Episode 231 - The 2024 Blitzies

Ambie and Crystal host the 2024 Blitzies, the annual awards show about our favorite games of the year! Also make sure to check out Ambie’s top 10 list on YouTube.

Intro: 0:00

DTW Recap: 0:34

The 2024 Blitzies: 2:09

--Best Family Game: 03:45

--Best Kids' Game: 05:26

--Most Innovative Game: 07:41

--Most Unique Theme: 09:38

--Best Cooperative Game: 11:04

--Best Card Game: 12:52

--Best Party Game: 14:14

--Best Solo Game: 17:40

--Best 2p Game: 18:20

--Best Strategy Game: 21:34

--Best Trick Taking Game: 23:53

--Biggest Surprise: 26:08

--Best New to Us: 28:49

--Best Game of 2024: 31:59

--2024 Looking Forward to Recap: 34:03

--Looking Forward to in 2025: 36:48

Outro: 40:41

Bloopers: 41:45

Games discussed this episode:

Best Family Game

Best Kids' Game

Most Innovative Game

Most Unique Theme

Best Cooperative Game

Best Card Game

Best Party Game

Best Solo Game

Best 2p Game

Best Strategy Game

Best Trick Taking Game

Biggest Surprise

Best New to Us

Best Game of 2024: 31:59

2024 Looking Forward to Recap

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This episode was sponsored by Grey Fox Games. Use the code "BLITZ10" to get 10% off your entire cart.

[0:06] Crystal: Hello and welcome to episode 231 of Board Game Blitz, a podcast about all things board games that you can listen to in less time than it takes to fully appreciate all the details in an episode of Severance. Board Game Blitz is sponsored by Grey Fox Games. This week, it’s the BLITZIES! Join us as we recognize our favorite games from 2024 in a number of categories. And now, here are your hosts…

Ambie: Ambie

Crystal: and Crystal.

[0:34] Crystal: I know everyone is excited to hear about the Blitzy Awards, but first we wanted to thank those of you who stopped us and said hello at Dice Tower West recently. We had a lot of fun and it's always a delight to get to hang out and play games and meet any of our fans. And so thank you so much if you stopped us and said hello. And Ambie, you told me that you had a really cute encounter during the con.

Ambie: Yeah, I had a few people come and say they liked the podcast or liked the videos, but one time I was with one of my kids because the other kid wasn't feeling well. So he went back to the Airbnb with Toby, but I was with one of them and we were walking and then someone came up and said, oh, I like you on the podcast to my kid.

Crystal: Oh that's amazing

Ambie: He was like, "I like you on the podcast."  And my kid was like, "What?" And so I was explaining to him, oh yeah, you know when we were doing the recording, he hears that, he's like, oh, whoa, he does what? And then later, like the next day or something, someone came up and said like, they liked my videos or something. And then my kid was like, "Didn't you see me on them?" Do you like me on them too? And the other was like, "Oh, I'm not sure if I've seen yours, but yeah."

Crystal: Oh, that is adorable. I love it. I love that you're like, someone specifically came to the kid and was like, "I like you on the podcast." I've been saying now for years that they could replace us as hosts and everyone would be perfectly happy, so I agree.

Ambie: But yeah, so Dice Tower West was fun.

Crystal: Yeah, absolutely, had a blast.

[2:09] Crystal: It is time for the 2024 Blitzy Awards. So for those of you who have not been listening to the podcast for over a year, every year since the beginning of the podcast, which is now almost nine years ago, which is mind boggling to me, we have been doing an annual awards show called "The Blitzies" where we give awards out to our favorite games from the prior year in a number of different categories. And those categories are not always the same. We choose them every year generally based on what games we played and liked. It is truly for us, it is not about kind of a consistency and making sure we have the same category every year. It is about recognizing the games that we played that we loved and getting to shout those games out so other people know about them and can potentially pick them up and play them themselves.

Ambie: Yeah, and because of that, we also don't repeat games. Like if we have a game that's like our favorite in multiple categories, we just pick one category for that game so that we can show other games that we liked as well.

Crystal: Yeah, because even if a game technically would fit in multiple categories and was the best in those categories to us, we want to spread the love about the different board games that we enjoyed from the prior year. And so we want to make sure that we give a broad swath of those games. And so yes, Ambie will not be putting bomb busters in every category. Spoiler alert.

Ambie: Spoilers. I already spoiled it last episode, right?

Crystal: Yeah, everyone knew this was coming. So I guess we should go on with the show then.

[3:45] Crystal: Our first category is best family game. And my pick for this one actually just slipped in under the wire for me. I did not play this one until very recently, in fact in 2025, but that is "Harmonies." I do not know why, but this is one of those games that I thought it was something different than it actually is. I for whatever reason had the idea in my head that "Harmonies" was like an abstract strategy game and it is not and it is delightful. It just feels so satisfying to play. I really, really, really like this one. It's a game that struck me instantly when I played it. And so I now recognize why a whole bunch of other people have been talking about it and recognizing it as one of the better games from last year because it really just is a fun one. And it's approachable, so that is always a plus.

