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Happy New Year everyone! I hope that you all had a wonderful festive season and I hope that, in addition to the wonderful family memories, delicious food and hilarious games of charades, you also came away with some new board games for your collections.
But let’s take a moment to think about those titles that we didn’t get, what about the games that we still want to buy? Well, if inside of you there is also a board game goblin who is never truly satisfied, you will need to ensure that your board game wishlist is up to date and 2025 ready.
Now when I was a child, creating a dream gift list involved sitting with the Argos catalogue circling toys and then copying down all of the key information on a separate, parent-friendly piece of paper. This was a genius tactic by my parents as not only did this task keep me quiet for hours, it also provided them with a clear cut, no doubt list of what I would like for my birthday.
As board game loving adults in 2025 however, the Argos catalogue no longer cuts the mustard (I also don’t think those big books even exist any more) so we need a new way to make gift lists which do our hobbies justice… may I present to you the Zatu Wish List.
How do you create a wishlist?
Once signed in to your Zatu account, you can use the Wish List function to create multiple lists of games you would like in your collection. One of the best features of the Wish List is that you can clearly see, in one place, all the games you would like to buy and how much they are currently on sale for. The list also shows you how much prices have dropped since you added each game:
This is the perfect way to keep an eye on dream games which are out of your price range. By using the multiple list capability I am able to create a list for my family as well as a list for me where I can keep an eye on the price of games I want to buy for myself.
And the Wish List is so easy to populate, unlike my 8 year old self you do not need to note down prices, product numbers or descriptions, simply click the ‘Heart’ icon next to a game’s picture and the website will ask you which Wish List you would like to add that title to. Alternatively, if you click on a game to open it’s full page, the heart icon can then be found next to the ‘Add to Basket’ button.
Once you have created your list, it is so easy to send it to your friends and family. Once on your Wish List, click the ‘Share’ button: this allows you to share your list directly to WhatsApp and social media, send the list in an email by simply putting an email address in the box or by copying the automatically generated link.
Now that 2025 is well and truly underway, I thought I would share with you three games currently on my list and the reasons why I am looking to add these games to my collection:
1. Nekojima
How did I hear about this game? I experienced Nekojima for the first time at the UKGE 2024: it was day two, I wanted to play as many games as possible and so I headed over to Hatchette’s board game area. They were demoing a huge range of titles including Middle Ages and Quoridor: Pac-Man which have both been hugely successful since. Admittedly Middle Ages was
the game I had initially wanted to play, but as that table was full I sat down and tried Nekojima, a game which translates to ‘The Island of Cats’, instead…within 5 minutes I was hooked.
What type of game is it? Nekojima is a beautifully made, wooden dexterity game in which you need to stack ‘Power Lines’ on top of one another whilst also ensuring that the cables do not touch. Further still, when your tongue is already stuck out through sheer concentration, the game will push you further by getting you to add cats to the set up. Try not to be the player who knocks the whole thing down.
Why do I want this game? Simply put, it is addictive, it is accessible and as such everyone I have played this game with has loved it. I am personally a big fan of heavy, resource management, happy headache games but I have come to realise that not everyone wants to play Caverna at the end of a dinner party. I need something light in my collection that I can bring out with new and seasoned gamers, with people who are competitive and people who are not and I believe Nekojima is the perfect game for this. Anyone can win at this game, it’s just down to you and your steady hands.
2. Ark Nova Card Game: Marine World Expansion
How did I hear about this game? I came across this game in the classic way, my friends came around for a board game session and brought Ark Nova. We played it, I loved it, I wanted to play it again. Fast forward a few months, to when I’d managed to convince them to bring Ark Nova back to the table, and we were at it again but this time, because we were all zoo experts, my friends added in their Marine World Expansion too.
What type of game is it? To be clear, this is an expansion and so you will need the Ark Nova base game to play it. The expansion is primarily a card pack introducing lots of additional marine animals which can be housed in your zoo. There is also a new association board, a fourth university (plus six special universities) and alternate action cards which provide a bit of variability over the base game. Aquariums are a new building type you can build and, as with the Reptile House and Aviary, they allow you to house more animals with less space.
Why do I want this game? There are two main reasons I feel this expansion has a place on all our board game shelves (….assuming the rest of Ark Nova is there also). Firstly, as someone who loved playing Zoo Tycoon on the PC growing up, I know how much fun a marine expansion can be (my fingers are crossed for a Dino Digs style Ark Nova expansion!). But, in all seriousness, the ‘Wave’ feature ensures that the card display is constantly refreshing and moving, it means you actually make your way through the mountain of cards. This is not just important because you get to look at all the pretty animals, it is so strategically important. In Ark Nova, you have end game scoring cards and conservation cards which require you to ‘collect’ certain symbols within your zoo. In the base game, because the card display is so static, you can go through a whole game only coming across one symbol for your objective: this is really disheartening and can leave you feeling actionless on your turn, saving your money and enclosure spaces for the next ‘Break’ when two new animals only might appear. Because the
Marine Expansion fixes this fundamental flaw in Ark Nova, it ends up making Ark Nova an almost perfect game.
3. Scout
How did I hear about this game? Well how could I not. I know that I am late to the party with this game and I imagine that most of you already have a copy of this Oink Game in your collection. It is a Zatu Best Seller and recommended by the entertaining folks over at Shut Up and Sit Down. I first heard about this game at my local board game club, we played it as a little filler and it became the stand out game of the night for me. Now, it is a running joke during roll call to count up just how many versions of Scout have made it to our club that evening; move aside Cockroach Poker, there is a new favourite filler in town.
What type of game is it? Scout is a card game, similar to Rummy in which you have to collect and play runs of numbers (either groups of the same number or sets of numbers in consecutive order). There are some new features, for example, the cards are dual-indexed which means there are different numbers on both the top and bottom of each card. Unlike in other card games, once you have placed a card in your hand you cannot rearrange it and so you must think ahead to make the most of the hand you started with.
Why do I want this game? I played Rummy/Gin Rummy with my grandparents growing up and when I played Scout it brought back so many happy memories for me. Each time a round ended I just wanted to play again and, as the cards are dual-indexed, I found that there was so much replayability – you won’t be stuck with the same combination of cards again. It is important to point out that this game is not as fun with a low player count but it is pocket sized soooo…a winner for me.
And there we have it, three of the games on my 2025 Zatu Wish List. I wonder if any of these titles will make it onto your list as well?