What a great topic, really enjoyed hearing your picks and shining some light on these underappreciated games!

Great topic for a video! Excellent pick with Good Critters, I was quite surprised that even as a Dice Tower Essential it didn't take off.

I loved this video. I'm going to dig in and try some of these. Thanks for sharing.

Great video ;) would love to see a part two of this list

I expected this list to be of games that I've heard of that maybe just weren't popular, but I've honestly not even heard of most of these! 🤯 I've seen Miyabi in the children's section of my FLGS, looks like I'm going to have to take a closer look. I am a little surprised about My Farm Shop, though I bet that art does play a part. It got a great run-through from Rahdo who said it replaces both Machi Koro and Space Base for him, it got an episode of BGG's Game Night, it got so much publicity. I personally love it.

Thanks very much for this very interesting selection. We often see the same games mentioned and it's great to discover new hidden gems. I will check some of these out.

Great video. Love your channel!

Super interesting list! Might have to do my own at some point

Really great vid. Thanks!

amazing video. I want to buy every one of them! All going on my wishlist. Many thanks

Juicy Fruits has great art, those amazing chunky wooden fruit, a super pleasing slide mechanism, a nice puzzle and then also something that surprised me - that you control the game end adds an amazing amount of tension and tactics! Also nice interaction in the game overall.

Great video and list. Loved the concise run down with an image to show the game. Is it possible for future videos to go through player count. Like plays 2-4, good at 2-3 but best at 4 or something like that?

I think there are a few reasons for Cross Clues not being that popular. - Nothing new, Codenames did the same thing years ago - Co-op aspect is less appealing than team vs team - You’re often stuck with ‘impossible’ pairs of words in Cross Clues. In Codenames, you can give clues for just one word, or your team can accidentally guess your words. - You can only give clues for 2 words in Cross Clues, resulting in much fewer memorable risky / skillful clues compared to Codenames. - Lack of marketing (?) I’m sure there’s more, but these are few aspects I like in Codenames more. Of course, Cross Clues has the upper hand in downtime.

I only have My Farm Shop, and I had my eye on Miyabi for a loong time, but box size (due to my shelf space) pulled me away from getting this :( I'll check a few titles here, great suggestions, thanks! PS one suggestion that I can think of is Mare Nostrum. This game is in our group right up there with Cyclades and Eclipse

Thanks for an interesting list. We seem to have similar tastes in games so I always like to hear your thoughts.

A couple of games that I would consider for this list: World's Fair 1893, Sentient, Lotus, Spirits of the Wild, Sanssouci, Sushi Roll, and Project L.

I like Xi'an, I bought it after I saw it listed in one of your top games a few years ago. Glad I picked it up. Juicy Fruits, Rumble Nation and Miyabi are very appealing to me. Thanks for the great list.

I’d really like to get miyabi now thanks for highlighting this.

I backed Tumble Town through Kickstarter and was not disappointed. My wife really enjoyed the puzzle type aspect of it and the many different ways of scoring your town at the end. Also has a solo mode so you can try and beat your previous scores.

Great idea for a list - I love Miyabi, Good Critters and Cross Clues

For me Cosmic Colonies is very underrated and I consider it a very family friendly yet crunchy experience. The farm shop art comment cheap phone app that can give a virus was pure gold 😂👏.

Nice list! Full of surprises 👍

I am going to refer to this list in the future when I go for another purchase.

I agree with your number 1. Love that game, especially with the many mini expansions. We also played a lot of Cross Clues when we got it. Good choices.

I've only played Tiefe Taschen (predecessor of good critters), but I agree on that one totally, every group I played it with, liked it.

Great video. I wants to play all of em.

This is really good. Thanks

Thanks for the video. From watching your videos it appears our tastes in board games are somewhat different sometimes, but I enjoy hearing your opinions. Thanks for turning me on to Xi'an. It looked cool and I was able to find a copy for $20. I love it. I brought it to my board game meet and a couple of the people were a little apprehensive during the teach(more likely my fault), but everyone ended up really liking it.

