Last year, we discussed our Top 10 Anticipated Cooperative Games of 2021! Only 5 arrived, but we reviewed them here:

• Raid Boss: See review here
• Burgle Bros 2: See review here
• Incoming Transmsission: See review here
• Sleeping Gods: See review here
• Townsfolk Tussle: See review here

Of the 6 remaining, (we had one dishonorable mention), 3 are imminent (The Shivers, Hour of Need, Deck of Wonders), 2 are still is production (Isofarian Guard and Freedom Five), and the dishonorable mention (Onimaru) may still be the first kickstarter I have that has not delivered! When we get the rest of these games, we’ll try to get them reviewed here!

In the meantime, what are some other games we are looking forward to in 2022!  As last year, we’ll show the Kickstarter link, the original promised delivery, and a summary (straight from BoardGameGeek).

Honorable Mention: The Stuff of Legend (2022)

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/th3rdworldstudios/the-stuff-of-legend-the-boardgame
Promised Delivery: June 2022
Summary: In The Stuff of Legend, each player takes on the role of one of the boy’s loyal toys, each with their own unique abilities. Players work co-operatively, scouring the Dark in search of the Boy before the Boogeyman can escape with him. Players beware, through the course of the game your allegiance may change, and at any point one of your fellow players could be secretly working against you for the wicked Boogeyman.

I usually don’t like hidden traitor games, but this game sounds “mostly” cooperative, and I really do like the designs of Kevin Wilson. So, this makes the Honorable Mention category because it’s not quite fully cooperative.

 

10. Valor & Villainy: Lludwik’s Labyrinth (2022)

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/skyboundgames/valor-and-villainy-lludwiks-labyrinth
Promised Delivery: September 2022
Summary: Valor & Villainy: Lludwik’s Labyrinth is a 1-6 player co-op adventure game, where a band of noble heroes from The Order Without Borders must pursue the Mad Imp Lludwik into his terrible Labyrinth to quell the threat of a demonic invasion. Lludwik’s Labyrinth is a both a stand alone full co-op game, and a fully cross compatible sequel to Valor & Villainy: Minions of Mordak.

This game looks like it has a sense of humor! The art is funny and original.  I bought the original game in anticipation of the cooperative version being great!  Let’s hope it is!

9. Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla Nublar (2022)

Kickstarter Link:  Not active yet! See here: https://funkogames.com/games/jurassic-legacy/
Promised Delivery: 2022?  Kickstarter Launches in March 2022 …
Summary: Together, you will transform Isla Nublar into an astonishing paradise where awe-struck visitors encounter creatures never before seen by human eyes. Decide where to build park facilities, dinosaur enclosures, and guest attractions — and keep employees and visitors safe from the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex, colossal Brachiosaurus, clever Velociraptor, and other threats.  In Jurassic World: The Legacy of Isla Nublar, you play through twelve adventures in which you customize an entirely unique game board and breed new dinosaurs you cannot unmake. Your team’s fateful choices will have a lasting impact, creating your own Isla Nublar story. Your experience will culminate in an endlessly replayable game of your own creation.

Well, I may cheating on the one: the game may not even be available in 2022, but the Kickstarter goes up soon on March 2022!  This legacy game looks really fun!

8. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Board Game (2022)

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cze/the-dark-knight-returns-the-game
Promised Delivery: December 2021
Summary: In the solitaire Batman: The Dark Knight Returns Board Game, you play “The World’s Greatest Detective”, who’s been pulled back from retirement into a gritty Gotham. Do everything you can to beat back a relentless tide of ruthless mutants, cops, and press looking to bring you down. Instead of traditional leveling up, this is a game of attrition. An old Batman tries to survive one final gauntlet, facing old and new villains — such as Two Face, Billy Berserk, and The Joker — and even his most powerful ally, The Man of Steel himself.

The game is playable as standalone “missions” or one epic playthrough in which the results of each mission carry over to the next.

This game is about a year late, but it looks like a fun solo campaign.  I suspect I will play it cooperatively with my friends, even though this is a solo game.  The nice thing about solo games, you can play them cooperatively!

7. Earthborne Rangers (2022)

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/earthbornegames/earthborne-rangers
Promised Delivery: July 2022
Summary: Earthborne Rangers is a customizable, co-operative card game set in the wilderness of the far future. You take on the role of a Ranger, a protector of the mountain valley you call home: a vast wilderness transformed by monumental feats of science and technology devised to save the Earth from destruction long ago.

The art on this game looks amazing, and the fellow in charge is one of the old guard from  Fantasy Flight Games (back when they were amazing).  This looks great, if a little generic.  I won’t know until I play it!

6. Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread (2022)

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/faroffgames/arydia-the-paths-we-dare-tread
Promised Delivery: December 2022
Summary: Arydia: The Paths We Dare Tread is an open world, campaign-based, co-operative, fantasy-based, “green legacy” role-playing board game. The game of Arydia is built on four design pillars: Exploration, Progression, Combat, and Role-playing.

