There Are a Lot of Games Big Kids Want to Play – These Are the Ones They Want This Year!
We feel like we’re off to a great start with our 2019 holiday gift guides and hope you’ll agree. We’ve already given you some ideas for family games as well as STEAM-inspired gifts. But as the parents of two teenagers, we know how difficult it is to shop for them. Our experience is they have two suggestions: Cash/gift cards or “if I only ask for one high-priced thing then maybe I’ll get it” gift. We know there’s a lot of room in-between there, but other teen favorites like clothing often mean incorrect sizes or styles. So naturally we came up with a variety of games that fit this age-range while also being viable options for adults.
If this list of games is exciting to you, then this next piece of news should really hit home. The majority of the games featured on this list will be included in our holiday giveaways! Be sure to come back to the site a couple times a day if you want to see which games are up for grabs.
Bosk
Floodgate Games 
A Game of Majestic Trees and Falling Leaves. Plays as a beautiful tree in a national park. A great game for nature lovers!
Cities: Skylines
Thames & Kosmos
The ultimate city-building video game lands on your table top! In this board game version of the best-selling PC game of the same name, players work together to plan, build, and manage a city. Players begin with a blank canvas–a vacant plot on which they must develop residential, commercial, and industrial areas, gradually creating new neighborhoods. The key to a successfully developed city is a happy population: as players decide how and where to build, they must consider a variety of factors such as the environment, crime, traffic flow, education, and financial resources.
Call to Adventure
Brotherwise Games
Call to Adventure is a hero-crafting game where players compete to build the hero with the greatest destiny. Your hero starts with an Origin, a Motivation, and a Destiny, and over the course of the game will face Challenges, gain Allies, and face deadly Adversaries. Will you create the Hero of Destiny?
Ishtar
iello
From the award-winning designer Bruno Cathala, Ishtar is a game in which you play the role of a gardener aiming to transform the dry desert into the Lost Hanging Gardens of Babylon.
Run, Fight or Die: Reloaded
Grey Fox Games
A competitive dice rolling game about defending yourself from hordes of zombies while trying to escape town. Be prepared to face the zombie mutant! 2-4 players (6 with expansion)
Champions of Hara
Greenbrier Games
Champions of Hara is an adventure board game in which 1-4 players race to protect a dying world. Players will contain destructive energy by defeating monsters, closing rifts, and exploring the six different zones within Hara. In order to rise to the challenge, players will need to unlock new abilities and collect powerful items. Each session takes approximately 30 minutes per player. In versus mode, players will compete against one another in arena style combat. In co-op mode, players will work together to overcome the fallout from the champion’s wish, facing off against corrupted foes and solving scenario based challenges.
Paladins of the West Kingdom
Renegade Game Studios
The sequel to the award-winning Architects of the West Kingdom, the aim of Paladins of the West Kingdom is to be the player with the most victory points (VP) at game’s end. Points are gained by building outposts and fortifications, commissioning monks and confronting outsiders. Each round, players will enlist the help of a specific Paladin and gather workers to carry out tasks as you defend your town against outside invaders.
Lovelace & Babbage
Genius Games
In Lovelace & Babbage, players “program” the world’s first computer, the Analytical Engine, to help famous Patrons solve challenging problems. Compete against your fellow programmers in real time. Develop your Subroutines and upgrade the shared computer. Receive Influence from Patrons in five areas of society. Balance speed, care, and clever maneuvers to win!
EXIT: The Catacombs of Horror
Thames & Kosmos
The EXIT: The Game series allows you to bring the excitement, intensity, and team spirit of an escape room to your living room. In each EXIT game, your team starts our locked in an imaginary room or trapped somewhere. You must solve a series of riddles and puzzles in order to unlock doors and objects, and reveal new riddles. Each correct solution brings you to another riddle and eventually to freedom.
Silver Bullet
Bezier Games
Silver Bullet is the second deck in the Silver series, with 14 new characters and abilities! This is another great stand-alone game but can also be integrated with the original Silver – simply pull all 4 cards of a certain number(s) and replace the correlating number(s) in from the other deck. This creates endless unique gameplay!
The Expanse Role Playing Game
Green Ronin Publishing
Core rulebook to the roleplaying game set in James S. A. Corey’s future science fiction world of The Expanse as seen in the book series and Amazon TV series of the same name using the AGE System!
DC Deck Building Game: Rebirth
Cryptozoic Entertainment
This entry in the popular DC Deck-Building Game series breaks fresh ground with linked Campaign Scenarios, character progression, and character movement between iconic locations. In the game, 1-4 players become members of the Justice League and move their standees to find cards for their decks and defeat dastardly Villains. Each Scenario includes special rules, new cards, and different locations. You can play cooperatively, competitively, or solo!
