Category: Gaming

League of Legends has been played by millions upon millions of people around the world, but it takes a special kind of talent to play the game on a professional level as those at the top are, for lack of a better term, freakishly good. From winning tournaments worth massive prize pools in the millions to garnering audiences on Twitch, League of Legends has a massive following and requires a lot of skill to be at the top. Let’s take a look at the best of the best, which champions they use, and how much they’ve won during their careers.

5. Perkz

Real Name: Luka Perkovic

Country of Origin: Croatia

Favorite LoL Champion: Ryze

Bio: Perkz is a Mid Laner that joined GSI Gaming shortly before it disbanded, signing with three different teams in 2015. Perkz finally found some stability when he signed with G2 Esports, and remained with the team for five years before heading to Cloud9 and eventually Team Vitality.

Perkz has accomplished a lot in his career, including winning a Mid-Season Invitational, League Championship Series, and a pair of Rift Rivals titles. However, his biggest feat has been winning the LEC eight times, including being named to the All-Pro Team four times.

4. Caps

Real Name: Rasmus Borregaard Winther

Country of Origin: Denmark

Favorite LoL Champion: Syndra

Bio: Caps became a professional League of Legends player in 2016 when he joined the Dark Passage team, and in the same year joined Fnatic. Since 2018, Caps has been a Mid Laner for the G2 Esports Team and a valuable part of the squad.

Caps has won the Rift Rivals championship twice and the TCL Championship and MSI Championship once each. The biggest accomplishment that he’s had thus far, though, is winning the League EMEA Championship an impressive seven times and has been a First-Team All-Pro in each of the events.

3. Uzi

Real Name: Jian Zihao

Country of Origin: China

Favorite LoL Champion: Vayne

Bio: Playing as a Bot Laner, Uzi started in the early days of League of Legends when he became a professional with Royal Club from 2012 to 2014. He would hop around to several teams between 2014 and 2016 before finally signing on with Royal Never Give Up for several years and eventually Bilibili Gaming in 2021.

Uzi would ultimately retire from professional gaming in 2020 due to health issues, but he was able to build quite a resume in League before doing so. Uzi was a two-time LPL Champion while also winning the Rift Rivals title and Mid-Season Invitational in 2018. He’s been the MVP of four major tournaments and a two-time All-Star 1v1 winner.

2. Smeb

Real Name: Smeb

Country of Origin: South Korea

Favorite LoL Champion: Rumble

Bio: Like Uzi, Smeb started playing League professionally back in 2012 and was part of the NAB Team, and has played for Incredible Miracle 1, ROX Tigers, and KT Rolster through his professional career before officially retiring in December 2020 after winning a long list of titles.

Prior to his retirement, Smeb had a long list of accomplishments during his LoL days. He won the KeSPA Cup in back-to-back years (2016 and 2017), while also winning two League Champions Korea titles. Smeb’s accomplishments allowed him to be an Olympic torch relay runner for his native South Korea in 2018.

1. Faker

Real Name: Lee Sang-hyeok

Country of Origin: South Korea

Favorite LoL Champion: Ryze

Bio: Faker is the biggest icon in all of professional League of Legends gaming, and started his career with T1 and has been with the squad ever since 2013, eventually becoming a part owner. Faker is referred to by most as the greatest player in the game’s history, with some referring to him as the Wayne Gretzky of LoL.

Faker is a 10-time winner of the League of Legends Korea championships, including three MVP titles. He’s also won the Mid-Season Invitational hosted by Riot Games twice, and won the world championship in 2013, 2015, and 2016.

Every now and then, there’s an app that everybody goes crazy for and it goes from having a few hundred downloads to having millions of downloads seemingly overnight. Most of the time, the apps that are able to achieve this type of sudden viral success fall in the games category. Some of the games are incredibly simplistic and people of all ages end up becoming devoted to make it as far as they can, while others involve multiplayer and are just plain old fun.

There have been many games that went viral, though many of them were flashes in the pan that ended up becoming an afterthought just as soon as they were on everybody’s phones. Then, there are those that had staying power. Our list has a nice mix of both, as we showcase five mobile games that had the most viral success.

Flappy Bird

Flappy Bird is an arcade-style mobile game that was developed by Dong Nguyen’s company .Gears, also known as dotGears, was released in 2013. It rose in popularity in 2014, becoming an overnight sensation to kids and adults alike. People were obsessed with this fun, but difficult game. Making it the most downloaded mobile game of the year, earning a whopping $50,000 a day in sales and ad revenue. In an act of humanity, the game’s creator took it off the AppStore due to the incredibly addictive nature of the game. 

Candy Crush

Candy Crush is a worldwide mobile game phenomenon, free to play and popular among all ages and walks of life. It was developed by King and originally released for Facebook in 2012. Now the game can be downloaded sans Facebook and enjoyed by anybody on iOS, Android, or PC. The game features a cute and colorful array of candy pieces set up in a tile-matching style of gameplay. You must match three, or more candies in a line, block of four, or L-shaped formation. Each level presents its own challenges and increases in difficulty over the course of the levels. It’s a wonderfully fun and mind-numbing game that surprisingly never gets old. 

Pokémon Go

One of the most viral mobile games of modern times is Pokémon Go. Popular among today’s youth and millennials alike. It brings the adventure and unique nature of Pokémon to the real world. You can explore real-life locations and search for different kinds of Pokémon along your travels. You can find eggs that require the player to walk a specific distance before it hatches. Giving incentives to walk and stay active. As well as creating a fun way to socialize with other players in your community. 

Among Us

Among Us is another hugely successful game that got its start on mobile platforms. The game was developed by Innersloth studios and released in 2018, later being released for consoles and PC. The multiplayer social deduction game was inspired by the sci-fi thriller “The Thing” as well as the game “Mafia” created in the 1980s. Among Us rose in popularity in 2020 when a variety of Twitch streamers with large audiences began playing the game on streams. Some believe the 2020 pandemic made the game take off, due to its socially interactive and fun gameplay. 

Roblox

If you know a kid, you’ve probably heard of Roblox. The ever-so-popular mobile game is one kids go crazy for. It was developed by the Roblox Corporation and released for PC in 2006. Later released for mobile users in 2012 and 2014. The game is free to play but largely reliant on in-game purchases through the use of Robux. It’s estimated that half of all children in America are active users on the platform. It features a large variety of games for different age ranges, like music games, puzzle games, social games, and modified versions of popular games outside of Roblox. 

Not all of us can get out to the motocross track or have room for a bike, but almost all of us do have a gaming console. For this reason, there are a lot of people that love motocross video games, even if they’ve never ridden a bike themselves. Over the years, we’ve been treated to a lot of great motocross video games, but which ones are truly the best? Here are our picks for the five best motocross video games of all time.

5. Excitebike

You can’t talk about motocross video games without mentioning the one that started it all back in 1984. Initially released for the Famicom/Nintendo Entertainment System, “Excitebike” was a side-scrolling 8-bit racer that taught players the importance of finding the right speed for jumps on a motocross track. Sure it was difficult, but NES players had a lot of fun with it.

Not only did “Excitebike” set the tone for other NES side-scrollers, but it also launched a slew of sequels in the franchise including “Excitebike 64” and “Excitebike: World Rally”. People are split on the actual quality of the original “Excitebike”, but there’s no doubting its importance to video games overall and introducing a lot of youngsters to the sport.

4. MX Superfly

There was that special era of video games where you couldn’t yet race online but could purchase downloadable content including new songs and racers. “MX Superfly” was part of that era, and was released on the Xbox, PlayStation 2, and GameCube in the summer of 2002. A sequel to “MX 2002”, “Superfly” improved a lot from the first game and felt like the first true simulation in motocross.

The game hasn’t aged particularly well compared to others on the list, but “MX Superfly” was an amazing game for its time that featured outdoor racing, supercross, and even a stunt challenge. “MX Superfly” received generally positive reviews overall no matter what system it was on and motocross fans still come back to this game every now and then.

3. MX Unleashed

“MX 2002 featuring Ricky Carmichael” was the first of the THQ motocross trilogy, with “Superfly” being the second. The final installment of the series was “MX Unleashed”, which was released in February 2004 on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, but surprisingly not the GameCube. “MX Unleashed” further tweaked the style that made “MX Superfly” so enjoyable and added some new features to go along with it.

“MX Unleashed” felt like a true “Superfly” sequel, and fans were treated to it many years later when it became available on mobile phones and was included in Xbox’s Games With Gold program. While the graphics are what you expect from a PS2 game, the gameplay definitely withstands the test of time.

2. MX vs. ATV Reflex

Following the success of the MX Trilogy by THQ, the publisher set out to expand their horizons, getting ATVs included and launching the “MX vs. ATV” franchise in 2005 starting with “MX vs. ATV Unleashed”. There have been several games as part of the series since then, with “MX vs. ATV Reflex” being at the top of the list of fan favorites.

To get the full enjoyment out of “Reflex”, though, players would be better suited to use the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 versions that received great reviews as the Nintendo DS and PlayStation Portable versions didn’t get the same type of love. It takes some getting used to on the controls after playing the MX Trilogy, but the payoff is worth it.

1. MXGP3

Getting away from THQ for the top spot, Italian video game publisher Milestone has the “official motocross videogame” with their series MXGP, which was first released in 2014 on the PlayStation 3 and 4, as well as the Xbox 360. Since then, there have been several installments, with the top being “MXGP3”.

Where the THQ series of games is more arcade-esque, “MXGP” is a better simulation of what it’s like to be in a race with over a dozen other riders. CPUs racers are incredibly smart, even down to whipping their bikes over a jump. Overall, “MXGP 3” received positive reviews and helped push the series to where it is today.

Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop game that has been played by tens of millions worldwide, and because of the rise of the internet age, millions more have been added to the player userbase to the point where there are over 13 million active players. While it was considered to be for “nerds” in its early days, people from all walks of life play DnD now.

Those that are new to the game might not know where it came from, though. How did it get from the dank basements of 1970s teens to internet streamers with thousands of viewers? Before we look into the future of Dungeons and Dragons, we have to look into its past. Here is a brief history of DnD.

Starting with the Siege

Before Dungeons and Dragons came along, there was a game named Siege of Bodenburg created by Henry Bodenstedt in 1967 that was published in the Strategy & Tactics magazine. The medieval game was a favorite for Jeff Perren and the rest of the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association.

During the late 1960s, Perren wrote his own rules for Siege of Bodenburg, and fellow LGTSA member Gary Gygax added a fantasy element to his rules, creating an all-new game that was originally titled Chainmail and released in 1971. Meanwhile, Dave Wesley and Dave Arneson were working on their own wargame and used many of the rules of Chainmail.

Chaining the Dragon

Dave Arneson had worked with Gary Gygax before, and the two were able to share their ideas of blending the two sets of rules that they created. The new game needed a name, however, and Gygax let his toddler daughter decide on the simplistic Dungeons and Dragons. Gygax and his fellow players thought it was a big hit, and their playing group grew rapidly in the early days of DnD.

After playing for countless hours, Gygax continued to alter the rules so that they would be more player-friendly and accessible while also being fun. Gygax took inspiration from a lot of science fiction and fantasy pieces of media. It was clear that Dungeons and Dragons was going to be a hit, but Gygax was working for Guidon Games at the time, and the business was too small to handle the production that DnD required.

The Big Reveal

With that in mind, Gygax invested some of his money and found a business partner in the form of Don Kaye to found their own publishing company and created hundreds of copies of the original Dungeons and Dragons set. To raise enough to pay for the DnD printing, they tried a quick release of another smaller wargame, but the sales were almost nonexistent and the two ran out of their own money to make DnD widespread.

Instead, the duo turned to Brian Blume, who threw in enough money on the condition that he got 1/3rd of the publishing rights. Gygax and Kaye had no choice but to accept, and Dungeons and Dragons was finally ready to sell, releasing in 1974 as a boxed set with 1,000 total copies in its original run, with every copy selling.

DnD Boom

Throughout the rest of the 1970s, Dungeons and Dragons became a big hit around the world, but Kaye passed away suddenly and left the company’s financial future up in the air. Gygax and Blume were able to get the rest of the business’s shares and had to find a bigger headquarters after the game gained popularity. 

As more people began to play DnD, expansion packs were added and new content was released on a consistent basis to keep people coming back for more. Eventually, Dungeons and Dragons was purchased by Wizards of the Coast, which has owned the game since 1997. Over the years, DnD has picked up a lot of celebrity players and is one of the most popular games played on the streaming website Twitch.

“When I wrote the DnD game in 1972-3, I envisaged an audience of military boardgamers, military miniatures players, and fantasy, (science-fiction) and horror fans only,” Gygax said of the game’s creation. “This was indeed the initial core audience, and it wasn’t until 1976…that I began to realize that the appeal was more universal.”

Rust is one of the most popular video games in the world, and for very good reason. The survival game which was initially released in 2013 had its full version come out five years later and is still a powerhouse on PC and consoles. Rust lets players build bases and join forces to help their chances of survival in a world where pretty much everything wants to take you out.

Because of the success of Rust, there have been many similar games that are based on survival and being part of a team. If you’ve been enjoying Rust for years and want to give some other games a try, these five will certainly whet your whistle while also giving you a teensy break from the world of Rust.

DayZ

DayZ is an online multiplayer game released for the PC in 2018 and for consoles in 2019. It takes place in the fictional town of Chernarus, based in Russia. Where most of the world has been ravaged by a virus that turns them violent and infected, players must use the few essentials they start with to survive while searching for more supplies and are left to kill off the infected. The other players in the game can team up with you, do their own thing, or work against you by killing your player. 

The Forest 

The Forest is a survival game developed by Endnight Games, released in 2018 for PC and PlayStation 4. Your character, Eric LeBlanc, is lost in a densely forested area after the plane he and his son were traveling in crashed. He must search for his son Timmy in the heavily wooded area, where he discovers a tribe of cannibalistic mutants that live beneath the surface and in surrounding caves. Throughout the game, you’ll remain unsure if the tribe is hostile towards you, or not. There are supplies spread throughout the forest that you can gather, along with the ability to craft tools with said items. 

Valheim

Valheim is a survival game developed by Iron Gate Studio, released in 2021 for PC and set to be released for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S in 2023. In Valheim you play as a Viking in an open-world environment where you must craft, build, forage, mine, and fight enemies to survive. You have a variety of locations to choose from when creating your worlds, such as meadows, mountains, the Black Forest, swamps, oceans, and the Mistlands, to name a few. Valheim also features multiplayer capabilities where you can play with up to ten players. 

ARK: Survival Evolved 

ARK: Survival Evolved is an open-world survival game focused on action and adventure, developed by Studio Wildcard and released in 2017. In the game, you’re challenged to survive the treacherous landscape known as the Ark. The Ark is a world inhabited by nearly 200 creatures like dinosaurs, mythical creatures, robots, and other players as well. It’s your job to train the creatures while focusing on your survival by building a camp, and monitoring their stamina, thirst, hunger, and overall health. There’s also the threat of other players in the game who can decide to be nefarious, or team up with players. The creatures can be ridden and obey your commands after being tamed. 

7 Days to Die 

Developed by The Fun Pimps, 7 Days to Die is an open-world survival horror game available for the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. You play as a survivor of the nuclear devastation of the Third World War in a small, fictional town in Arizona. While focusing on gathering supplies and surviving, you must fight off infected humans that have turned into zombies. Although a fun game for those who enjoy games like Rust and those on our list, the developers ceased any plans for adding to the game series. 

When people think of video games, they tend to think of the standard platformers or shooters like “Super Mario Bros.” or “Call of Duty”. While simulation games have been around for decades, they really started to take off during the 2000s and have been growing ever since. From seeing what it would be like to run a farm to flying the largest jets in the world, simulation games have a lot to offer.

Out of all of the simulation games that have been made, though, which ones truly rank among the best? Here are our picks for the five best simulation games and what makes them so special. Some of the honorable mentions include “Roller Coaster Tycoon”, “Animal Crossing”, and “Euro Truck Simulator”.

Microsoft Flight Simulator

Microsoft Flight Simulator has been around since the late 1970s, developed by the owner of the Sublogic Corporation, Bruce Artwick. Players fell in love and 21 million games were sold by 1999 when it was also crowned the best-selling flight simulator by The Guinness Book of World Records.  In 2019 it was announced that Microsoft has plans to release a new and improved version of the flight simulator. In 2020 the standard, deluxe, and premium deluxe versions were released for the PC, with the Xbox Series X edition later released in 2021. 

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is the wholesome creation of Eric Barone. In the game, you’re responsible for caring for your late grandfather’s run-down farm. Inspired by Harvest Moon, the simulation role-playing game allows you to tend to your farm by growing crops, raising livestock, mining, and foraging. As well as everyday activities such as cooking, chatting up the townsfolk, fishing, and even getting married and having children. The game quickly became a hit for its relaxing and therapeutic gameplay, selling over 20 million copies by 2022. Stardew Valley is playable on the Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, iOS, Android, PC, PlayStation Vita, and PS4

PowerWash Simulator 

PowerWash Simulator was developed by Futurlab and first released in 2021 for Steam users. It’s a very straightforward game where you do just that. You’re given a variety of locations and objects to fully clean via your handy dandy power washer. The levels vary in difficulty as well as the size of the projects as you progress in the game. The interesting messes become more difficult to clean, so you’ll need to purchase certain chemicals to aid in the cleaning process. It’s also a good idea to use different nozzles when cleaning a specific surface, or a mess from afar. 

The Sims

“The Sims” has become one of the most popular simulator options as players create an entire living town filled with people and homes while also getting a glimpse into their lives despite speaking a language of gibberish. The newest entry, “The Sims 4” is the fourth addition to the social simulation games, developed by Maxis, then released in 2014 for the PC and in 2015 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. 

The game has since become free to play in late 2022, making most of its money off players’ in-game purchases. Over 36 million players have joined the gaming sensation and spent over $1 billion on copies of the game and expansion packs. 

Farming Simulator

Farming Simulator is a relaxing farm-based simulation game developed by GIANTS Software. It was first officially released in 2008, re-releasing every couple of years with new content, updated graphics, and tasks for players to enjoy. So far over 25 million copies have been sold and it has over 90 million downloads for the iPhone, Android, iPad OS, and Kindle. 

“Farming Simulator” allows players to know the feeling of growing crops and operating a farm with top-of-the-line equipment. It’s the ultimate game of relaxation for those of us that live in apartments or condos instead of sprawling farm landscapes.

Since it was released in 2016 by Niantic, Pokémon Go has been one of the most popular games in the world, especially as smartphones have advanced to make augmented reality more accessible to people. The game has seen tremendous growth over the years, adding hundreds of Pokémon and introducing new features along the way.

While you may have a handle on Pokémon Go and how to level up your Pokémon, there are still some essential things you must do to truly be the very best (like no one ever was). Whether you’re new to Pokémon Go or a seasoned veteran, here are five essential tips to make sure that you’re playing to the best of your ability. 

Hatch Eggs

Eggs in Pokémon Go can be stumbled upon at PokéStops, gifted, or from Rocket Leaders. The eggs vary in color and you must hatch them by placing them in an incubator and walking the distance required until they’re ready. The green spotted eggs require 2km, orange-spotted. 5km, yellow with pink spots 7km, purple spotted 10km, and red spotted 12km. 

Walking outside, or even within your home will work just fine. Hatching the eggs as soon as possible will give you access to Pokémon, extra XP, and boost candies. The further the distance, the sweeter the rewards will be. With that said, make sure you invest in some comfortable walking or running shoes if you want to maximize your Pokémon Go time.

Transfer Weak Pokémon  

You can only carry so many Pokémon in Pokémon Go. Sometimes you’ll be faced with the decision to rid yourself of some Pokémon. You can transfer Pokémon to Professor Willow in return for candies that you can use to level up your Pokémon. 

Different Pokémon require certain amounts of those sweet treats to level up and evolve. Once you’ve collected an array of Pokémon, rummage through your collection and transfer the weaker ones so you can use the candies you get from doing so to make your other Pokémon stronger. 

Get to Know Your Pokémon

The world of Pokémon can sometimes be confusing if you’re not a frequent Pokémon player. Learning the tricks of the trade can start with getting to know your Pokémon. There’s a lot of information to be learned about the 905 different Pokémon within the game. 

Learn their stats, which Pokémon they’re weak against, the Pokémon they are stronger than, and which move sets are most productive and effective for each of your Pokémon. Knowledge is power and it rings true in Pokémon Go. Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the interesting creatures, you can use them more efficiently in battle. 

Travel to Find More Pokémon

Oftentimes your local spot can be flooded with the same kind of Pokémon. Traveling can help you to obtain the different varieties of Pokémon you so desperately seek. Try traveling to different areas within your city, going to visit friends and family outside of the city/state, or seeking out Pokémon whilst going abroad. 

You don’t have to travel just to find new Pokémon, but rather use traveling as a welcome excuse to play the game and see what you find in the new areas you’re exploring.   

Play At Different Times

Along with changing where you search for Pokémon, mixing up when you seek out Pokémon can be a helpful tool when looking to expand your collection. Of course be safe while doing so and don’t visit places that are off limits at certain times, or go out on your own somewhere sketchy. 

With that being said, try going Pokémon hunting in the morning, or later in the evening. Bring a group of friends to make it more fun and keep yourself safe. You’re more likely to find a unique selection of Pokémon when you switch up your routine. 

Akinator continues to prove to everyone that dares challenge him that he truly knows just about every person in the world. Still, there are many people that think they can stump him with some really hard answers. On the opposite side, there are some names that pop into someone’s head right away and Akinator is able to guess them rather quickly.

The world of sports provides a lot of the most common guesses for Akinator, with a handful of athletes showing just how popular they are around the world when someone is tasked to immediately think of someone for Akinator to guess. Out of all of the athletes in the world, living or not, these five are the most common for the AI genie.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo

The most popular response for Akinator in athletics is Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese soccer superstar that has played with several professional clubs during his career. Ronaldo became an icon when he first played for Manchester United from 2003 to 2009, then spent much of his prime with Real Madrid before heading to Juventus and eventually returning to Man U.

Ronaldo is one of those athletes that transcends culture and has been seen as one of the best soccer players of all time. The mainstream celebrity is the most well-known athlete on an international basis, which makes sense as he’s won the Ballon d’Or Award for the world’s best player and became a billionaire during his career.

2. Lionel Messi

Surprisingly, there are only two soccer players on the list despite Akinator’s global reach, but they do take the top two spots. Behind Ronaldo is Lionel Messi, the Argentinian star that made his way to Spain in the early 2000s to start his professional career with Barcelona. 

He remained with the club until 2021 when he went to Paris Saint-Germain, and like Ronaldo is considered one of the greatest to ever play. Messi scored more than 470 goals in La Liga and another 91 for the Argentina national team. He’s a true icon of the sport that like Ronaldo is also known by even the most casual fans.