Ambie:  My pick for family game is "Wilmont's Warehouse," which I talked about on the podcast before, I think. It's a cooperative memory game based on the video game, "Wilmont's Warehouse," but it's like different than the video game. There's tiles of different icons and you're making a story with it and you flip them over and you have to remember everything. I haven't played it with my family, but I think I've heard that it's good with kids and it seems like it would be good with kids too. So I played it with adults and we liked it together and it seems like it would be good with family, like all making up a story together because kids are very creative and like making up stories and have good memories when they're making up stories. So yeah, "Wilmont's Warehouse," I think would be a good family game.

Crystal: It is quite fun, really. And it is easier to remember things than you think it will be. And yeah, it's a delight. I'm glad I got to play this one after you talked about it on the podcast.

[5:26] Ambie: Our next category is "Kids Game." So there's difference from family game. Kids game is ones that are like just for kids and families are ones that you play with family. So like specific kids games is our next category. And I have a few.

Crystal: I mean, you have kids, so this makes sense.

Ambie: Firstly, like I think my kids' favorite kids game, based on the number of plays that came out in 2024 is "Kids Express." This is a dexterity game with a 3D train made out of cardboard and you're flicking stuff at the bandits to try to knock them out of the train and like trying to get all the traffic.

Crystal: This is the kids' version of "Colt Express," right?

Ambie: Yes, but it is nothing like "Colt Express." It's just themed around the same thing. The game is a dexterity flicking game, whereas "Colt Express" is like some programming weird game that I don't like. Anyways, yeah, so "Kids Express" is fun. My kids like it a lot. And I think they played it like six times this year, which is more than a lot of the other games we've gotten. And we got a review copy of that.

My favorite kids game, I think might be, it's tough, because I actually did a top 10 list and two kids' games made my top 10 list and you can watch it on YouTube. But I think the order that I had for that was like, based on me wanting to play it more into it. But I think right now the order is kind of flip-flopped. So my favorite would be "ROVE Jr," which is a solo kids game, puzzle-y game that's based on "ROVE." It's a button shy 18-card puzzle game, but "ROVE Jr" is like a simplified version of it. And I think it's a good game. I like "ROVE," and then "ROVE Jr" was great, like just seeing my kid figure out the puzzle-y part of it.

Crystal: Well, my game is a little bit of a cheat because I don't think I played any 2024 dedicated kids games. But the game that I've picked is very kid-friendly and has cute artwork. So I'm counting it, and that is "Duck and Cover." It is a card game where you have a grade of cards with numbers on them, and you are either shuffling the cards around in the grid or covering cards up with other cards, and you're trying not to score points. So you wanna cover up the cards that have points on them. It is simple, but fun, and accommodates a lot of players all at the same time. I actually just got introduced to this at Dice Tower West, and I really, really liked it. So I actually wanna buy a copy, like now, if I can find one. So, yep, that's why I'm choosing it for my kids game, even though it technically is not a kids game. "Duck and Cover."

[07:41] Crystal: Next up, we are going to go with the most innovative game of 2024. My pick for this category is going to be "Slay the Spire." So I have not gotten my own copy of "Slay the Spire" yet, but I have gotten a chance to play it. And I think I've talked about this on the podcast, because you had talked about playing it, and I wanted to, and I was nervous, because I love the video games so much, and wow. They have taken pieces and parts from the video game and implemented them in a board game in a really interesting way. Some of that involves the card upgrade system, where you are flipping cards over within a sleeve to upgrade them to their better side. There is also some stuff that's kind of spoilery that I don't really want to talk about in detail. But if you've played the video game, the board game also contains three acts, dot, dot, dot, and I'll just leave it at that. And I think it's unique. It doesn't feel like a normal campaign game, per se. It feels like the video game in a really unique way. So that is why I'm picking "Slay the Spire" for most innovative.

Ambie: Yeah, I like "Slay the Spire," but didn't quite fit into any of the categories for me. For my most innovative game, I picked "21 Hand Games," which is actually 21 games in one book. It's either called "Hand Games 21" or "21 Hand Games," because it's at handgames21.com, but on BGG, it's called "21 Hand Games." Anyway, Don Eskridge, the creator of "The Resistance," made 21 different games that are just games that you can play with only your hands, like rock, paper, scissors, but they're not rock, paper, scissors. And so it's like a collection of all these different games. Some of them are simple, some of them are harder, and they're all different categories of games too. There's social deduction ones, there's two-player ones, there's cooperative ones. I think it's innovative how you could just do that with just your hands and stuff. No components. Yeah, no components, just your hands, and sometimes your voice. Yeah, so yeah, "21 Hand Games," I think. It's pretty innovative.

Crystal: That does definitely fit the bill.

[9:38] Ambie: All right, speaking of innovative things, next category is the most unique theme. For me, I picked Corvids. That is themed around you are all crows, or like Corvids, crow, family, birds, and you're scavenging trash. So you're picking out cards from this pile of trash, and it's just cards that are piled messily, and you're trying to pick them and flip them over and stuff. I thought that was a neat theme.

Crystal: It is a really neat theme, and it fits with the mechanics well, which makes it even better.

Ambie: Yeah, so yeah, that was Corvids, which I got a review copy of. That was a unique theme.

Crystal:  My pick for unique theme comes from River Valley Glassworks. In this game, you are literally pulling glass out of a river to bring to your glassmaking shop, which A, is something I hadn't really seen before. We've got stained glass window games, but actually pulling glass out of a river is a little bit unique, and I especially like the river moving mechanism within it too, so it just feels like, oh, look at these little tumbled pieces of glass that I'm getting from out of the river. If you're a person that likes to collect things, it kind of has that little bit of a feeling to it. It's a relatively light game, but I really like this game. I've played it a lot, and so I absolutely had to make sure it showed up on my list somewhere. So that is why it kinda got a little bit shoehorned into unique theme, I'll admit. But yeah, River Valley Glassworks, I really like it.

[11:04] Crystal: Next up, we are going to be talking about our favorite cooperative game of 2024. Mine will be pretty quick because Ambie has already discussed it, and that is Wilmot's Warehouse. I also really enjoyed Wilmot's Warehouse, and it was just so, so, so much fun to play. We were laughing like crazy, and in a game where you're really having to focus and remember things, you would not expect that much fun, but it really truly is. So yeah, I had to put this down for my favorite co-op.

Ambie: My favorite co-op is The Gang. This is a cooperative poker game. I think I mentioned it on the podcast and/or YouTube videos before, but yeah, it's fun. You're playing Texas Hold'em, but then instead of betting, you're saying where you think your hand ranks among everyone else, and then you do that each round, and so you can see the history of everyone's ranks, and then you wanna get right on the last round. So you see like, oh, they changed at this point. I thought they got a better hand, so you can kinda like figure out what people have. Yeah, I like it. It's one of those limited communication cooperative games that I love.

Crystal: I was so bummed that I didn't get a chance to play this one at Dice Tower West, because a lot of people were recommending this one to me. They were like, you have to play The Gang. Crystal, you used to be a poker player.

Ambie: You have to play the-- Yeah, you know poker.

Crystal: I know poker very well, and yeah, it was on my list of things to potentially check out, and it just didn't end up happening. So I will probably try and play The Gang at some point.

Ambie: Yeah, it seems like it would be a good one to play with like poker players to introduce them to other board games too.

Crystal: Ah, it's funny though, because I have generally found poker players are kind of naturally board gamers already. Like that is, like if you're already used to sitting at a table for hours on end playing poker, you can slide into board games real natural like.

Ambie: Maybe, yeah.

[12:52] Ambie: All right, next up is our favorite card game of 2024. And for me, that is Expressions, which is a cooperative deduction card game with limited communication again. So in Expressions, it's themed around like inside out moods or something, but that doesn't matter. You have different colors and numbers in your hand and you give clues kind of like in the crew, where you can say, you put your card down and say like, this is the highest number of this color that I have, or the lowest number or the only number, something like that, right? Then people kind of figure out what's in your hand and they're trying to guess the cards that are left in your hand, and you have to guess like more cards than the cards that have been discarded, which include like clues and stuff. It's a different type of deduction. I like deduction games and then this one felt different than other deduction games I've played. I like always having different types of ways of giving clues and then different ways of thinking. And so yeah, I liked Expressions.

Crystal:  Yeah, this one did not make my list, but I really enjoyed it, both in person and on board game arena. I've played this one digitally and in person multiple times. And I really, really enjoy this game. My pick for card game will not come as a surprise if you listened to our most recent episode because it's Flip 7. I love it. It's great. It's a light card game. It's push your luck, which is something that I love in games and it's super fun. I just talked about it recently, so I will not wax poetic, but it's a winner in my book. So yeah, my best card game, Flip 7.

[14:14] Crystal: Our next category is best party game of 2024. And my choice is Kind of a Big Dill. And that is dill, D-I-L-L, not deal.

