In this unprecedented year, deciding on gifts for friends and family is likely to be the last thing on your mind this holiday season. Fanbase Press is here to help with the best recommendations for the must-play tabletop and video games from the year as suggested by our staff and contributors. Games make great gifts for the geeks in your life, especially for the holidays where the requisite number of players is usually right around the corner.
Kids Create Absurdity
Recommended by Travis Lakata
This game is for parents and their kids, because what kid doesn’t love to say wild and crazy things? Yes, your kids might be screaming with laughter after answering a question card with an answer that sounds an awful lot like soup – with a “P” sound instead.
It’s not just fun for kids. It lets the grownups remember what it was like to be six or seven and provide some fun absurdity to a card game that provides plenty of hilarity. Kids Create Absurdity will be a popular addition to your tabletop gameplay, and if saying gross things throws you off at all, it will quickly dissipate with the roar of laughter from your kids.
Cost: $17.95
Click here to purchase.
Little Misfortune
Recommend by Phillip Kelly
There are a handful of video games from 2020 that stood out as the best, and this indie is one of them. From Killmonday Games, you play as Little Misfortune who is going on an adventure with Mr. Voice, who may or may not be a voice in her head, to help her mother be happy again. It’s a click-and-point game. Let me tell you, it is an incredible experience. The humor is playfully dark, sometimes like the animated comedy South Park, but the character of Misfortune might be the perfect creation of a young girl with an overactive imagination I’ve ever seen. She will stick with you long after you’ve played it, and I’ve already played it three times through. Not only that, but this game has lots of heart, lots of fun, and lots of beautiful, bittersweet feels. The graphics are perfect, and the voice acting is phenomenal; you’ll be quoting it forever. Highly recommended for a slightly more mature-ish audience.
Cost: $19.99
Platforms: This is available to purchase on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, X-Box One
Click here to purchase.
Across the Grooves
Recommend by Phillip Kelly
This might be one of the more surprisingly emotional indie games I played in 2020. It is an interactive novel in which you play as Alice who receives a record that takes her back in time where she accidentally changes a pivotal moment in her past. Now, you get to figure out who the new Alice is and what she truly wants while uncovering the mystery of the record. Every decision you make alters your course and leads you on a truly remarkable and emotional journey of discovery, friendship, and love. Nova-box has put together a modern indie classic with beautiful imagery and really cool music.
Cost: $12.99
Platforms: This can be purchased on Steam or Nintendo Switch.
Click here to purchase.
