Best Play's Board Game Royale

Take a trip into the deep, multi-sensory experience of the Best Play Podcast. Smell that? That's the stench of Glenn's unemployment, seeping into every porous surface as he hunts down board game creators to breathe their life-essence into his shabbily crafted voice-recording device. This week, he finds the mind behind Last One Standing, a well-finished take on Fortnite and other battle royale games. Check that one out on Kickstarter now. Do you feel that? That's Joel, cloaking you in velvet as you slip into character for one of his intimate - and always racially insensitive - murder mystery parties. What makes a good murder mystery arc? How does do board game mechanics translate? Find out in our final discussion. Hear that? That's Marcus Googling things he doesn't know during the podcast. It's very off-putting.  Best Play’s Podcast is available on all good podcast platforms, including iTunes!

In this episode, we recount a wonderful day of board gaming we spent together earlier this month. We talk Small Word, a genocidal conquest of giants, rat-men and wizards. We go in-depth on Vast, a Best Play favourite. We give a blow-by-blow analysis on a tense game of Clank, where not everyone survived... ...and then later, we ask if the hundreds of neural-network generated board games could be viable in the modern marketplace.   Best Play’s Podcast is available on all good podcast platforms, including iTunes!

Sometimes it's easy to feel like you don't fit in. Like you take up too much space, or you're the wrong size for everyone else around you. Later on in this episode of the Best Play Podcast, we discuss how that doesn't matter. If you want to fit in, all you need to do if throw aside your box, then maybe fill it with beetles and give it to charity? If that sounds too abstract, you may enjoy our review of Home of the Brave - a game filled with political intrigue and backstabbing. Whatever floats your boat.   Best Play's Podcast is available on all good podcast platforms, including iTunes!

Out with the old, in with the new. At Best Play, we never like to keep things the same for too long. We're always moving to new cities, firing staff at random and ritualistically setting fire to piles well-played games. Today, we're swapping out the 1 vs 1 game argument format for something a little longer, a little more considered. Best Play's podcast will now come at you monthly and have much more varied content. What do you think of the new format? Do you love the new mailbag section? Send us your thoughts at games@bestplay.co! We're still available on all your favourite podcast destinations, including iTunes!

In honour of the blockbuster release of Murder on the Orient Express, we've crammed our podcast with gripping stories and haunting mysteries. Tales of Arabian Nights and Pandemic Legacy provide the colourful narratives for your story-telling fix. The mystery? Well, you'll just have to listen and find out.... Be sure to subscribe to us and rate us on iTunes!

Warning: it's now officially chilly season, which means our twenty-minute banter-fest is about to get icy. Only joking, we're as warm as cuddly as ever. Like a poorly ventilated computer nestled inside a dying relative. This week on Board Game Royale, we're once again joined by someone from the North - which means they're used to all this chilly business. They also know a thing or two about construction which is why we delve into Suburbia and Machi Koro.   Be sure to subscribe to us and rate us on iTunes!

Somebody pour out a cup of KY for all your fallen homies - it's the spookiest, sexiest episode yet. Usually Best Play's Board Game Royale is a total sausagefest. There's more sticky sticks than you can schtick a stick at. Woah there, barkeep - tonight we're holding back exactly one third of the balls and introducing a little more flavour into the aural mix. With Liz taking Joel's place for the week, we discuss two cantankerous and energetic games: Rhino Hero and Flick 'em Up.  Please help us justify our explicit rating on iTunes  

Walt Disney didn't make a damn dime until 1937 - seventeen years into his career as a cartoonist. Sometimes, my heating doesn't work. These two facts prove that you don't need be financially or practically successful to serve millions of people in gigantic industries. The entertainment and energy engines of the 21st century are big money-eating machines that swallow up talented starlets and poop out bricks of hard, shiny coal. This is all elegant preamble to the complementary stars of our show this week: The Networks and Power Grid.  What's more a more valuable output of production? Energy, or smiles? Please leave us a review on iTunes

Hey - you heard we got that hot new thing? That's right, we've got a switch on our hands. New hosts, new types of games, a whole new spooky season of podcasting. Burstin' into your eardrums is a next-level, all-night board-gaming party. Obama Llama reveals an energetic twist on a Christmastime classic, while Monopoly: Gamer Edition forces your forgot eveything you thought you know about board games. Review us on iTunes if you're enjoying Board Game Royale or any of Will Smith's varied discography.

We're sorry we've been gone. We were busy playing games, for you. It's all for you listener. Or is it? This week, we're getting a little deceptive. Some of us are undercover. Maybe we're all the doing it for someone else? The Chameleon, a brand new game from industry darling Big Potato, goes head-to-head with a new twist on a Best Play favourite: Codenames Duet. Board Game Royale is available on iTunes and any good podcast app. Leave us a nice review!

These fields have an lot in their time. See, back in the glory days we'd grow fields and fields of hemp - the miracle fibre. But then dirty old Harry Anslinger and William Randolf Hearst started meddling in our ways. All of sudden we became crooks. Now, I'm not an advocate of the mexican devil-weed - but I do know that hemp makes fine, fine card for creating all manner of board games. I know that some folks even spend their time make-pretend-beleiving that they're farming all by themselves in games like Agricola or King Domino.  That's none of my business though. I'm just a vehicle for telling you what to expect in this week's podcast.