In Kind of a Big Dill, it is a game where you only have to slightly bend to the truth. You don't actually have to necessarily lie outright. So I think it makes that aspect of a lot of party games a lot more approachable and also really funny because the types of things that you end up having to lie about in this game, you're basically, you get a category and then you get given a range on a scale of how much you're supposed to be either truthful, you're supposed to either say you're much better at it or be honest about how good you are at the thing or say you're way worse at it than you actually are. So the category might be like fixing a copier like in an office. And if it tells you that you should lie and say that you are way better at it than you are, then you basically have to tell everybody like why you're good at fixing copiers. And they might be like, well, she did work in an office. Like maybe the office manager was really lazy and she had to fix the copier. I don't know. Like you can draw on your own experiences to make it a lot easier to kind of fib a little bit. And it's fun in that regard. I love this game. It's a delight and the theme is fun. It's very pickly and there's lots of pickle artwork in the game too. So yeah, my favorite party game, kind of a big dill.

Ambie: I should try that one.

Cristal: It's fun. I really enjoy it.

Ambie: My favorite party game is Things in Rings, which is a Venn diagram party game. You have like these string circles that make a Venn diagram and then like one of them is word attribute and then like material made of and like other things. I forget exactly what the three different things are. But basically you have cards that you play down and one person knows what each thing is. So like one of the things will be like the word has to rhyme with something or like the word has pair of consonants that are the same or something like that. Or like the word has only one vowel. And then the thing is made out of wood. It would be like another part of the Venn diagram. And so you're placing down cards where you think they might go in the Venn diagram. And then the person who knows will be like, yes, that's right. Or they move it. And so you're trying to get rid of all your cards. If you place it right, then you can keep going. And if you don't place it right, then you have to draw another one. Kind of like Uno I guess.

Yeah, so you're kind of like figuring out kind of like induction type game or like you're trying to figure out the rules based on how people have placed and you see, but it's like an induction party game because you can kind of luck into winning too, which sometimes happens.

Crystal: That was kind of my, like I don't dislike the game, but that was my issue with it is I would get things wrong and not know why. And I would get things right and not know why. And it's just like, I don't understand what's happening right now.

Ambie: Yeah, but it was funny because we would get things right and just be like, oh yeah, totally got it.

Crystal: Yeah, I knew that went there.

Ambie: It's like, oh yeah.

Crystal:  No, this one was weirdly frustrating for me just because I was like, I really don't understand anything that's happening right now. And I have heard from multiple people that they learn very quickly that their friends do not know how to count syllables when they play this game.

Ambie: Oh no.

Crystal: There are people apparently who pronounce words differently and therefore the number of syllables in a given word is apparently up for debate depending on who you are.

Ambie: Yeah, when that came up, I was like, when I put the card down, I would pronounce the syllables out like da da. Yeah, so that's things in rings.

[17:40] Ambie: All right, from party games, let's go straight to solo games, the opposite.

Crystal: The opposite.

Ambie: My favorite solo game of 2024 was the Morrison Game Factory, which I actually played in 2023. I got a review copy and I talked about it on the podcast. This is a puzzle-y escape room type game without a timer from Post Curious. I play it solo, but you can play it cooperative, but I play a lot of these solo and I really like Post Curious games. I've mentioned them a lot and the story was really good on this one. I think when I mentioned it on the podcast, I said like, it made me cry because I was very invested in the story. So I really enjoyed the Morrison Game Factory.

Crystal: And I didn't really play a lot of dedicated solo games this past year. So I do not have a pick for this category.

[18:20] Crystal: From solo games to two player games. We're gonna talk about our favorite two player games from last year. And my pick is, I don't know about you Ambie, but there have been a lot of duel games, D-U-E-L games coming out the past few years. Basically, if a game has been popular at some point in the past, you better believe a duel version of it for two people has come out in the past few years. A Living Forest Duel, Azul Duel, which is just fun to say. But my favorite from 2024 of two player games is actually King of Tokyo Duel, which I was very curious about because I was like, King of Tokyo is this epic mash of lots of monsters fighting for control over Tokyo. How in the world do they make that a two player game? And they really did. It's neat because there are multiple different ways that you can win similar to other two player games, like Seven Wonders Duel, for instance. Like there's multiple tracks that you can get to your side to win the game, or you can just destroy the other monster and win the game that way as well. But it's still got dice rolling just like regular King of Tokyo. It still has that King of Tokyo feel, but it's got that push and pull of a classic duel game. And I just, I really enjoyed it. It kind of surprised me. I will admit King of Tokyo, I loved and then I didn't play it for a long time. And then I started playing it again. And I really, it's a good game. Like for what it is that push your luck Yahtzee style dice rolling, just fun, chaotic game. I still really like it. And I guess now if I want to play with two people, I can. So that's King of Tokyo duel.

Ambie: Cool. Yeah, I haven't played any of the duel games because I actually don't play that many two player games anymore. Since having kids, we kind of stopped playing two players as much. Although we might start again because we realized at Dice Tower West, we played like a game with one of the kids like helping Toby in his lap. And I'm like, oh, maybe we can do that with more. But yeah, we haven't done that yet. But anyways.

Crystal: You got your special helpers.

Ambie: Yeah. My pick for best two player game is A Message from the Stars, which is actually a two to eight player game. I played a demo of this at Dice Tower West with Toby and a few other people. We played a partial demo because then we left and like had to check on our kids. But then we played again that night, just us two. And I think I like it at two player because this is a cooperative or team. I guess it could be four players with teams, but cooperative deduction game. But like when you play with more people on a team, there's two sides, there's the alien and the scientists. And then like the scientists are doing deduction and like crossing out things on their board and trying to figure out the letters that the aliens are giving clues for. And it's like a math logic problem. But like having more people for that doesn't really help because you're just all have the same board crossing out the same things based on the same clues. So it's like mostly a two player game there. It also has like a mix with Codenames type thing with giving word clues and trying to guess the words. But yeah, so I think it worked well as a two player game. Yeah, and I don't know if I would play it with more people. And I also might not play it ever again because it has dry erase and I didn't like the dry erase. So.

Crystal: So it's your favorite that you'll never touch ever again.

Ambie: Yeah, exactly. But that's A Message from the Stars.

Crystal: I love dry erase. So now you're making me wanna play it. So don't worry, just be, you love it. And I'll continue playing it on your behalf.

Ambie: Yeah, okay.

[21:34] Ambie: All right, now our next category is our best strategy game of 2024. I don't actually play that many of those anymore, but I did get to play River of Gold this year and I enjoyed it. So that's my pick. Actually, my friend works for the publisher of River of Gold. So we played her copy, but yeah, it's a strategy game. It's a Euro game. You roll a die and like that determines what you can do with your actions. You can either move one of your ships down this river of gold, or you can like build buildings onto the spaces on the river, or you can play a card down if you have the resources. But like when you land on spaces with your ship, you get the resources of that spaces, like has four corners and you get those resources. But if someone has a building on one of those corners, they also get some bonus resource or something. So it has like a Monopoly landing on people's properties and they get stuff, but you don't have to pay them. You'll get stuff too. So it's like cooperative Monopoly, but it's still competitive game. But yeah, like you're building up, you're getting points in lots of different ways and you're trying to like go up certain tracks because you get more points if you have like more blue buildings or something. There's also like certain things you're going for and trying to get first. So lots of different things you're trying to do. And so, and the board looks really pretty because it has gold on it. So that's River of Gold. My favorite strategy game of 2024.

Crystal: So moving from ships on the water to space ships, my favorite strategy game of 2024 was Arcs and that's spelled A-R-C-S. Everybody was like, this is the area control game with trick taking in it. And while admittedly the trick taking aspect of the game is a pretty small part of it, it is what drew me in originally and the game itself is quite fun. Area control games are not something I tend to gravitate toward. And I've played this one now a couple of times and it is just a really interesting solid game. Leader games, their games are always very unique in comparison to a lot of other publishers and the games of theirs that I have played, I tend to like, but don't play often. And Arcs is one that I could see myself playing a little bit more often than some of the others just because it's, well, it's not asymmetrical for one thing, which is helpful, but yeah, I really enjoyed it. I know I talked about it on the podcast after I played it the first time. It's a good one.

[23:53] Crystal: Next up, I'm gonna do my favorite trick taking game of 2024. This is a difficult category for me because my buddy Greg, shout out to Greg, hi Greg, has been kind of on a trick taking like extravaganza the past couple of years. And so I've played a lot of different trick taking games and it was really difficult to pick just one. What's funny is I'm picking one that I'm not even sure qualifies. So technically the second edition of this game came out in 2024, the first edition came out in 2023. So I don't know if it counts. That's not a big gap. I don't know, but I am going to give the award to Rebel Princess second edition. Rebel Princess is actually kind of loosely based on the classic trick taking game hearts where you are specifically trying to avoid taking points. And the theme of the game is everybody is a princess, but you're a rebel princess and you do not want a suitor. You do not want the boys because boys are stupid and stinky and you do not want them. And so the suit that is the suitors, you want none of them. You do not want those cards. And the suit that is animals, one of the cards in the animal suit is the frog prince. And he is basically like the queen of spades in hearts where he's worth a lot of bad points. You do not want that frog prince either. Then the princesses also have special powers that trigger and each round there's a special condition that happens that is randomly drawn before the game. I freaking loved this. This is why I'm choosing it even though it kind of is a 2023 game. Oh my gosh, this one is so, so fun. The theme is a delight. The gameplay is really awesome. The special powers that the princesses get are all unique and really change up things. Like you'll think you're about to not take a trick and then all of a sudden somebody's giving you suitors because they use their power and, but it's in a good way. I love it, I love it, I love it, I love it. So yeah, rebel princess second edition gets the award for me for best trick taker.

Ambie: And I do not have any in this category because I did not play any trick taking games that came out in 2024.

[26:08] Ambie: But the next category is biggest surprise. I put Spotlight, which is a children's game. I actually got a review copy of. And this was surprising to me like in the way that it worked like the components wise, because this is, it's a game where you have like this cardboard flashlight and you're putting it on this, these pictures and you're trying to find like a where's Waldo like hidden picture type thing. You're trying to cooperatively find all of the images of one type of thing and count how many there are. But like there's this big picture, a busy picture and you're putting the cardboard spotlight there and then it lights it up. And so it's all dark except for where the light is. And I was looking at videos and I didn't know how it worked. And then when I got my copy, I was like, oh, this is how it works. So that was like my surprise. And my kids were also surprised. They're like, oh, this is a magic flashlight. This is cooler than a real flashlight. And it's just like a cardboard thing with a white spot. I mean, to spoil the surprise, I guess, but it's a transparency and the transparency has the picture on it on top of a black cardstock. And so you put the white spotlight thing in between the transparency and the black. And so like the transparency has the image printed on it. And so you can see that part it's over the white. So yeah, that was pretty cool.

Crystal: That sounds neat. And kids games are perfect for gimmicks, right? I know. Put all the gimmicks in the kids games cause kids like them, adults like them. Like it just makes it more fun.

Ambie: So yeah, that was my biggest surprise in how it worked.

Crystal: My biggest surprise for 2024, you're gonna get to hear more about here in a minute, but it is Bomb Busters. I got to play this one. Ambie had been talking it up and I actually played it a lot at "Dice Tower West." Maybe that's why I didn't get to play the gang is because I was too busy playing Bomb Busters over and over and over on multiple days. Yeah, it's just as good as Ambie said it was. It's super fun. And the reason I'm considering it my biggest surprise is I'm not surprised that I liked it. I'm surprised at how well it works. Like there's 66 missions in the box and they're all like it, I haven't played all of them yet. I'm not that bad. I replayed some missions multiple times cause I was teaching new people cause I kept bringing it back. So we didn't go beyond mission nine or 10 in total, I don't think. But it surprised me in how well it works and how different it feels than other cooperative games of the same kind of type. Like it doesn't feel like other games that are like it to me. And I don't know, it feels special. It feels like something unique. It's just solid. It's really, really good. And I guess that shouldn't be surprising considering how much Ambie talked it up, but it's still beyond that also surprised me. So that I'm trying to say, it's so good y'all. Go play Bomb Busters for real.

[28:49] Crystal: Next up is our favorite New to Us game for 2024. And for those of you who are unaware what that means, this means a game that did not release in 2024 by any means. It released sometime other than 2024, but we played it for the first time in 2024 and we want to give it a nod. So my pick for that category is Aquatica. Aquatica actually came out in 2019. I imagine I probably would have played this at some point if the pandemic hadn't happened. Like I bet, you know, if my weekly game group had continued that maybe somebody would have brought it to game night and I would have gotten to try it. But as a result of everything, I just had never played it. I'd never gotten a chance to. And I'd heard people talking about Aquatica now for years. Like a lot of people like Aquatica and I don't know, I'd never played it. And someone brought it out at Dice Tower West and it kind of blew my mind with how good it is because it takes 30 minutes to play and absolutely does not feel like a 30 minute game. It feels like a much weightier or more significant game than the time it takes to play it. And there's a lot of little things going on in it that are really satisfying. Like as you achieve things within the game, you have to give up tokens that are giving you special abilities. So the better you're doing, the more it's weakening you kind of. And I just, oh, it's so satisfying. I've been told that I have to get the expansion now as well. I already own the game. Thank you Panda8ngel for buying it for me because you're a delight and I love you. She saw how much I loved it and bought it for me as a thank you for staying with me during Dice Tower West. So yeah, I already own it and it's great. I now know why everybody likes Aquatica. 

Ambie: Cool. My pick for this came out in 2023, but it's kind of like a cheat because it came out in the US in 2024. But like because on BGG it says 2023, I wouldn't be able to use it for the Blitzies. So this is Infiltrators.

Crystal: You're right. We do follow the rules very closely here.

Ambie: It's another cooperative deduction card game, but it has a different feel than Expressions. It has a different way of deduction and they both are good. So Infiltrators in that one, the theme is more like spy based, you're like infiltrating stuff and it has missions. So it has different missions with different setups, kind of like the crew. But the deduction is you have numbered colored cards. Each person can pick up one card and that's the card they're giving clues for and everyone else can guess it. But you give a clue down and the clue is a number colored card and you say it either matches your card or does not match. And so if the color matches or the number is a multiple or divisor of it, a two would match with a four, six, eight, 10, or 12 or 14. Does it go to 15? I forget. And a blue would match with all blues. And then if it doesn't match, then you eventually see, oh, so this can be a two or a four and it has to be blue or something. And so people figure it out. It has like all the numbers on there that match with each card. So you don't have to like do mental math the whole time. But yeah, like that was an interesting way of deduction too. It's different than other deduction games. And so yeah, I like deduction card games. Infiltrators is good and it's on BGG it's 2023. So yeah.