Random algorithm suggestion strikes again. Great topic. Tumble town and ship shape look great.

went out last night and bought Juicy Fruits and My Farm Shop on your recco..........love these types of videos and will let you know how I like them......always looking for sleepers.....thanks

This vid is a great resource. I love hidden gems!

Ulm kind of has that Juicy Fruits tile movement thing in a more involved euro. Have you tried Ulm. Btw, revisited Space Explorers. Now there's a game that should have been a mega hit. Other contenders: Johari, Hadara, Medieval Academy and Whistle Mountain. And I'll take Fertility over Kingdomino any day of the week.

I don’t think I’ve played any of these. I’ll have to go check them out if they are secretly this amazing!

Kind of crazy how many of these games I own, and pretty sure I own ShipShape thanks to you! Miyabi is fantastic and everyone I have taught it to liked it a lot. You’ve put Xi’an on the radar now. I’d heard of it but knew nothing about it.

How do you think My Farm Shop compares to Valeria: Card Kingdoms (which has been, arguably, the superior game when compared against Space Base or Machi Koro), or even the newer Bad Company?

Free Ride isn't widely available in the UK yet. It can be bought from Europe at the minute and I think its set to hit distribution soon-ish. I can see it taking off when people can pick it up from local shops.

My farmshop! 👏🏻 great game With an idea as simple as it is difficult to maneuver: the constant disappearance and replacement of cards. I think the same of Miyabi. A Perfect game, even more so than Azul. If I had to choose a game that should have had a better run, it would be Hadara. A high point in the Hans im Gluck catalogue.

I know some people don't like GoodCritters if they didn't get a chance to be The Boss . Which can easily happen with large player counts.

Great games to keep an eye out for! I picked up a game called "Overseers" last year, mainly because the art was so interesting and its a bit of a deduction game, which I didn't already own. It is a really good game that I am sure nobody knows of. I love the poker\bluffing element to the game and the voting mechanism works really well. I would recommend this for anyone looking for something a little out of the ordinary.

I was expecting Rumble Nation and was not disappointed.

The #1 reason games don't become mega hits when they legitimately could have is availability. If the first printing sells out quickly and the publisher can't get it back in stock, or loses tons of momentum

I love Xi'an: Terracotta Army. It's has so many mechanisms, but they all fit together and play so smoothly. And the theme is great. Kinda of a sucker for games with ancient historical themes.

In my experience, Codenames isn't as great as people might think with more than 6-8 players, it's just too noisy, might as well play Two Rooms and a Boom (but I don't like that game either). It seems to me the better game to replace Codenames for me at least, is Just One, even going back to Dixit has been enjoyable. If people want a really "party" style game, my choice is Monikers, or Snake Oil. Pure silliness that I don't mind engaging in.

I would add The River. Great price point very nice components and an excellent intro worker placement game.

thanks so much😊

Rumble Nation is an amazing game that really needs distribution in the US. The only place I could find it was Amazon Japan and the shipping cost was pretty close to the price of the game. I don't think most hobbyists in the US have even heard of the game for this reason.

I still don't know how, but one day I'll get my hands on a copy of Rumble Nation

I picked up Miyabi for a very good price after watching your review and agree it is a fantastic game.

Just recently played my copy of Xi'an: Terracotta Army and it's good and I don't like area control much. Not sure why more folks have not heard of it. Also, my Ship Shape is still in shrink. This is motivation to get it out and play it.

I agree with codenames. I think that is only fun with 6 players. Codenames duet is nice with 2 or 4. I own Miyabi and I don’t know if I have to own much more polyomino games (I own patchwork and we finished my city). Nice list to put some games on my whishlist.

18:50 I lol’d at your complaint. Sad though considering Rudiger Dorn is one of my fave designers.

