Barbecubes Outgrill your friends in Barbecubes, a tong-based stacking game of placing pixelated meat on the perfect fire. 8.25 / 10

[Barbecubes review]

little cubey meats

Animal Upon Animal [Micro] Reach the top of the animal pyramid in Animal Upon Animal, a classic stacking game for the whole family and a great place to get started with dexterity. 8.5 / 10

[Animal Upon Animal review]

look if animals weren't fundamentally stackable, then this wouldn't be nearly as fun

aaand with this I'm back to my social media pseudo-exile

yeehaw, friends

aaaand now I return to my social media exile until tomorrow for ... something else 👀

Apologies for the SEO-naming of the pages; gotta chase those pageviews, but this was actually a fun exercise? Try picking some random categories and seeing what games bubble up as your favorites. See anything you like? Any favorites here? Anything I missed?

Top Tile-Laying Games: Build Unique Worlds and Cities Explore the joy of tile-laying games where you can create and rebuild cities, from farming to urban planning. Discover your next favorite game!

Last up is tile-laying games! Anything where you're building up a big display and only mildly regretting not springing for that bigger table goes here. Does Castles of Burgundy count? Yes! But Desktop HEBOCon Battle Kit; now there's something.

whatsericplaying.com/tile-laying-...

Top Party Games for Unforgettable Social Gatherings Discover the best games for your next party! Explore social deduction, silly fun, and challenging options to make your gathering unforgettable.

I'm debatably social, so I figured I should also bring up Social and Party games. Featuring games of categories, puzzles, social deduction, and the occasional death by Zamboni. Really can't emphasize that last one enough.

Also the pitch-perfect MonsDRAWsity.

whatsericplaying.com/social-and-p...

Explore the Best Small-Box Games for Portable Fun Discover the best small-box games for travel and gifting! Explore Oink Games, Button Shy Games, and more for big fun in compact packages.

I wouldn't be doing due diligence without a page for my favorite little guys in the Small-Box and Wallet Games section, including great titles from @oinkgames.bsky.social and @buttonshy.bsky.social, among others!

whatsericplaying.com/small-box-an...

Top Puzzle and Mystery Games: Must-Try Titles Revealed Discover top puzzle, mystery, and escape room games that challenge your mind and spark excitement. Join the gaming conversation today!

Puzzle and mystery games are up next! Some of my real favorites here including the inimitable @postcurious.bsky.social, the fantastic EXIT and MicroMacro games, and the deduction greats like Cryptid and Turing Machine.

whatsericplaying.com/puzzle-and-m...

Top Building Games: Explore Engine, Deck & Bag Building Games Discover top building games that spark creativity and competition! Explore engine-building, deckbuilding, and more in this engaging guide.

Games for Builders! It's a weird category that covers alll o the -building games, like deckbuilding, engine building, and the underutilized bag-building genre. Quacks of Quedlinberg, Dale of Merchants, and Creature Caravan all make appearances here.

whatsericplaying.com/games-for-bu...

Top Roll-and-Write and Push-Your-Luck Games to Try Explore the fun of roll-and-write and push-your-luck games. Discover favorites that balance luck and strategy for a satisfying gaming experience.

Dice games were up next! Specifically including roll-and-write games but not flip-and-write games, but that's okay. Here we've got anything with a lot of dice and a lot of luck, including push-your-luck games (and Cubitos, which nicely does both!).

whatsericplaying.com/dice-luck-an...

Top 10 Fun Dexterity Games to Challenge Your Skills Discover the joy of dexterity games! Explore my favorites that blend fun, skill, and unpredictability for all ages.

Next up is dexterity games! A personal favorite category of mine, I wanted to highlight some of the best of the best in that genre, ranging from Catch the Moon to the ICECOOL series to Hiktorune, a doujin game I'm all about.

whatsericplaying.com/dexterity-ga...

Exploring the Diverse World of Card Games and Genres Explore the diverse world of card games, from classic trick-taking to modern drafting. Discover favorites and uncover genres today!

