January 26, 2013: Five Incredibly Fun Games!

Following the theory that "You Always Need More Games," I offer a list of five games you should consider trying:

Can't Stop - First published in 1980, Sid Sackson's Can't Stop is a press-your-luck game where as long as you can keep placing or moving one of your tokens you can roll again. I'm a pretty big risk taker when it comes to games and this is one of my favorites to pull out . . . especially when someone answers "no" to the question: "Have you ever played Can't Stop?"

Incan Gold - Also in the press-your-luck family is this fantastic game where everyone has to decide at the beginning of each turn whether to advance or to retreat. Advance and you may just grab some treasure, but fail to retreat at the right time and you may lose everything you've found in the current temple.

Comrade Koba - Let's pretend we're all working for Stalin during the Cold War. Now let's each select three characters and try to position them so that they are close to Stalin without being so close that they die when Stalin gets angry. It's amazing how much fun can be hiding inside a small deck of cards.

We Didn't Playtest This At All - Another "how much game can we cram in one deck of cards?" game, We Didn't Playtest This At All is one of those games you should only sit down to enjoy because winning the game will require more luck than skill. But the games are fast and I love playing with six or seven others . . . don't worry, I'll lose very quickly.

Arcana - This deck building game is a little different in that not all of the cards are avalable at all times and players compete with each other to add new cards to their decks. I first played Arcana about a year ago and I'm still playing it and having fun. I wish it had sold well enough to support expansions, but fortunately the basic game comes packed with a lot of fun.

That makes five games I'm describing as "incredibly fun" and suggesting you try. If you have games you would like to suggest to everyone you may want to try posting to our forums, and if you need players to try any games with there's always our Gamer Finder.

-- Phil Reed