16.Braintopia Beyond
Braintopia Beyondis a uniquely fun board game that tests memory, focus, mental speed, sensory perception, and more. It even involves textured cards that are used to make players guess what they’re feeling. Bet you’ve never had to do that in another board game!
Players compete against each other as they try to be the first to complete various challenges, like memorizing all the objects on a card, escaping a maze, or matching symbols.
15.Timeline
Timelineis a fun card game where players have hands of cards, with each card depicting a certain historical event, invention, or discovery; the backside has the year it happened. The goal is to get rid of cards by placing them in chronological order.
It’s surprisingly fun despite how quick it plays, and it’s a great way to learn history through gameplay. The more you play, the more you’ll remember when things happened in the past!
Related:The Best Travel Board Games You Can Play Anywhere (Even on a Plane)
14.Covalence: A Molecule Building Game
Covalenceis a game where one player knows the organic makeup of secret compounds, and the rest of the players try to reconstruct those secret compounds using hints given by the master player.
With gameplay mechanics inspired by real chemistry,Covalenceis a fun yet educational game that has a lot of replay value!
13.Spot It!
Spot It!(also goes by the nameDobble) is a pattern recognition card game. Every circle-shaped card has eight different symbols on it, and cards are revealed one by one with players racing to be the first to spot the symbol that’s common between two cards.
While not exactly educational,Spot It!is a fantastic game that exercises the brain’s creativity juices. Pattern recognition is an important skill that can come in handy in many ways!
Related:Short and Quick Board Games That Can Be Played in Less Than 30 Minutes
12.Concept
Conceptis a wonderfully fun game where one player tries to convey a particular concept by placing small cubes on a board of abstract images. By placing the cubes in a certain order, on certain images, in different amounts—they all serve to describe the concept.
It’s a creative exercise, both for the one who’s trying to convey the idea as well as the other players who are trying to piece together what they’re trying to say. It’ll stretch your brain, for sure!
Related:The Best Party Board Games for Large Groups and Gatherings
11.Blokus
Blokusis a simple abstract strategy game where players compete to place all of their pieces on a grid before space runs out. The hard part is that everyone else is trying to do the same—and there isn’t as much space available as you might think.
This game will have you thinking about space and shapes from every angle. Moreover, it’ll have you competing against others in a game that’s mentally challenging yet engaging.
10.Periodic: A Game of the Elements
Periodicis a board game that’s based on the—you guessed it—periodic table of the elements. Try to collect elements and move through the board, while staying true to real-world science (e.g. conservation of energy determines where you can move).
This science-inspired board game makes the subject fun for all players, and you’ll undoubtedly learn about the periodic table of the elements every time you play.
9.Subatomic: An Atom Building Game
Subatomicis a card game where players start with a deck of proton, electron, and neutron cards. These cards are used to build atoms and construct elements. More powerful cards can be added to one’s deck as well, allowing for different strategies.
Ultimately,Subatomictakes chemistry concepts and turns them into a solid deck-building card game that’s sure to be a winner at the table.
8.Cytosis: A Cell Biology Board Game
Cytosisis a worker placement board game set inside a human cell. The different areas of the cell provide different resources (like ATP for energy) or different actions (like converting resources).
Over the course of the game, players will build and interact with hormones, receptors, enzymes, and more to acquire Health Points. Whoever has the most Health Points at the end, wins!
This is a solid game for learning about cell biology through a board game, and the ideas are mostly accurate to real-world biology.
7.Evolution
Evolutionis a moderately complex board game where players try to develop their species in an ecosystem that’s full of predators and scarce on resources. There’s a lot of depth, and each play session will always be different than the last.
It’s a great board game that demonstrates the ideas behind evolution. Stuart West, a Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of Oxford, has even usedEvolutionin his undergraduate class!
Related:The Best Complex and Heavy Board Games Worth the Effort
6.Photosynthesis
Photosynthesisis a board game about Earth science! More specifically, players are sowing seeds and developing a forest together while trying to outgrow their opponents. The sun moves around, so the name of the game is capturing as much solar energy as efficiently as you can.
5.Dixit
Dixitis one of the most creative board games you can play right now. The entire game is played using cards that have all kinds of unusual images on them.
Players take turns as the “storyteller” who describes the image on one card in their hand, then all players submit a card from their own hands with images that fit the description. The cards are all mixed together, then players try to guess the storyteller’s card.
It’s a game where you have to be descriptive but not too descriptive. At the same time, you have to be able to interpret and guess how other players think.Dixitwill work your brain in unusual ways.
Related:Fun Board Games for People Who Usually Hate Board Games
4.Oceans
Oceansis similar toEvolution(they both share a designer) where players work to evolve a successful species, except this time it’s deep in the ocean—which is full of threats and challenges.
ButOceansis a much simpler and more forgiving game thanEvolution, with a gameplay that feels more satisfying for players who are looking for an engine-building game. It’ll teach you a lot about adapting to the ever-changing circumstances of one’s environment.
3.Decrypto
Decryptois an exciting thinking game between two competing teams. Each team has a member sending coded messages to their teammates, and those teammates must decode those messages—while trying to intercept and decode the other team’s messages.
Who knew a simple word game could be so thrilling? One mistake could mean the difference between winning and losing, so the stakes are always high.
Related:The Best Starter Board Games Worth Including in Any New Collection
2.Genotype: A Mendelian Genetics Game
InGenotype, players are assistants to the great scientist Gregor Mendel and must work to control how their pea plants inherit traits from their parent plants.
Using a mixture of cards and dice,Genotypesuccessfully incorporates the science of genotypes and phenotypes into a board game format that’s fun, accurate, and educational. By playing, you’ll learn more about how genetic inheritance works.
1.Wingspan
Wingspanis a card-based engine-building board game where players are… bird watchers? Yes, that’s right! And not just bird watchers, but also collectors, researchers, and ornithologists.
The goal is for each player to attract the best birds to their wildlife preserves, and there are more than 170 birds in the game. The better your habitat, the better the birds that come flocking!
It’s not just one of the best board games of the past few years, butWingspanwill have you learning about all kinds of birds. It’s a great Earth science game if you can handle its complexity!
Read next:The Most Popular Board Game Genres, Explained
