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1996 was a weaker year for board games than the past handful of years, but a banner year for collectible card games. As a result, we’re lifting the CCG embargo for the 1996 list. There will be more than one CCG entry for the top 5 tabletop games from 1996, and it’s a doozy of a collectible card game. Woo hoo!

Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. We’re back with another Top 5 Tabletop Games. We’ll talk about 1996’s board game list soon, but let’s recap the ground rules for which games make these lists before we start.

1: Cultural relevance plays as much of a factor as overall quality. A game might make a list that doesn’t hold up to others of its type, but you must admit the game is everywhere.

2: Only one game from a franchise makes the list. This will become more of an issue the closer we get to games with expansions.

3: Longevity plays a role, too. A game doesn’t have to fly off the shelves today, but it had to have some widespread appeal for a decent time.

**5: Mythos Collectible Card Game (1996)**

We begin this list with an interesting collectible card game, Mythos. Based on the Cthulhu Mythos stories of horror author H.P. Lovecraft, Mythos is also an adaptation of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game. Mythos combines elements of some traditional card games like Rummy and borrows other concepts from previous CCGs. While the game is playable by two players, the intent is for Mythos to be played by a larger number of players. The main objective of Mythos is to collect points by completing adventures. Adventures are cards that include keywords derived from different card names and types. Once the required cards are in the player’s story deck or on the table, the player can play the adventure and receive its points.

Mythos differs from many collectible card games because of its lack of a combat focus. This is a CCG that attempts to tell a story. Unfortunately, Mythos faltered after its initial release. Later expansions, most notably the non-collectible Standard Game Set, confused consumers and forced the publisher Chaosium to discontinue Mythos only one year after the game’s original release. Still, Mythos shows what collectible card games can achieve. It earned its distinction as one of Pyramid magazine’s The Millennium’s Best Card Games.

**4: Mad Gab (1996)**

Lately, we haven’t included too many mass-market board games in these lists. Mad Gab bucks this trend. It does so, not just because 1996 was a weaker year for board games like I mentioned, but because it was a cultural cornerstone. Mad Gab uses puzzles known as mondegreens (misheard words that could mean something else) and contain small words that, when put together, make a word or a phrase. For example, “These If Hill Wore” when pronounced quickly sounds like “The Civil War.” Mad Gab had two levels, easy and hard. The faster players solve the puzzles, the more points they score.

Mad Gab uses phonetics. It tests players’ ability to process sounds based on simpler English-written sounds into a meaningful word or phrase. Players must read the words aloud. Reading the phrases silently won’t allow someone to decode the puzzles’ meaning because the sounds need to be decoded.

**3: Kill Doctor Lucky (1996)**

We covered Mystery of the Abbey on our last week, and that game revamped Cluedo (or Clue for the United States). Kill Doctor Lucky flips the idea of Clue on its head. Kill Doctor Lucky features a sprawling mansion filled with a variety of dangerous weapons. Cluedo begins after the murder has been committed, and players compete to solve it; Kill Doctor Lucky ends with the murder, and players attempt to kill the titular character, Doctor Lucky.

Players must find a secluded room before slaying Doctor Lucky. You can even gain extra points if you pair a weapon with a specific room. For example, if you kill Doctor Lucky in the wine cellar with a trowel, you’ll gain extra points, alluding to Poe’s short story “The Cask of Amontillado.” As soon as I heard that Clue: The Movie could receive a remake, I wondered why Hollywood didn’t choose to go with a Kill Doctor Lucky movie. Why not lean into the silliness?

**2: Netrunner (1996)**

We have yet another Richard Garfield collectible card games that make one of these lists. Garfield has a knack for stretching the boundaries of collectible card games. That makes sense. He did create this form of game. Like Mythos, Netrunner doesn’t have a focus on combat. It takes place in the Cyberpunk 2020 role-playing game universe (which is also the basis for Cyberpunk 2077) and pits players against each other in asymmetric roles. One player assumes the role of a runner, who tries to break through and steal hidden plans (hacking) of the mega-corporations (the Corp) that run the world. The other player assumes the role of the Corp and attempts to catch the runner.

Beyond its focus on non-combat, Netrunner was unique because most collectible card games are framed as a battle between peers. Netrunner has two very different sides facing off against each other. While the collectible card game only ran for a few years, in 2012, Fantasy Flight Games adapted Netrunner into Android: Netrunner, which is a living card game that ran until 2019. Netrunner has a long and storied history. Its fans are fierce. But it doesn’t claim our top spot on this list. A different collectible card game has that honor.