Neeeaaawwwww!!!!! That's the sound of Garth whistling back into your ears, through your body and directly to your heart. After a week of Board Game Royale: duo edition, we're happy to welcome back Garth to mix. After finally regrouping enough of our hard-earned corruption cash, we've decided to explore what a Ponzi Scheme is really like. Then, Garth takes us on a treasure-hunting journey to find Incan Gold. What? You don't remember Garth? You must have been on the wrong side of his pizzas! Board Game Royale features Joel, Marcus and Garth with two new board games every Wednesday. Rate and review us on iTunes.

There's only two of us about this week. To honour the dramatic change in form, we've decided to totally mix up the format of Board Game Royale. Instead of talking about games we love and know lots about, we're going to talk about games we've barely even played. We know so little about them that we even get some key facts wrong. For instance, did you know that Metagame - the Card Against Humanity-like debate machine featured this week - was initially only about videogames. Did you know it went to inspire the iconic black-and-white apples-to-apples game in the first place. I didn't - and I just talked about it for 35 minutes. We'll be back to normal next week - whatever that means.

No, I think you're watching too many smooth jazz covers of pop songs by emo kid bands. Besides, jazz is cool now, remember? Ryan Gosling sneered thoughtfully at a double bass once and now everyone wants a bite of the ol' syncopation pie. Well, I guess that means our episode of the podcast this week is right on trend. These two board games are challenging formats - it's jazz, baby. Dead of Winter combines a whole heap of mechanics in something that's surpisingly easy to follow and satisying to play - like an old school zombie movie. Vast, a Best Play favourite, is unlike anything we've seen. If you enjoyed our longest podcast ever (clocking in a 35 minutes), you love hearing it every Wednesday on iTunes.

It's time to negotiate. Thanks to our extensive R&D budget at Best Play, we don't have to do the leg work ourselves. No lies, no half-truths, no subtle misdirection. Both games this week require a logical brain and a duplicitous soul. We've removed humans from the equation and left it to AIs - it couldn't have gone better.

Somebody call the hustle police - we've got some non-stop grinders over here! If you're the kind of person who loves to call yourself an entrepreneur  just because you've flogged a few chinese-made watches - these games are are for you. They're all about half-truths, dodgy dealings and improvising with a rubbish hand of cards. In Snake Oil, you sell whatever you're told to. In Funemployed, you've got to say whatever you can to get yourself sold. Sound interesting? HIT DOWNLOAD.

Would it better if board games were less fun? Years ago, that might have seemed like facetious questions, but now it's pretty deep. This week, we explore two games with a suprisingly dark bend. One lets you live out dark, paranoid fantasies, and the other forces you to reflect on the horror of war. You know, like GoodBurger™ (Mitchell and Thompson, 2002)

It's the bug episode. In this newest edition of Board Game Royale - Best Play's premiere podcast - we discuss two game crawling with critters you'd probably like to exterminate. Find us on iTunes or any podcast app. Leave a review if you're so inclined, and send us suggestions at games@bestplay.co!

Party time! Excellent! The streamers are up in Best Play towers, and we've invited dozens of people we know quite well but not-quite-well-enough. Party rings are out, and so are two boundary-pushing party games to help us break through inhibitions. Deer Lord and Monikers are two (very simple) games constructed for hilarious miscommunications - and we talk about why that happens in this week's episode of Board Game Royale. Find us on iTunes or any reputable podcast app!

There's no worries under the sea. It's just singing clams and dancing jellyfish as far as the eye can see. That's what I thought before today, at least. On the podcast this week I found out that the sea is actually a dangerous place, full of sharks, disappearing islands and sumbarines with only a limited oxygen supply. Featuring two our favourites, Deep Sea Adventure and Survive! Escape from Atlantis, this nautical episode will have you wetter than Flounder's face-body. Find us on iTunes or any reputable podcast app!

This episode has been generated by the artificially intelligent Clockbot3000: made with real wood. It seems you like conflict. We have many things to satisfy your thirst for conflict. Perhaps a conflict of two growing cities. Try 7 Wonders: Duel, a one-on-one spin on a massively played game. Our algorithm has deduce that you of below-average intelligence and need a smaller, simpler game. Take a whirl of Tides of Time, which is comprised of only 18 cards. Thanks for using Clockbot3000. If you think you have encountered any errors, we assure you that you are mistaken. Find us on iTunes and on any podcast app. We’re everywhere!

Welcome to today's lesson on backstabbing. Step 1: be a swashbuckling pirate. Step 2: be about four foot tall. Step 3: play both our games this week. Check back on bestplay.co for more analysis, review, comments and pictures of my wife.

Hey, kid, want to trade?   I've got two board game experts, one novice, a selection of questionable microphones and 20 minutes of high  quality audio content. What's that? That's all? You don't have anything else? All right, all right. Fair deal. You lend me your two ears and I'll give you everything I've got. Deal. This week's Board Game Royale featured Jaipur and TKTK. Remember to rate us on iTunes.

In space, no-one can hear you call a snap election. This week, Best Play towers faces political upheaval as one member of the team attempts to outlaw all dice and random number-generating machinery. It doesn't go well, so we're actually left discussing two - very random - wonderfull spaceflight games. Each inject a little chaos into the world.

What kind of cuck keeps his eggs right out there in the open? How much of a cuck do you have to be to let your wife's son play with a bunch of plastic, angular toys? All these questions and more are answered in this cuck-themed episode of Board Game Royale, our tabletop gaming debate-cast. Of all the ways to pronounce Go Cuckoo, we definitely chose the worst. But the egg-hoarding beta-males don't up the entire 17-and-a-bit minutes. Beasts of Balance charge in, showing of their weighty, tech-infused, Kickstarted goodness and leaving with your wife. You can find bestplay.co on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook!

It's a little late for April Fools isn't it? Good thing too, because we're not feeling too silly in this episode. It's all about order. It's about patterns. It's about finding something that works and doing it again and again and again. Enter Karuba and Patchwork. Both enter. One leaves. Shortly after, the other also leaves, unscathed.

Who would have thought our experimental podcast would have made it 10 whole episodes? It seems like only yesterday we found some microphones down the back of the sofa and thought, "yeah, that's worth a shot." In reality, it was two and a half entire months. In this episode, Glenn teaches the gang what it's like to be 50-foot tall and have webbed feet. Joel has a scaly but self-conscious friend that could avert disaster. Marcus, pasty sphenisciphobe, wants nothing to do with it. Leave us a review on iTunes if you like us, email us at games@bestplay.co if you hate us.

Have you heard the legend of John Henry? He worked on railroads his entire life, and he was damned good at it too. 8 feet people claimed he could swing his railroad buildin' hammer. That gift would be his downfall. He eventually hammered himself to death. On a brighter note, did you know it's pretty easy to build a railroad from Rome to Edinburgh? All you need is a copy of Ticket to Ride. For the architecturally-minded, a fresh box of Colt Express would not go amiss, which lets you study a train in all it's three-dimensional glory.

We all like co-operation right? It's like Operation but with a Co and less made-up body parts. The thing is, some of us, we like to make a lot of noise and the rest of us like peace and quiet. That means this week we're looking at a shouty shouty co-op game - Fuse - in which you must work together to disarm a bomb as quickly as possible. It's going up against the less loud but just as devious sleuth-em-up Beyond Baker Street. Oh and did I mention this week we even have special guest Ben Taylor, AKA Dicey Exploits. What fun! Find Best Play on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube!

The name's Beard. Marcus Beard. I like my mechanics simple and my rules to fit on a single side of A5. I'm not a spy - or a master tactician - but if I spend long enough playing these two games, I might be one step closer. Hiding out in the mountains, Spyfall gives a taste of location-hopping while keeping a low profile. Captain Sonar, on the other hand, is a loud, explosive take on sub-aquatic warfare. Find Best Play on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube!

Get your pens at the ready, this week is all about drawing. Just a hint of insanity flows through the discussion, as Marcus learns why Pictomania isn't just another version of pictionary Regardless of who wins, these are two great party games that test your manual dexterity. You just need to wait until Loony Quest comes back in stock. Subscribe to Board Game Royale on iTunes. Find us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram

Haven't you heard? TV is dead. Want to wind back the clock and simulate your favourite Spartacus moment on the tabletop? You know, the political intrigue, the backstabbing, the sandals. Or, would you rather zip into the future and man the helm of the Battlestar Galactica, from the popular television show, Battlestar Galactica. Join Joel and Glenn as they each try to convince Marcus that one game reigns supreme over the other. Help us out - rate us on iTunes.

Mystery, murder and deduction is on the menu. One of our games hands the responsibility of criminal investigation to a ghost - a real life dead person. The other tasks your foolish mortal brains to attempt the same wonderful feats of logic dreamed up by Sherlock himself. Sound intimidating? It is. But it's only 20 minutes long. Help us out - rate us on iTunes.   We're @Bestplayco on Twitter, Facebook AND Instagram

So many times I've asked myself the question: what's more valuable, casino chips or camels? I lie awake and agonise nearly every night, but I'll never find an answer. This week in our one-on-one board game shootout (in the form of a 15-minute podcast), we pit the mammal wagering Camel Up against hot new Nevada mogul-simulator Lords of Vegas. Of course, there's no real winner, despite me definitely claiming there is one. Be sure to subscribe to us on iTunes - and if you like us, leave a review. We're also available on SoundCloud. Find us @besplayco on Twitter and Facebook

One board game ships players to exotic places against their will. The other makes point-scoring machines of kings of queens. Join us at Best Play HQ, where even Marcus can't get inside. Follow us @bestplayco on Twitter and Facebook. Buy Imhotep here. Buy Dominion Here

What does 'hidden role' actually mean? Why would you ever call your friends Hitler? Why are games fighting each other? Answers to all these and more in Best Play's first ever episode of Board Game Royale. Follow us @bestplayco on Twitter and Facebook. Read about and buy Secret Hitler here. Read about and buy One Night Ultimate Werewolf Here.