The 2022 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Tabletop Game

December 27, 2022, 2:00pm

2022 has seen the tabletop game industry flourish as players return to in-person play after two years of a pandemic. While 2020 and 2021 were filled with great games with family and quarantine bubble-mates, 2022 was the year that players finally got to play them with friends, at conventions, and anywhere else that you can fit a board, some pieces, and a few friends.

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This year’s nominees include a mix of revived fan-favorites and new and innovative games. Betrayal at House on the Hill released a new edition that brought balance to the game of haunts and betrayals through a more focused game experience. Return to Dark Tower introduced an epic new piece of technology to a classic 1980s game that many thought would never return to the table. 3000 Scoundrels mixed card combos and poker-style play in an innovative way, while Dungeons, Dice, & Danger found a fantasy take on the roll & write genre. However, this year’s winner is a new take on one of the biggest board game franchises of the last decade.

And the winner of the 2022 ComicBook.com Golden Issue Award for Best Tabletop Game is…

Star Wars Villainous!

Star Wars Villainous is the latest installment of Ravensburger’s Villainous franchise, an asymmetric game in which players race to have their chosen villain complete their evil plot before anyone else. Each player has their own board and deck of cards based on whatever character they chose, with a unique objective tied directly to the character’s motivations in whatever movie they appeared in. Star Wars Villainous joins the massive Disney Villainous franchise (which has multiple standalone expansions to date) and the growing Marvel Villainous franchise.

With Star Wars Villainous, Ravensburger brought in classic Star Wars villains like Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, and General Grievous as they attempt to capture, corrupt, or oppress the heroes of the Star Wars universe. One unique twist in Star Wars Villainous is the addition of vehicles, which allow players to add a fifth space to move on their board but can also present complications if a hero-aligned vehicle enters their orbit. Players will also have to contend their Fate deck, a deck of cards that other players use to hinder their plans by blocking actions and adding other complications into play. While the Fate deck is often a nuisance, many players can only win by defeating certain heroes found in the Fate deck.

Villainous is one of the best “gateway” games out there, a way to introduce casual players to asymmetric gameplay and teach them how to manage a deck and pursue unique win conditions that vary wildly from other players. Not only is Star Wars Villainous a great way to introduce players to more strategic board games, it also comes with a great degree of replayability, especially as each of the villains are pretty well-balanced to prevent anyone from achieving an easy victory. It’s a great game and it’s easy to see why ComicBook.com’s staff picked it as the top tabletop game of the year.

Congrats to the designers of Star Wars Villainous for their big win!

The nominees for Best Tabletop Game were: