Board To Death

One of the games I never owned but once I learned about I would've killed to have owned is Fireball Island. First published by Milton Bradley in 1986, it's hands down one of the single coolest looking board games ever made. It's got so many aspects to it, it comes with so many pieces and the overall game itself can be rather complex at times, but just look at this gorgeous thing. I believe this image is of the redesigned Kickstarted version from the past few years, but even then it's incredible. The level of detail and the amount of artistry that went into this is nothing short of astounding, especially when compared to other board games, and especially when compared to other board games near its original release date. Stuff simply didn't look like this back then. Now-a-days, board games can be very visually complex and interesting, but back in 1986, this sort of thing just wasn't really done. Board games mostly had all the art on the board itself, unless you we...

Of all the board games I'm likely to cover on this blog, none is as weird as Mouse Trap. Oh sure, you may think Candy Land, with it's sentient candy inhabitants or even The Game of Life, where you utilize escapism to...not escape from reality, would be stranger, but Mouse Trap really is probably the single most unique board game in existence, solely because of how it was designed. It's a board game where the board is basically secondary. It's simply a thing for the rest of the game to sit on top of. Because, really, Mouse Trap is the contraption, not the board. And while the board is cool looking, no matter what variation or changes they make to it (though of course classic is always the best in most cases), I'll argue that it's still secondary to the rest of the pieces that really make up what Mouse Trap is. Created in 1963, it was one of the first mass produced three dimensional board games. Working together, players are to build a Rube Goldberg type trap, whi...