As we look back at 2023, we’ve played quite a number of solo and cooperative games and expansions! There were a number of surprises in this list: some of the surprises were bad, some were good, and some were mixed! I want to highlight some of the games that we played that we might not discussed elsewhere: these are all different games than our Top 10 Solo Games of 2023, Top 10 Cooperative Expansions of 2023 and our Top 10 Cooperative Games of 2023! These are ordered in how much of a surprise it was!

10. The Stuff of Legend

This is at the bottom of the list because it’s the least surprising in one way, but still very surprising in another! The Stuff of Legend is by famed designed Kevin Wilson (of Arkham Horror 2nd Edition fame), so that makes it likely for me to enjoy it (no surprise there)! What’s surprising is that I like I liked it despite it being a hidden traitor game: I usually hate hidden traitor games, but this one has some surprising mechanics that make it it fun! 

There’s exploration, dynamic loyalty, “tainted” support, and interesting art/components! So, if you want to play a hidden traitor game with me, this is probably the only one I’d play: that’s the surprise! See our review here for The Stuff of Legend to see if you think you might be interested!

9. Bedlam in Neverwinter

This was a surprise because it was better than I expected!  It’s seems a dubious proposition: “Let’s mix Dungeons and Dragons with an Escape Room Mystery!” … um … this feels a little like a cash grab, just cashing in on the Dungeons and Dragons name.

The game is very simple, (with an element of randomness that I thought would be too much), and the mystery is pretty simple. But, I had a great time playing through all 3 Acts with my friends Charlie and Allison!  It’s better than you think! If you are expecting a deep hard-core mystery with lots of hard-core Dungeons and Dragons elements, you should look elsewhere.  If you like Dungeons and Dragons and escape rooms, go in with an open mind: this might surprise you.    See our review of Bedlam in Neverwinter to see if this is something you might enjoy!

8. Express Route

So, I picked this up for my friend Robert so we could play a cooperative map game when he came to town.  It’s a cooperative game about delivering packages.

The production is better than I expected, and the cooperative gameplay was very pronounced!  We had to cooperate well to win!  Even though the theme for this game does absolutely nothing for me, I was surprised at how engaging this was for a cooperative game.  See our review here to see if Express Route might be a game you like!

7. 14 Frantic Minutes!

This was a cooperative real-time game that kinda came out of nowhere: It was from a very small Kickstarter.  And yet, I liked it!  It presented a very unique and interesting cooperative puzzle for 1-4 players!

Kimberly from Tabletop Tolson is one of the few people I know who liked it as much as I did! See her Top 10 Cooperative Games of 2023!  After all is said and done, I think I prefer this is a solo puzzle game, but this is a really unique game: it’s surprising how much I liked it, given that I usually eschew real-time games!

See our review here of 14 Frantic Minutes! to see you might like it!

6. Clue: Treachery at Tudor Manor

Okay, what?  They’ve made a new mystery solving game in the Clue universe?  The surprise is how much fun it actually was! 

This is a lighter Escape Room game that I got at Target (so it’s fairly easily available), and it was surprisingly good!  It’s a play-once mystery, but it’s fairly inexpensive, and the mystery was very interesting!  We were shocked at how good this was, considering how inexpensive and “Hasbro” it was.  See our review of Clue: Treachery at Tudor Manor here!

5. The Big Pig Game

What a light and silly game this is!  And yet, it enchanted my game groups!  It made the RichieCon 2023 discussions because it was just so fun and surprisingly good!  The Big Pig Game is a great  gateway game or end-of-the-night game when you want a light and simple, but surprisingly engaging, cooperative game!

This adorably cute game came out of nowhere to become one of my groups favorite lightweight cooperative games of 2023!  See our review of the The Big Pig to see of this is something you might like!

4. Tamashii: Chronicle Of The Ascend

I love the production of Awaken Realms games, but I have bounced pretty hard off most of their games after I got into them.  The surprise here is that Tamashii is probably my favorite Awaken Realms (technically, Awaken Realms Light) game! We still talk about how much we disliked the grind in Tainted Grail to this very day … (see Part I and Part II of our Tainted Grail review here).

Tamashii didn’t quite make any of my Top 10 lists of 2023 (Top 10 Cooperative Games of 2023, Top 10 Solo Games of 2023), but it almost did.  The programming mechanism is very interesting and unique: I liked it!  The only thing that holds this game  back for me is that the trace rolls are just a little too random and game-changing.  I still like it, I will keep it, and I suspect I will play it solo more than cooperatively.  See our review of Tamashii: Chronicle of The Ascend here to see if this is something you might like!

3. Lord of the Rings: Adventure to Mount Doom

What a bizarre combination: roll-and-move in a cooperative game  … in the world of Lord of the Rings!  I had trouble getting my group to play it because of that weird combination, but it was pretty good.  It played quickly, it was easy to learn, easy to teach, and still a decent little cooperative game.

The surprise here was that it was much better than I expected.  Although I probably won’t play it very much,  I am still keeping it as a decent gateway cooperative game, especially for new gamers who love Lord of the Rings!  See our review here to see if this is something you might like!

2. Daybreak

I love the games of Matt Leacock: he’s one of my favorite designers.  Pandemic (and all its ilk) and the Forbidden series (Forbidden Desert, Forbidden Island, etc) are some of my favorite cooperative games of all time!  And yet, Daybreak didn’t work for me.  The surprise was how much I disliked Daybreak. 

The game was on the Kickstarter (pardon me, BackerKit) and Daybreak even made our Top 10 Anticipated Games of 2023!  Yet, when I got it, I found it just waaaay too random.   There are four independent sources of randomness (dice, card draws from different decks), and hidden “bad news” you simply can’t mitigate because you don’t know what’s coming!  I gave it a number of plays and I just bounced off it hard! Everyone else seems to like it, so this is obviously just me.  I found Daybreak to be way too random to be fun.  (To be clear: I don’t have a problem with the theme! It’s an exploration into making energy more sustainable … very interesting!  Some people who have spoken out against this game are because of the theme … that’s not me).

I love Matt Leacock: this is a huge surprise how much I bounced off Daybreak, especially when everyone else seems to like it.

1. Artisans of Spendant Vale

I am surprised this game hasn’t done better! I haven’t seen it on any Top 10 lists for 2023, and I haven’t really heard anyone talk about it! It’s basically a cross of Jaws of The Lion (with the storybook and combat) and Crusoe Crew (with its shared books) and some Forgotten Waters (with its upgrade system)! It’s a gorgeous game with amazing production! See our review here to see if this might be something you enjoy.

I personally had a problem with the dice mechanism because the dice kind of tell you what to do: I’ve never liked that mechanism … (see our review of Batman: Shadow of The Bat for more discussion), but otherwise I should have loved this game. I think the reason we haven’t heard more about this game was that its theme can be very divisive: it’s all about playing characters who are gay or non-binary … that may have turned off some people.

It’s a big surprise to me that this didn’t do better: there’s a lot to like here.