Today we’re going to look at the top 10 shortest board games of all time. Ironically you might end up taking longer to read this article than play one of these! This list was meant to be in some sort of order, but we’re playing with seconds between games in some cases and it can all depend how that exact is going. While I’ll try to keep to a trend it will be tricky!
10) For Sale: 25 mins
I wanted to start this list with a game I almost guarantee you’ve not heard of. For all those aspiring real estate agents out there this game is about buy and selling properties. In a nutshell: Step 1, players bid on properties; Step 2, Players negotiate on prices; Step 3, ???; step 4; profit. The player with the most profit at the end of the game wins.
9) Codenames 15 mins
A well-known and incredibly popular game, Codenames hits the list at number 8. Best to play in 4, with teams of 2 each, the classic version of this game has 25 cards on the table. The “spymaster” of the round knows whether the colour is red, blue, or the assassin (!). You have to get your partner to guess correct word, without saying the word. For example the word your team needs to guess is “Rome” you would say “City” – Make sense? Works very well with close friends, but I’ve found when you play this with someone you’ve never spoken to before they make very strange guesses… Always fun though!
8) Exploding Kittens: 15 mins
Party games make up quite a portion of this list, they’re fast paced and engaging. Quite a story to this one, it originally started as a Kickstarter project (as many board games do) it aimed to get $10k in crowdfunding, it beat this goal in 8 minutes… by the end of the Kickstarter campaign the game had $8.7 million pledged. This game does involve a bit of luck, essentially you’re drawing from a deck and if you catch a kitten, well, that’s a wrap. There are various special cards, like diffuse cards, which help you get a bit of breathing room, but its fast, action packed and certainly worth a check out.
7) Sushi Go! 15mins
This game is great for families. It is certainly aimed at younger audiences, but this doesn’t mean parents and kids can’t have fun alike. Sushi Go is your very own sushi restaurant in your living room your aim is to grab the best combination of Sushi dishes as they go past you on cards. Points are scored by grabbing to most Sushi rolls or completing sets.
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6) One Night Ultimate Werewolf: 10 mins
This is a shortened version of the very popular game Werewolf. While its older brother can take up to 60 minutes to finish a game you can finish this one in just 10. The traditional game takes place over multiple day or night phases, this game you only have 1. The pressure is on, who is friend and who is foe? You’ll need to have your wits about you on this one… or don’t, it only takes 10 minutes so you can play again straight after.
5) Fuse: 10 minutes
Set in a galaxy far far away your ship has been sabotaged by alien lifeforms and politics is not on their mind. 20 bombs are on your ship and only you and 2-5 crewmates can save the day. This is a dice based game where the team has to roll the dice to match the number on the bomb cards. Please do not play this with anyone who has a weak heart, the game is set to 10 minutes and there will be shouting.
4) Ghost Blitz: 10 mins
This is the J.K Rowling experience of board games fun for both Kids and Adults. This is an electric fast game which revolves around colour recognition, so not great for our colour blind friends (or mice). The cards in the deck show pictures of two of five objects, with either one or both objects coloured the wrong way and you need to grab the correct object or risk someone swooping in first. This game is mostly popular in Germany, hence the German board artwork below.
3) Tsuro: 10 mins
With what is quite possible the most beautiful box art on this list comes Tsuro. This game is similar to the old nokia game snake or to the newer generations Snake io, you lay tokens extend the path of your dragon. Sounds simple enough, but as anyone who has got to level 120 of snake knows, the fewer empty spaces the harder it becomes, you can play this game from 2-8 players; so any easy way to ruin a friendship group.
2) Escape Curse of the Temple: 10 mins
Pretty much like it says on the tin, players must escape the cursed temple before it collapses leaving you and your friends to a horrific cave-in that will make claustrophobics everywhere queasy. This Indiana Jones-esque game is played in real-time, with all players rolling dice and taking actions simultaneously and this causes inevitable chaos. You’ve really got to have your head in the game on this one.
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1) 5 Minute Dungeon: 5-30 mins
In my humble opinion this is a bit of false advertising because this game takes longer than 5 minutes. This game is actually split into 5 different dungeons/levels each taking 5 minutes to beat, hence the name. To defeat a monster in the dungeon players must match symbols from their hand with ones on the monster’s card – a chaotic version of snap. At the end of each dungeon is a powerful dungeon boss — and after the boss is defeated players will challenge the next boss. Each boss, and each dungeon is randomized, they get progressively harder until players reach the fifth and final boss.
Conclusion
There is quite a clear trend with shorter games. Many of the games here are aimed at families with children on the younger time, it’s apparent from much of the graphic design. This is often done to keep the child engaged as they can quickly jump from one activity to the next. Party games, such as, Exploding Kittens and Code Words do buck this trend, but they are specifically designed to be played in short amount of time because at board game nights players may only play one round of any given board game.
Why don’t you check out?
Our longest board game list: Top 10 Longest Board Games – TableTopTemple
