Stratego is a classic 20th century board game but it does seem a little dated now, does it not?
Game night has always been a big part of my entertainment. As a kid, my family set aside every Wednesday night as family game night, pulling out old classic games and more modern board games and enjoying them as a group. To this day, I try to have one game night a week, inviting over my friends and neighbors to play games, eat junk food, and have a good time.
In the hours and hours I’ve spent playing board games, I’ve discovered a handful that could use modernization, new rules, and even complete makeovers. Here are four classic board games that could use an overhaul.
1. Stratego
Besides a crappy electronic version in the 1980s and some hard to find updated versions released in Europe, very little has changed about Stratego since the game was invented in the early 60s. I’m not talking about porting the game to the Nintendo Wii or a PC platform, but actually reinventing the game itself to make it more appealing to modern board game audiences. Throw in some new pieces, more modern technology, and some rule variations to make the game move faster or involve more players, and Stratego could go through a much-needed renaissance. After all, war games are always going to be popular.
2. Scrabble
Millions of people play Scrabble and Scrabble tournaments still draw pretty big crowds. Clearly, I’m the only guy who thinks the game is a bit of a bore. I’m not sure how you’d modernize Scrabble, a classic word game that leaves little room for updates or upgrades. But I’d love to see a new edition of the game appear that embraces the party game crowd drawn to modern classics like Cranium. I can imagine a round built into every game of Scrabble that rewards players for acting out words with an extra blank tile or something along those lines.
3. Boggle
Here’s another once-classic board game that my family played hundreds of times on family game night. Lots of board game fans have a Boggle set at home, probably a game that hasn’t been opened in years. I blame Boggle‘s simple game play. Today’s board games are just more exciting than the old “timer and a pencil” set up of Boggle. It would be interesting to see what EA would do with a video game version of Boggle, the way they updated Trivial Pursuit for video game fans.
4. Risk
War games were once the most popular board games on the market. Titles like Battleship and Risk made family game night all about conquering vast armies controlled by your little brother. I think war based board games could make a come back, if the games were improved and updated for a more modern audience. You can imagine Risk improved by the use of video screens and electronic gadgets, much like Battleship in the 1990s. Risk is a board game classic begging for a new audience, and it is easy to imagine young people diving head first into this global war game.