First hub is Card Games! It's a broad category, covering drafting games, trick-taking games, and games that use cards that aren't deckbuilders. I picked maybe 10 games that I really enjoyed to feature there.

whatsericplaying.com/card-games/

I built out Genre Hubs! Also known as Eric's Picks, I've added a section on the site for certain game genres with selected reviews. This will hopefully improve discoverability for the ol' 1000+ review website without messing with the successful (?) formula.

Emerging from my social media exile for ... two days to do things, but since I'm already updating one website I might as well update the other.

What's Eric Playing? has a new feature; let's dig into it. (Thread)

Symbiosis Achieve harmony between the creatures and the seasons in your local pond in Symbiosis, a quick and casual game of card trading and tactical planning. 8 / 10

[Symbiosis review]

frogs and snails? in one game? some of y'all are going to go absolutely nuts for this one

Rollie Roll dice and hope for the best in Rollie, a push-your-luck game where everything is going well until you but and lose everything (that is, unless you stored your money away). 7.75 / 10

[Rollie review]

I was going to call it a roll-view but I think that joke was only funny to me

Symbiosis Achieve harmony between the creatures and the seasons in your local pond in Symbiosis, a quick and casual game of card trading and tactical planning. 8 / 10

[Symbiosis review]

frogs and snails? in one game? some of y'all are going to go absolutely nuts for this one

Astro ROVE [Preview] [Micro] Take a journey with your little robot friend beyond the stars in Astro Rove, another solid entry in the series that switches it up with new abilities and more fun art. 8 / 10

[Astro Rove preview]

a little review for one of my favorite little robots

TRND Dive into TRND, a card-shedding push-your-luck game that's more impossibly fascinated with vintage chairs than you could ever hope to be. 8 / 10

[TRND review]

for all the jokes i make about the hyperspecificity of this game's vintage chair focus, you'd think i'd have something funnier to say here

I just try to mix up your games and Eric Slauson's games when we hang out; keep you both humble <3

EXIT: Adventures in Catan [Micro] [Spoiler-Free] Solve a mystery on the splendorous isle of CATAN in EXIT: Adventures in CATAN, a puzzle and love letter to a ubiquitous game. 8.75 / 10

[EXIT: Adventures in Catan review]

Nobody expects the EXIT crossover

CATAN: Soccer Fever [Expansion] Let the sickness take hold of you in CATAN: Soccer Fever, a silly expansion to a classic game that adds just enough whimsy to keep it around 8.5 / 10

CATAN: Soccer Fever [Expansion]

Let the sickness take hold of you in CATAN: Soccer Fever, a silly expansion to a classic game that adds just enough whimsy to keep it around 8.5 / 10

Bullseye Aim for the target and let loose in Bullseye, a cooperative party game where you give clues one letter at a time, but your co-players have to finish the clues you start. 7.5 / 10

[bullseye review]

I've been on a bit of a party game train the last few weeks; just roll with it.

Mythical Dice [Mini] Bet on tricks with only dice at your disposal in Mythical Dice, a dice-driven variant of Skull King that's fun and approachable, if a bit thematically incoherent. 7.75 / 10

[Mythical Dice review] [mini]

I didn't immediately realize this was a retheme of Skull King: The Dice Game and that's on me

The Same Game [Mini] Determine why two words are related in The Same Game, truly the only game I can think of where you can successfully argue that a yoga mat is like a refrigerator. 8.25 / 10

[The Same Game review]

ironically, if you play it twice in a row it won't be the same game at all

Ichor Declare war on Olympus or defend the realm of the gods in Ichor, a two-player asymmetrical game of area control, spatial planning, and strategy. 7 / 10

[Ichor review]

it's only ichor if i win, otherwise it's youchor

Red Letter, Yellow Letter Starts with one and can't have the other: that's the challenge at the heart of Red Letter, Yellow Letter, a quick and fun party game that's an entertaining challenge as well. 8 / 10

[Red Letter, Yellow Letter review]

seriously though how many candy bars can you name that start with an H but don't contain an E

Fantasy Realms: Greek Legends [Micro] Try your luck in an entirely new realm in Fantasy Realms: Greek Legends, a mythological take on the classic hand-builder. 7.25 / 10

[Fantasy Realms: Greek Legends review][micro]

turns out the real-m fantasy was the greek we legendsed along the way, i'm pretty sure