but bystanders keep appearing and need to be escorted to safety before they become a light snack for the beastly hordes.
It’s not all bad news though, as each player has their own special abilities in time-honoured cooperative tradition, and each turn will see the board throw out the tools required to end this night of mayhem. With these and perhaps a little bit of luck, perhaps the good people of this town will see again the light of day…
Horrified is a great thematic game and really leans into the theme. It is simple enough for a board game neophyte to play but challenging enough to appeal to the grizzled gamer – it’s lack of dice will even appeal to the Europhile in your group. There is also an American Monster edition but let’s face it: who wants to mess with Mothman when you could monster mash with Dracula and the Crypt-kicker Five…
The Game Of Survival Of The Fittest Award – Pete Earnshaw
Exhibit A) Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg’s iconic movie was the highest grossing movie of all time for several years. The quotes, the scares and the dinosaurs endure to this day and as is only natural there are countless tie ins, merch and paraphernalia available.
Exhibit B) Unmatched. A tabletop skirmish game that has lit up the gaming community in the past few years with its ever increasing catalogue of standalone expansions.
So now let’s combine the two! The Unmatched Jurassic Park games are not only a great love letter to the original movie but a fantastic addition to this game series.
First things first, there is no denying that the Velociraptors and the T-Rex are the standout dino’stars’ (please forgive me) of the Jurassic franchise. They’re cool, they’re scary and their roars are a familiar part of cinematic history. Players can now bring these iconic creatures into the world of Unmatched and either employ the stomping might of the T-Rex or the elusive pack hunting of the Raptors.
On the human side, Dr Sattler, Ian Malcom and the InGen hunters are poised and ready to take down these escaped monsters. While Dr Sattler uses her scientific knowledge to her advantage, Muldoon and his gang set traps around the board for the unsuspecting dinos.
As with all Unmatched games a unique playmat is included and these two editions provide classic movie locations to pit human vs dinosaur.
And don’t forget, since all Unmatched games are compatible with each other you can even see what would happen in a battle between the T-Rex and King Arthur! Now that calls for someone being a “clever girl”!
The Less Tense Game Of A Very Tense Movie Award – Panto Pete
In space no one can hear you scream. That’s because space is a vacuum.
In Alien Fate of the Nostromo no-one will hear you scream because the Alien cannot harm you!
Alien Fate of the Nostromo is a well-researched and excellent recreation of Ridley Scott’s and H.R.Giger’s masterpiece Alien. The five main characters: Dallas (who knew his name was Arthur?), Ripley, Lambert, Brett and Parker all have their own player boards with great artwork and well-sculpted 40mm Minis with the Alien at 50mm. At this stage Kane is already dead and Ash is revealed as an AI.
Alien FOTN is a co-operative game where from 1 to all 5 of the characters must work together to complete tasks. They then draw a final climactic objective. These replicate key moments from the film like blowing the Alien out to space or blowing up the whole ship whilst escaping in the pod. The whole game drips authenticity like alien saliva. All the key locations are there: Bridge, Galley, MedBay, Hypersleep,
Airlock, MU-TH-UR and the Alien Nest. You even get Jonesy the cat as a NPC and the rule book is presented as a transmission from the doomed space tug.
However the game play can seem a bit flat. To make it a family game and keep all the players involved the Alien never kills anyone. You just get moved away 3 spaces (which can be useful) and lose morale. Lose all the teams morale and the game is lost. This is fine but it doesn’t re-create the gut-churning tension I felt when I first saw the film knowing sudden death was only a bulkhead away. But, hey, maybe that’s a good thing. We’re all getting enough gut-churning tension in our real lives right now!