I have a lot of dungeon crawlers, but this one looks different, and definitely worth a look.  I may be expecting too much for this to be out in 2022 though …

5. Rat Queens: To the Slaughter (2022)

kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/deepwatergames/rat-queens-to-the-slaughter
Promised Delivery: May 2022
Summary: Forge friendships and find your family as you take on the role of the rat queens in Rat Queens: To the Slaughter. Choose from four rat queens, each with asymmetric and unique playstyles, in order to save Palisade from total destruction. Power up your queen with new abilities and friendship as you take on hordes of monsters. Each queen comes packed with upgradeable abilities you have to spend gold to learn, allowing you to customize your queen differently each game to fit what the party needs!

This game just looks weird and fun: I like the art!  And it just looks different than other cooperative games (from the art/graphic design).  I am hoping that will really bring out the weirdness here!

4. Sentinels of Earth-Prime (2021)

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1780208966/sentinels-of-earth-prime
Promised Delivery: April 2018 (yep, you read that right)
Summary: Sentinels of Earth-Prime is a standalone card game set in the Earth-Prime universe of the Mutants & Masterminds RPG that can also be played with the decks and characters from Sentinels of the Multiverse.

So, this is an interesting beast: this was an expansion for the Sentinels of the Multiverse, 2nd Edition.  Those of you paying attention will note that we reviewed the next edition last week!  See Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition review last week.  Yup, in the time it took them to get this expansion out (about 5 years), Sentinels has moved on and made a new edition.  So, this expansion is for the old 2nd Edition.  I am looking forward to this and the art looks very promising, but I have to admit, it was hard to wait for this one … it took 5 years.

3. TOKYO SIDEKICK (2018)

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/japanimegames/tokyo-sidekick-reassemble
Promised Delivery: March 2021
Summary: Tokyo Sidekick is a cooperative game for 2-4 players that draws inspiration from superhero comics and Japanese pop culture. Each player controls a hero and sidekick, complete with their own unique backstories and special abilities. Together, you must save Tokyo by fighting increasingly powerful villains as crime spreads across the city. As you play, you’ll unlock new items and stronger abilities while leveling up your characters. But if crime reaches dangerous levels, you take too much damage, or you can’t defeat the final boss, Tokyo will be plunged into chaos.

Can you defeat your adversaries in time to save the city?

This game is about a year late for delivery, but I believe delivery is pretty close: maybe by summer 2022.  I like the ideas of this game, and it sounds a little like Sidekick Saga, a personal favorite cooperative game, so this one is high up the list!

2. Legends of Sleepy Hollow (2022)

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dicehateme/legends-of-sleepy-hollow
Promised Delivery: December 2018 (yup, you read that right)
Summary: Three days after the disappearance of Ichabod Crane, four Tarrytown residents with strange ties to the supernatural venture into an ever-darkening Sleepy Hollow to uncover its mysteries.

In Legends of Sleepy Hollow, players take on the roles of the four residents — undertaker Jeremiah Pincke, Revolutionary War veteran Matthias Geroux, minister Elijah Kappel, and tanner Emily Van Winkle — in a cooperative, miniatures-based campaign game full of secrets and twists. During the game, players will use an action pool to move about, investigate, interact with their environment, or unleash powerful attacks and abilities unique to each character. Once selected, however, these abilities will be unavailable until that character’s action pool has emptied — a process that becomes more complex as that character gains fear.

The players will have to work closely together to overcome their fear, unravel the mysteries of the glen, and become true Legends of Sleepy Hollow.

This game has had a bit of a tortured history:  They “reset” in the middle of playtesting to make it better, and that reset has delayed it a number of years.  I tend to like Greater Than Games: they are known for making good products, but they are also known for making late products.  If this were any other publisher, I’d be very annoyed at the delay, but I am sort of used to it with Greater Than Games.  I am really looking forward to this finally coming it!  It looks very thematic and maybe a game for Halloween!

1. Union City Alliance (2021)

Kickstarter Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/paulmalchow/union-city-alliance-heroes-unite-deckbuilding-board-game-new
Promised Delivery: Oct 2021
Summary: A Cooperative Superhero Deck and Board Building game for a team of 2-4 Players. Each chooses an iconic champion to play as and work together to confront and defeat a central supervillain. Each hero has their own unique starter deck of Origin cards that highlight that character’s unique strengths and skills. Each Hero also comes with a Deck of super-powerful Solo Cards that only they have access to, featuring their most powerful abilities.

This game didn’t have a big kickstarter (it may the least funded on this list), but I am super excited for it. I like deck-builders, I like super-heroes, and I think the game looks real fun! It’s late on delivery, but hopefully it will deliver sometime here in 2022!