[31:59] Ambie: All right, so now we're to our favorite.

Crystal: Drum roll please.

Ambie: Our best overall game of 2024, which for me is no surprise, Bomb Busters, which I've already mentioned a lot on the podcast.

Crystal: Shocked.

Ambie: Yeah, I love this game. It's cooperative deduction game. It has kind of a Hanabi feel to me, but like has missions and each mission is different. And so yeah, it's more themed than Hanabi.

Crystal: I think I might maybe just Hanabi myself out at some point in the past because I just, I don't know.

Ambie: Yeah, I play Hanabi a lot and I still do like it when I play it, but yeah, like this one, because it has the different missions each time, it's harder to Bomb Busters yourself out, I think until, I guess until you get to the end. I don't know. We've played 23 missions, so Bomb Busters, my favorite game of 2024.

Crystal: Nice. I struggled to pick my favorite game of 2024 because the game I'm choosing, it doesn't feel that piece of my brain that is that old school, like that older, the judgy gamer that used to be, you know, in my head, that's like, this isn't good enough to be your best game of the year kind of mentality. And obviously that's silly. The more I thought about it, every time I play this game, I absolutely adore it and I want to play it more. Like I want to play it again and again and again and again. And that is Draft & Write Records. I could have put this down in a number of different categories. In Draft & Write Records, you are drafting cards around the table and basically you're setting up your band. You pick a band name, you can go on tour, you can make albums, you have to add new members to your band and you're trying to get synergies and harmonies between all the things. It is very combo-tastic in the way that like "Ganz Schon Clever" was, but this has a theme and the theme works and it feels good and satisfying. It feels a little different every time I play it based on what cards I'm getting. And so I just adore it. And yeah, I am not going to be judgy gamer-y in my head. I'm going to say that I love Draft & Write Records and therefore it is my number one game of 2024.

[34:03] Crystal: So in last year's Blitzy Awards, we talked about what we were looking forward to in 2024 and we wanted to revisit those briefly to let you know what happened with those. And one of mine was "Slay the Spire." So clearly that went well. Another of mine was "Iron Forest," the Ice Cool sequel of sorts, which I believe has finally just now in 2025 shipped to Kickstarter backers, but it doesn't seem like it's getting a lot of buzz or I'm not hearing about it. So I'm probably just going to maybe not worry about that. And if I get to play it at some point, maybe, but I've kind of lost my interest, but I have not lost my interest in "1001 Odysseys." I backed the campaign in 2019 on Kickstarter and I love Chris and Asmadi Games. And I know that they are still actively working on it as we speak. They update the Kickstarter regularly. It has just taken a lot longer than they expected. So maybe, just maybe 2025 will be the year. I've had this game on my "Looking Forward To" list for the Blitzies now for a lot of years now.

Ambie: Yeah, those ones were from 2023 actually. Like all those were from 2023. I think it was-

Crystal: All of them?

Ambie: Yeah, none of them released in 2023. So you were looking forward to them in 2024 again. Cause you had more things that you were looking forward to in 2020 as well.

Crystal: Oh shoot, you're right. There were. Oh yeah. "Queen's Dilemma" got delayed. That one hasn't come out yet. I still haven't played "Clank Legacy 1," so I definitely haven't played "Clank Legacy 2." And I am glad that the re-theme, the American version of "Surfasaurus Max" did come out even if the theme is stupid. I do not like that "Combo" is just about fruit because surfing T-Rexes is so much better. And I will, this is a hill I will die on. So, but it is out now. And yeah, "Cabanga." I don't know if that one made it to the States. I assume it did, but I haven't seen it. And then "ito" did also get published in the States and "ito" is great.

Ambie: Yeah, I like that. I like it.

Crystal: Yeah, that one honestly, that one was almost on my best cooperative game. That one was like real close. I really like "ito."

Ambie: Oh yeah, it wasn't on my list because it doesn't say 2024 on BGG. So it didn't get into my list of games that came out in 2024. Yeah, so my, what I was looking forward to in 2024 was That Escalated Quickly and "War Story: Occupied France." They both came out, I think. I haven't played either of them though, but I do want to play them. I've heard That Escalated Quickly is similar to ito, but I do want to try it too, because I like ito and I think I would like it. And then War Story: Occupied France. I've heard good things about that. So it makes me want to play it more. And then I was looking back at my 2023 "Looking Forward to" as well, because I hadn't played any of those and I still haven't played any of those. But one of them was Disney Animated and I did just buy that. So I might play it in the future.

Crystal: I imagine that will be coming soon then.