Godsforge
Atlas Games
In Godsforge, you are an elite spellcaster. Roll your dice then combine, re-roll, and re-combine the results to forge the elements you need to play the best card, right now. Features simultaneous play and straightforward rules to make for a fast, fun game!
Volcanic Isle
Arcane Wonders
Players in Volcanic Isle are tasked with building villages and raising Moai across the continent, each doing their best to survive and become the strongest tribe. However, with each Moai raised, the possibility of a volcanic eruption increases! Eruptions devastate settlements and even cause whole sections of the board to sink into the sea and be removed! Strategically plan the expansion of your settlements amidst the chaos of volcanic activity with an ever-changing landscape!
Helios Expanse
Greenbrier Games
Helios Expanse places you in control of an extrasolar civilization, competing for galactic supremacy against its rivals. A group of 3-5 players colonize habitable planets, research technologies, and build a military to wage war. The civilization that colonizes the most planets will emerge victorious and rule the galaxy. You are a faction of humanity, hurtling towards an unknown planetary jackpot, with centuries of old grudges against the other key players, and ships filled to bursting. Program your card actions in advance, then play out each round.
Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid
Renegade Game Studios
In Power Rangers: Heroes of the Grid, the players take on the roles of the original Mighty Morphin Power Rangers to cooperatively battle the forces of darkness. In this core game box, you will face Rita Repulsa and her relentless swarms of Putty Patrollers and Super Putty Patrollers, as well as formidable monsters like Bones, Knasty Knight, Madame Woe, and Pudgy Pig.
Embers of Memory
Osprey Games
A lavishly illustrated card game set during the events of Kingdom of Ash, the epic climax to the best-selling Throne of Glass series from Sarah J. Maas, with two players working together over the course of multiple games to overcome the challenges faced by Aelin Galathynius.
Survive: Space Attack
Stronghold Games
Survive: Space Attack! utilizes similar base mechanics to the best-selling game Survive: Escape From Atlantis! designed by Julian Courtland-Smith. However, Survive: Space Attack! has been reimagined and redesigned by Brian, Sydney, and Geoff Englestein, the designers of Space Cadets and Space Cadets: Dice Duel and the expansions for these games.
The Menace Among Us
Smirk & Dagger Games
A thrilling semi-cooperative game of intrigue and survival in deep space. Adrift and powerless, your crippled vessel is bleeding oxygen. You must work together to restore power before the air runs out… but hidden among you, masquerading as loyal friends and crewmembers, are imposters who continue to sabotage the ship. Their only goal is to avoid detection and kill the crew, by force or by asphyxiation. Can you identify them in time and eliminate the threat? Or will succumb to The Menace Among Us?
As a reminder, the logo next to the brand is a link to a more detailed overview of the game. Click through to see additional pictures and read a walk-through of the game. If you have any questions about any of the games included, drop a note here or leave a comment on the Facebook post and we’ll see if we can provide an answer. Happy shopping!
Cities: Skylines
Godsforge sounds like a fun game that I would love to try, thanks for the suggestions
There are a lot of Awesome games here. My favorite would be DC Deck Building Game: Rebirth because I grew up reading super hero comic books and this appeals to me.
I love the exit games.
Great ideas!
I want to try many of these, but I’ve already played and liked Ishtar.
I love the historical element of Lovelace and Babbage.
This is a great list of games!
I only have Bosk and Lovelace & Babbage, so my favorite right now is Bosk.
Those all look really good. Bosk interests me the most, but Champions of Hara is also good and I’m really interested in Paladins of the West Kingdom.
Bosk
Call to Adventureby Brotherwise Games looks great
SURVIVE SPACE GAMES
I THINK I WOULD WANT TO PLAY ISHTAR.
LOOKS LIKE A LOT OF FUN!
I would choose ISHTAR
I would like to play EXIT: The Catacombs of Horror
Paladins for sure!
Silver Bullet looks fun and challenging too!
DC deck building game rebirth
These games are amazing!! Finally I am finding some games for teens and older. Half of our grandkids are about 15 and older now. I’m getting sad saying that!! I wish that they could stay young forever or until I leave this planet! I would love to play these games with them! Finally some competition! I know they would challenge their siblings too. Volcanic Isle would be the first game I would like to tackle.
Pinning! Thank you for sharing!
The DC Deck Building Game: Rebirth seems like a fun game.
Power Rangers is the one that I am most interested in getting for my grandkids.
So many interesting ones to consider. I am most interested in the Power Rangers game.
The Cities game looks fun.
Looking forward to (hopefully) getting my kids into gaming!
I like call to adventure best
Volcanic Islands
Volcanic Isle
Silver Bullet and Volcanic Isle sound fun!