Do Board Games Based On Video Games Work?
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Your classic board game needs a few key components: a compelling narrative or objective, interesting (and well-explained) rules, and nice visuals. Sounds like the same components of a good video game, right? So do good video games translate well to cardboard and cards? Let’s find out.
As far back as the 1980s, board games have been made based on video and arcade games. Donkey Kong (1981), Berzerk (1983), and Super Mario (1988) all made their way from screen to table. These simple games still managed to capture their source material’s essence, whether it was battling Donkey Kong to save the Fair Maiden, shooting Humanoids, or hurrying to rescue Princess Toadstool.
Things have, of course, moved on since then. We’ve enjoyed increasingly excellent video games, some of which have inspired great board games. World of Warcraft, the massive multiplayer online game first launched in 2004, spawned a host of board games. World of Warcraft: The Board Game was released in 2005 by Fantasy Flight Game and it was a monster of a game. With a board measuring nearly 2 x 3 feet, 136 miniatures, and countless cards and tokens, the game lasted 2-4 hours – and much of that time was spent waiting for the other team to strategize and execute their next moves. Overall, players felt that, while killing monsters to complete quests makes for a great video game, it didn’t work so well in board game format.
In contrast, Z-Man Games’ 2021 World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King received fan and critical acclaim. It’s a Pandemic system board game adapted to incorporate the story, characters, and features of WoW, and it does it well. The artwork brings the game’s characters and settings to life, along with detailed miniatures of iconic heroes and villains. The aim is to complete quests before storming Icecrown Citadel to face the Lich King.
But in case you forgot, this is a Pandemic game, and the Lich King’s Scourge is spreading all the time. You can attack, defend, travel, and heal on your turn, as well as team up with nearby players to face the approaching Scourge. The game’s cooperative, team-based decision-making captures the feeling of a WoW party. Combined with the attention to detail in the artwork, locations, and narrative, the Wrath of the Lich King board game proves itself to be an adaptation worthy of the great MMO game that inspired it.
Another adaptation that gets it right is Fallout. With Amazon’s hit series earlier in 2024, Fallout achieved a whole new fanbase, but fans of the original Bethesda video game series will love the Fallout board game (2017). It’s a competitive adventure game constructed around four scenarios from the beloved series. The characters, settings, equipment, points system, and other mechanics are clever and affectionate nods to the video games. The adaptation captures the spirit of its source material while also being a compelling, fun, and immersive game.
In the action-horror genre, Bloodborne and Doom have both successfully transitioned to board game format. Bloodborne: The Board Game does a good job of creating the atmosphere and near-certain doom of the original video game. It’s an action game with a gritty but fairly shallow narrative where players take on the roles of Hunters and race against time and the hordes of respawning enemies in Yharnam. Much like the Bloodborne video game, you must be prepared to lose; these games take no prisoners. The board game certainly has its flaws but it’s challenging and replayable. It has some great expansions and an online fan community with a range of campaign ideas directly inspired by the video game.
Given that the Doom video games are first-person shooters, adapting them into a board game must have been a challenge. In the capable hands of Fantasy Flight Games, however, Doom: The Board Game exceeded all expectations. The gameplay is smooth, engaging, and fun, it’s extremely replayable, and the board and miniatures look fantastic. Playing as Doomguy (a.k.a The Doom Slayer) is a good time, but one standout feature is that the player who takes the role of the “bad guys” is not simply an evil narrator but is also playing to win. The game is popular with fans of the Doom video games and board game lovers in general; another example of an adaptation done right.
In 2007, Fantasy Flight Games pulled off another excellent adaptation: StarCraft. The video game series by Blizzard Entertainment, first released in the late 1990s, is credited with redefining the real-time strategy genre. It remains one of the best-selling and most critically acclaimed video games of all time. Once again, Fantasy Flight chose some big boots to fill and they knocked it out of the park.
The StarCraft board game’s artwork is based on the video game and results in a similar theme and feeling. However, the game doesn’t just attempt to copy and paste from its source material. It moves the battle to a galactic scale, helped by a huge modular board and exceptionally crafted miniatures. It includes the three main races StarCraft fans will be familiar with and encourages forward planning and strategic attacks. The game may be a bit complex for new players but it’s also an immersive, fast-paced, and exciting experience.
So we’ve mentioned a few games that work well. What about those that don’t? One that really divided fan opinion was Borderlands: Mister Torgue’s Arena of Badassery, the official board game of the incredibly popular video game series by Gearbox Software and 2K Games. Many felt the rulebook was complicated and poorly organized, making the various status effects, passive abilities, and critical hits within the game hard to understand. Some felt the enemies were overpowered, while others felt they lacked variety. However, other fans enjoyed the game for its fast pace, engaging mechanics, and its general Borderlands feel. We think it’s a good example of how unsatisfactory rulebooks and mechanics that aren’t intuitive can negatively impact a game that would otherwise be enjoyable for all involved.
Dark Souls: The Board Game (2017) also received mixed reviews from even the most enthusiastic fans of the video game series. While the board game faithfully reproduces many aspects of the video game, it’s relentlessly difficult. The rulebook is less than helpful. Dice rolls and random card draws determine your success or failure. Fans criticized the lack of content in the core game, which reduced its replayability. Overall, however, many fans felt it captured the essence of the Dark Souls video game, despite its flaws.
Five years after the original board game, Steamforged produced two more Dark Souls core sets, Tomb of Giants and The Painted World of Ariamis. They fixed some flaws and were good adaptations of the video games, but still fell short of being great board games in themselves. The 2024 Dark Souls: The Sunless City core set was better received by fans. It cleans up a lot of the rules for a better experience, while keeping the atmosphere and challenge that fans know and love.
There are lots more games we could talk about here. Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City, Elder Scrolls V – Skyrim: The Adventure Game, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood of Venice, and Witcher: Old World have all made the transition from screen to table and have generally been well-received by fans. This seems to be the key: if a board game captures the spirit and atmosphere of the original, fans will forgive many flaws and failings. It’s always a joy to come across a game that succeeds in celebrating the source material while also offering engaging and enjoyable gameplay. Do board game adaptations of video games always work? No. Will we keep trying them out anyway? Absolutely.
Do you have a favorite board game based on a video game? Or one that you found disappointing? Tell us about it in the comments section below. And don’t forget to sign up to our email list to get Finds of the Week and our free newsletter, PopPulse Digest, delivered straight to your inbox each and every week.
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