[36:48] Ambie: Yeah, and then for what we're looking forward to in 2025, I have a few things. I was looking at what games I've put on my "Want to Play" list. So there's "Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship," which is the Pandemic themed around "Lord of the Rings." And I like "Lord of the Rings," so I'm excited.

Crystal: See, and that could have been your trick-taking game for this year if you had played the "Lord of the Rings" trick-taking game that came out.

Ambie: Oh, I have played that. I guess I could be in, whoops. Did I just like miss that that was a trick-taking game maybe? Or it did not show up on my list. Why did it not show on my list? I don't know. So the problem is I played it before it had a name in BGG, so it might not be in my like BGG stats correctly as that. But yeah, okay. Retroactively, that's my favorite trick-taking game.

Crystal: I should have mentioned it earlier. I was like, "Cause I thought you played it," but yeah, I couldn't remember.

Ambie: But yeah, also looking forward to in 2025 is "Micro Macro Kids," which is a kids version of "Micro Macro," which I like. And kids version will probably have less murder and adultery and stuff.

Crystal: I sure hope it does.

Ambie: Yeah.

Crystal: If a kids version has more murder in it, that's probably not a good thing.

Ambie: Yeah, but my kids like looking at the micro macro like thing and pointing out things. And they're like, "Oh, look, they have Xs in their eyes and stuff." And I'm like, "Yeah." Like, I don't know if we should follow this case, but yeah, the kids one they would probably like. And then there's also a "Micro Macro Jigsaw Puzzle," which I'm excited about because I like jigsaw puzzles. It looks hard though because it's a busy puzzle with no color.

And then another one is "Severton," which I don't know much about. Let me look it up. What I do know is that it's by Vlaada Chvátil and he hasn't made a game since like Codenames and he is like my favorite designer.

Crystal: So you'll basically take anything at this point.

Ambie: Yeah, it says it's an old school cooperative game. So I like cooperative games. So I'm excited.

Crystal: Consider me being interested as well then.

Ambie: Yeah, and then the last one is "Flickering Stars," which is by Matt Leacock. So this is a dexterity game that I think this is a game that I had played the prototype of back in like 2017 because I went to a local convention where Matt Leacock is in the Bay Area. So I went to a convention and he had this prototype of a dexterity, like team flicking game with a spaceship and it wasn't named then. But like when I saw that "Flickering Stars," I saw that, I was like, "Wait, is that the game that we play?" I think it is. And I remember liking it. So yeah, it's like you flick ships across the table and it's like a team flicking game, I think. So I'm excited for that.

Crystal: Well, I already mentioned "1001 Odysseys" which I am still looking forward to. And then there aren't a ton of 2025 releases that I'm trying to temper expectations for myself this year based on past years. But there is a game coming from The Op that is a party game that looks super fun. And it's called "How Many What?" Which is a fun name. It's a measurement-based game where you have to guess how many of a certain thing equal another thing. So I think I saw the example. It's like, how many peacock feathers tall is a giraffe? Or yeah, how many bowling balls does an elephant? I think it even said in the description for people who will avoid the metric system at all costs. Then everyone answers and then you get to show all the answers. And I think similarly to "Wits and Wagers," I think you're gonna get to like pick which answer you think is closest. So it's one of those games where you do not need to know anything. You can answer whatever and then potentially get points, I think, by voting on other people's answers. And it just sounds like good, silly fun. So assuming that there's a lot of prompts in the box which The Op is usually pretty good at, I think that's gonna be a good one.

Crystal: That is it for this year's Blitzy Awards. Tell us what we got right and what we got wrong by hitting us up on social media or in the Blitz discord. And tell us what your favorite game of 2024 was, especially if it's one we didn't mention today.

Ambie: And we didn't get anything wrong because these are our favorites.

Crystal: That's true.

Ambie: I guess except me forgetting Lord of the Rings "Trick-Ticking Game." That was the thing I got wrong.

[40:41] Ambie: And that’s it for this week’s Board Game Blitz. Visit our website, boardgameblitz.com for more content and links.

This episode was sponsored by Grey Fox Games. There’s still time to get your very own copy of the 10th Anniversary Edition of Champions of Midgard with all the bells and whistles. Head to Kickstarter and tell them Board Game Blitz sent you! And don’t forget that Blitzketeers like you get 10% off your entire cart, including exclusives, when you shop at GreyFoxGames.com and enter the code BLITZ10 at checkout!

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Our theme song was composed by Andrew Morrow.

Until next time,

Cause you ain’t gotta tell me

Gaming’s in my nature

So play it like a player

Cause baby we’re board gamers!

Bye everyone!

Crystal: Bye!

[41:45] Ambie: All right, next category is... I need to pick a category. Okay.

Crystal: I had a tough pick and I actually ended up, ooh, actually, ... I think I may have, do I want to change my mind? ... I think I want to change my mind.

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