Great topic! Agree there is a disconnect between My Farm Shop box art/illustrations & gameplay/target audience. It doesn't bother me....I don't purchase board games to hang them on the wall! But point well taken :)

We love Miyabi! Probably one of our most played games.

Thumbs up for Juicy Fruits, great game!

Great picks. Big fan of Rumble Nation and Free Ride. 08:34 “..geography is popular.” Eh?

I have owned Juicy Fruits and Miyabi. Both have great productions but I got tired of the constant scoring in Miyabi and Juicy Fruits was a bit boring, it just didn't grab me. My pick would be Kohaku, it's like Quadropolis but with fish. :)

I have two mid to heavy games that definitely should be mega hits. Trismegistus and Terramara.

Wow more games to track down.

The good critters need to be played with the sort of people who needs to put their feelings in the game only. I saw some couples escalate fights over this game. otherwise its super fun, never been so angry with my friends who I love very much before.

I have Goodcritters and got it to the table once. I think it depends on the group - for more gamer-y people I think it could work better. My one play of it went 'ok'. One guy really enjoyed it. I don't really like the "Zootopia" theme. It seems people would rather play Cash n Guns but I do think that one is a bit more random and basic.

Really sucks that Rumble Nation was never picked up by a major publisher. The name however doesn’t make someone jump in my opinion, but the game as an area control mechanism with dice is unique, fresh, and appropriate for just about any gamer. Someone dropped the ball on this regarding distribution big time.

+1 for Rumble Nation

Thanks for the list. I checked before Juicy Fruits and Farm Shop, but wasn’t interested. The other recommendations sound interesting.

Xi'an is one of our favorites, and I'm always surprised that most people have never heard of it.

ShpShape is a great pick!

Definitely 1 game is hand of fate ordeals a deck building adventure game and a sold 1 too and it really should of been a big hit but unfortunately the company went bankrupt and now it's out of print but it really is a great game 1 of my favourite deck building games even

codenames is much better than cross clues. The reason codenames is as fun as it is, is you can chain 4-6 words together. The satisfaction of not just figuring out a clever association with SIX other words but having your team connect and pick them is sublime. Cross clues is just associating two words. Its closer to so clover which I prefer over cross clues as well.

I have 3 of these games (Miyabi, My Farm Shop & Juicy Fruits) and I have to admit, we don’t play the often. I want to get them out and play them more now; thanks for the motivation!

GoodCritters is pure chaos. Nobody in our group is able to keep their head in the game. Also each round is basically the same and the loot cash is only in 3 different amounts and the amounts are more or less the same if I remember well? 3000/4000/5000? Which makes it not really tight at all.

I’ve added Cross Clues to my wishlist and I already own GoodCritters. The rest just don’t look all that interesting.

Tsukiji, Condottiere

Super motherload is an incredible game

Xian is very very good.

Have you thought that game can be not popular because of distribution issues? I would like to buy Free ride, no shop has it :)

What, not capital lux?

Goodcritters issue was it's theme, very poor choice in theme IMO

Miyabi has an amazing box cover but the art on the polyominos is so boring and bland. I find it extremely off putting and deceptive when the cover and the components are nothing alike.

I personally won't buy or play My Farm Shop, as I'm not a fan of animal exploitation simulators. The board game world has finally started to move away from exploitive colonialism, hopefully it won't take as long to realize that animal exploitation isn't something that should be glorified or promoted either.

Blokus is a game I fell in love with the first time I saw it. Crush flowers. Nobody has ever heard of it. Forestaurant, same thing. Selling games requires huge marketing... Sorry man but this format just doesn't work. The games you discuss are unknown, and the overview of each is so short I can't get any impression on their gameplay. Might suggest a shorter overview with links to extended playthroughts of each. If they are as great as you say they are I'm sure you won't mind making videos on them? 20:45 miyabi is continuously pleasant. Zee talks about it kzfaq.info/get/bejne/m71gaqZzsNy1nok.html

Xian is very very good.