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Great Scott! I can’t believe we are now in a time where some of the below games are considered nostalgic! Forty years ago, this pop-culture phenomenon hit our screens, and few of us old enough to remember have been the same since. The links to Doc, Marty, Einstein et al are obvious in a few suggestions. But playing these other classics also makes us feel like we are looking at the future of board games through the prism of well-known favourites!
BACK TO THE FUTURE - BACK IN TIME: Favouritefoe
“Wait a minute Doc. Are you telling me you built a time machine out of a DeLorean? “
When the world (or at least the tarmac) is burning, you need your team. And in Back To The Future Back In Time, players are just that! Taking on the roles of Marty, Doc, Jennifer, and of course Einstein, you are back in 1955 and you need to find three parts to fix the DeLorean. It won’t reach 1mph let alone the hallowed 88mph if it doesn’t work! Trouble is, Biff is intent on making your lives hell (no change there then!), and Marty’s parents are still being completely clueless when it comes to love. Combining dice rolling, action selection, and push your luck, this is a game that Back to the Future fans will want to go back to again and again!
RUMMIKUB: Favouritefoe
“88mph is the magic number!”
Rummikub has most definitely been on game tables since before 1985. It has actually been around for more than 90 years. A Spiel des Jahres Game of the Year award back in 1980, it’s an excellent 2-4 player tile laying, set collection game based on the familiar card game Rummy. The objective is simple – you need to make runs/sets of at least three consecutive or identical numbered tiles (numbered #1-13 in 4 different colours plus 2 jokers). As gameplay progresses, you’ll be forgiven for embodying your inner Doc as you start muttering “ The appropriate question is, where the hell are they?” when not a single 4 or orange tile appears from the bag! Rummikub is one of our go-to comfort games when the world feels a bit too loud. And if there is stretching and bending of the time-space continuum going on, there’s going to be a whole heap of crazy to hide from with a fun game of Rummikub!
GUESS WHO: Favouritefoe
“Who’s the vice president? Jerry Lewis?”
Ironically, given how many editions there are of the classic Guess Who, there is actually no presidential version! But that’s okay because there are Marvel, Football, Batman, Super Mario, Harry Potter, Travel, and refreshed versions where you can download different player sheets. Presidents could well make an appearance in the future! Around for decades, the name of the game says it all. Answering yes or no, players narrow down who their opponent is based on features shown on the characters/objects in the windows on their boards. For example, you could ask “do you wear glasses?”, and if your chosen character does, then your opponent can close down all the windows showing faces without them. When you think you have deduced sufficiently, you can make a guess……..will you have worked out who your opponent is? Just remember that if you need to ask “Calvin? Why do you keep calling me Calvin?” someone isn’t playing Guess Who correctly!
CLUEDO: Sophie Jones
My early board gaming memories are filled with classics like Monopoly, Wildlife Adventure, Journey Through Europe, and of course, Cluedo! When I returned to the hobby about six years ago, it was clear that board games had evolved beyond rolling dice and moving Professor Plum around the manor. Now, you can build ecosystems, wage wars, and strategize in intense two-player games. Yet, despite all the modern options, Cluedo made its way back into my collection. This game carries so much nostalgia for me. I loved placing the culprit, weapon, and room cards into the secret envelope and setting up weapon tokens in each room. The thrill of not knowing who the murderer was kept each game suspenseful—you could be playing as them and not even know it!
Cluedo’s gameplay is simple: roll the dice, move around the board, and once you reach a room, make your accusation. “Was it Miss Scarlett, in the Study, with the Rope?” Players take turns showing you cards to eliminate suspects, weapons, or rooms, building up clues along the way. As each player hunts for clues, you can make your own deductions. For example, when my sister showed a card every time someone asked about the lead pipe, I quickly guessed she had that card and crossed it off my list! The tension really peaks when someone makes a final guess in the centre of the board. You always hope they’re wrong so you can get another shot! Cluedo was my introduction to deduction games and sparked my love for cosy crime stories, especially those by Agatha Christie. Even after all these years, it still finds its way to the table because each game brings a fresh mystery: Whodunnit?
CARCASSONE: Favouritefoe
“Roads? where we’re going, we don’t need roads.”
Probably the most well know (non-word based) tile laying game amongst board gamers, And unlike Doc and his crew, you do need roads in Carcassonne. Or at least you might want them.
Because in Carcassonne they offer an opportunity to score points if you build them and complete them. But they aren’t the only way to get VPs – there are cities, fields, rivers, cathedrals, farmers, inns……..the list of expanded features added into this game over the years is huge. But the core gameplay hasn’t changed. Lay a tile adjacent to another tile where the feature on the shared boundary match. Then place a meeple on it (or don’t – it’s your choice). If the feature gets closed off (according to its specific rules) or your tile is placed within the correct number or type of adjoining tiles, you’ll recover your meeple and score it. We love the seeming simplicity of Carcassonne as it is easy to learn but its hard to master. You’ll be at the mercy of the tile you draft, but the skill comes in knowing how to place optimally and score maximally with what you get!
BACK TO THE FUTURE – DICE THROUGH TIME: Alana Wren
Back to the Future is a big deal in our house due to our Back to the Future obsessed almost 10 year old. We have posters, T shirts, the red gilet/denim jacket combo, Playmobil sets, and Back to the Future Dice Through Time.
This is a cooperative dice based game where players work together to collect and return important items from the Back to the Future movies to their correct points and locations in time. Along the way, you’ll meet multiple versions of Biff that will need repeatedly knocking out, and you’ll need to clear locations of events that pile up (to avoid a disruption in the spacetime continuum of course!). Each player rolls their own coloured dice set and can take actions based on the symbols rolled. For example, the flux symbol allows you to jump through time to a different decade. Meanwhile the arrow allows you to move to any location within your current year and the fist lets you move Biff from your current location.
Whilst flying through time to collect and return items you must keep an eye on the ‘outatime’ marker. Too many paradox tokens and piling up of uncleared events leads to its progression along the track, if it reaches game over then this is heavy… the game ends and you lose. Working together and planning moves is key here to make the most from the team’s rolls. You are able to leave certain dice scattered through time for your teammates to use when ‘your friend in time’ needs an extra boost.
There are multiple difficulty levels you can play at, the hardest being ‘Nobody calls me chicken!’ which we are planning to try next. This game is good fun and not too complicated for kids to enjoy especially as everyone is working together anyway.
Well, whilst we can’t turn the clock back to 1985, we hope this list of games will help you honour the famous film franchise and enjoy some old games that never really age on Back To The Future Day!