3. Kobe Bryant

The rest of the top five is reserved for American athletes, with the top spot belonging to the late basketball legend Kobe Bryant. Bryant spent 20 years in the NBA, all of which were with the Los Angeles Lakers. Bryant won five NBA championships and was the league’s Most Valuable Player in 2008.

Bryant was one of those players that were so special that he had two jersey numbers retired with both 8 and 24 hanging in the rafters at the Lakers’ home arena. Sadly, Bryant passed away in a helicopter crash on January 26, 2020, but his legacy has lived on.

4. Michael Jordan

Of course, you can’t mention professional basketball without mentioning the man that most consider to be the greatest player in the sport’s history. Michael Jordan won six NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls during the 1990s while also winning league MVP five times between 1988 and 1998.

Jordan is the player that everyone who is in the league now looked up to while they were growing up, and although he hasn’t played professionally since 2003, everyone that knows what the sport of basketball is knows Michael Jordan and his legacy as a player. Currently, Jordan owns the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets.

5. Tom Brady

The only American football player on the list has been called the Michael Jordan of the NFL thanks to his endless string of accomplishments and league championships. Brady came out of nowhere to dominate the NFL as he was a late-round draft pick out of Michigan but wound up leading the New England Patriots to six Super Bowl wins.

Brady added a seventh title to his legacy with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and has the career record for just about every major passing statistic. Brady is a three-time league MVP and is almost unanimously considered the greatest quarterback of all time thanks to his accomplishments.

Ever since its release in 2006, Qwirkle has become one of the most popular board games, fusing together several different board game genres. Because of that, there are several games that are similar to Qwirkle. Many take the idea of using tiles to score points and figure in a scoring system to determine the winner.

If you’re a big fan of Qwirkle but want to mix things up a little bit and expand your board game horizons a little bit, try one of these five games that are most similar to Qwirkle.

Hive

Hive is an abstract strategy board game with a fun bug theme and hexagonal-shaped tiles. It was designed by John Yianni and published by the Gen42 Games company in 2001. The game allows for two players and can take around 20 minutes to finish, on average. 

The objective is to protect your Queen Bee while attempting to surround your opponent’s Queen Bee with your tile pieces. It’s said to be somewhat similar to chess in that you’re able to move tile pieces to different positions after they’re placed, depending on the circumstances.  

Blokus

Before being sold to Mattel in 2009, a French-based company, Sekkoïa, released Blokus in 2000. The game was originally designed by a mathematician named Bernard Tavitian. In Blokus, you’re able to play with 2-4 people and gameplay runs about 20-30 minutes on average.

The objective of the game is to fill the grid-like board with more of your color pieces than your opponents. The game board has 400 squares, made up of 20 rows and 20 columns. There’s four separate colored sets of tiles, 21 blue tiles, 21 yellow tiles, 21 red tiles, and 21 green tiles. There’s other variants of the game including Blokus Duos, Blokus 3D, Blokus Jr, Blokus XL, and Blokus Trigon. 

Rummikub

Rummikub is a tile-based board game with influence from the popular games, Mahjong and Rummy. It can be played by 2-4 players. It was created by Romanian-born Ephraim Hertzano. Rummikub was first introduced to the US in the early 1970s and quickly became the best-selling board game by the late 1970s. The most popular version of the game is the Sabra variant. 

The game has 104 numbered tiles with values from 1-13, as well as two joker tiles. They come in blue, yellow, black, and red. The objective is to play tiles from your pile that value at least 30 while adding groups and runs as the game goes on. After using all of your tiles, you call “Rummikub” and win the game. 

Azul

The game Azul, which translates to Blue in English, is an abstract strategy board game. Michael Kiesling created Azul in 2017 and found inspiration based on the gorgeous Portuguese tiles called azulejos. The game is made for 2-4 players who receive their own 5×5 player board. The goal is to take tiles, all one color, from the middle of the table

There are multiple rounds in Azul, with the winner of the game having the most points, with those points being tabulated after each round. A round ends in Azul when one player has a horizontal line of tiles. The first three turns in a round set the foundation for scoring, and strategy comes into play right from the get-go. Some have referred to Azul’s rules as being “tricky,” but that’s part of the fun.

Ingenious 

The creator of this abstract strategy game, Reiner Knizia, was commissioned to do so by Sophisticated Games and published by Kosmos in 2004. Its original German name, Einfach Genial, translates to Simply Ingenious in English. 

The game allows for 1-4 players of ages 10 and up. The game comes with 120 tiles, 4 racks, 4 scoreboards, and 24 color pegs. You place the tiles in the bag provided, shuffle them up, then each player uses one of their six tiles to match the design with a tile on the board. 

One of the most popular card games due to its simplicity, variants of styles, and ease of access (especially with those of us that grew up with shoddy internet), Solitaire is played by millions every day. Microsoft, who started the computer Solitaire craze, estimates that there are more than 100 million hands played on any given day.

A lot of people are accustomed to just one type of solitaire, though. Outside of the standard type, there are many other variants for Solitaire fans to try out. If you’re looking to mix it up, check out the five most popular styles of solitaire to expand your horizons.

Spider Solitaire

Spider Solitaire is one of the more popular variations of the zen phenomenon that is Solitaire, having been around since the mid-1900s. The game uses two 52-count decks of cards and displays eight piles needed to be filled to win the game, which is where it gets the name Spider Solitaire. 

There are seven variants of the Spider Solitaire series. Spider 1 Suit, Spider 2 Suit, Relaxed Spider, Will O’ The Wisp, Simple Simon, Mrs. Mop, and Spiderette. Studies show gameplay can improve cognitive function and mood. 

Pyramid

Another popular variation of Solitaire is Pyramid Solitaire. It’s a game of patience and simple addition. There’s a single set of 48 to 52 cards that are placed facing up in a pyramid shape, giving the game its name. The objective of the game is to remove pairs of cards from the 28-card pyramid, which together add up to a total of 13. 

You are given a deck of the remaining cards to use as pairings for the cards in the pyramid. Only fully uncovered cards can be chosen, besides Kings, as their value is already 13 and can be immediately picked out of the pyramid. To win, all cards from the pyramid and the remaining deck must be used. 

Klondike

One of the more difficult variations of Solitaire is Klondike Solitaire, also known as Canfield. It has a surprisingly low success rate, but perhaps that’s why people keep coming back to it. It has a 52-card Solitaire setup, minus the jokers. 

It’s similar to your standard Solitaire, besides the number of cards used, having seven tableaus instead of ten, and the objective is to get four piles of cards stacked from king to ace. 

Forty Thieves 

Forty Thieves, or Napoleon at St Helena, as it’s called in other countries, is a difficult Solitaire variation. This version got its name, Napoleon at St Helena, after Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte was rumored to have played this Solitaire game during his exile to St Helena island. Forty Thieves is one of the more popular variants of the patience games and the odds of winning are 1 out of 10. 

The game uses two decks of 52 cards, has ten columns of four cards facing up, and has eight foundations to pile the used cards. There is a stock, but you can only go through it once. Besides that, it follows your usual solitaire rules where the objective is to gather families of cards from aces to kings. 

Yukon

Yukon Solitaire is similar to the Klondike variant, with the exception of a deck, or stock. There are seven tableaus and four suits where cards are piled up when chosen. All of the cards are presented in the beginning, with most of the cards face up and some being face down underneath the revealed cards in the tableau. 

The objective is the same as typical solitaire, get all cards from aces to the king, sans jokers. Fill the suits one by one and reveal the hidden cards as soon as possible to help in doing so.  There are some variants of Yukon Solitaire, such as Russian Solitaire, Alaskan Patience, and Australian Patience.