**1: Pokémon Trading Card Game (1996)**

Pokémon had to claim the top spot for 1996. It’s the second-longest-running collectible card game in history. When Pokémon first released, it sold out so fast that all the trading card manufacturers in the world postponed their other orders (like baseball, football, and basketball cards) to fill the demand for new Pokémon cards. Releasing later the same year as Pokémon Red, Blue, and Yellow (the original Pokémon video games on the Game Boy) helped catapult Pokémon to legendary status.

Play alternates between players who take several actions during their turn, including playing Basic Pokémon, evolving Pokémon, attaching an Energy card, playing Trainer cards, and using Pokémon abilities and attacks. The first Pokémon Trading Card Game sets played like simplified Magic: The Gathering decks. This helped Pokémon and built a pipeline for Magic. Wizards of the Coast, the producer of Magic: The Gathering, didn’t mind because the Pokémon Company licensed the Pokémon Trading Card Game to Wizards of the Coast, who published eight expansion sets between 1998 and 2003, after which the licensing transferred back to The Pokémon Company. The Pokémon Trading Card Game is one of the few games of this type from the original trading card boom that has stayed in continuous production. I haven’t played Pokémon in years, but I have fond memories. This game’s legacy demands that it takes our top spot.

Did we get the list mostly correct? Let us know which games you’d add in the comments. Thank you for reading, and wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

8Hey, hey! Kyra Kyle here. We haven’t covered video games for some time, and I figured we would start with a top 5. This week’s top 5: video game pets. Cuteness overload is incoming. Limiting video game pets to just five is difficult, so we’ll have a couple of honorable mentions. I also didn’t want to include only dogs and horses; video game dogs and horses could fill an entire list each (future list idea). But we will see at least one (sort of) dog on this list.

Honorable Mention 1: Palicos (Monster Hunter Series)

I never know if palicos count as pets or not; I love them as characters, but they may be less pets and more of a species of humanoids. The Monster Hunter series muddies the waters with palicos. Some palicos are your faithful servants and present little more than their servitude to the player character. Other palicos have jobs (like the Meowscular Chef in Monster Hunter World, he must have a wife and kids at home to support) and the Monster Hunter Stories series shows palicos as having a culture separate from humans. Many people still classify palicos as pets, but their ambiguity makes them just miss this list.

Honorable Mention 2: Pokémon (Pokémon Series)

Pokémon, like horses and dogs, can fill a list by themselves. And which Pokémon should I pick? Pikachu is the obvious representative Pokémon. He has his own Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon. But that’s reductive. I’ll include Pokémon as a video game pet type, but these critters deserve a list for themselves. Maybe even a Top 10 Iconic Pokémon list.

With Pokémon, horses, and palicos eliminated (and dogs for the most part excluded), how many video game pets are we left with? A lot. So many that I could make a Top 10 if I wanted, but these are the ones that made the Top 5.

**5: Rammy (Castle Crashers)**

Cheater! I can hear some of you Castle Crashers players now, you’re a cheater if you use Rammy. I say, you still have to unlock him after the bear boss. And he’s a cute orb-shaped ram. And who doesn’t like a ram charging through a side-scroller beat ‘em up game, knocking down every monster they meet? If Rammy is cheating, then I don’t want to play honorably. Charge away, Rammy. Charge away.

**4: Munchie (Dragon Quest VIII)**

This one is esoteric. It took me a while to think of Munchie from Dragon Quest VIII. I vaguely recalled a pet mouse who rode in the main character’s coat pocket, and the only thing I could remember was that Munchie had a mohawk and liked to eat cheese and certain cheeses gave him special abilities. All of that is true (to be precise, Munchie is a pig rat), but Munchie was central to advancing Dragon Quest VIII’s plot. The game has several moments where the player controls Munchie as he conducts reconnaissance.

Munchie often procured keys to enter or exit rooms, gathered intelligence to better interact with NPCs, and even scouted ahead before major battles. Munchie may also be a little of a cheat for this list. While he spends most of the game as your pig rat pet, he’s much more than that. I won’t spoil any of the story here—Dragon Quest VIII is well worth the play and it’s available on plenty of platforms—but there’s a lot more to Munchie.

**3: Blob (A Boy and His Blob)**

A Boy and His Blob uses a common 1980s movie trope of a boy befriending an alien (like E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and The Last Starfighter), but that doesn’t discount the titular blob as a pet. And it’s one heck of a pet. I’m sensing a theme here with these video game pets: they’re useful. Rammy helps you cheat and Munchie progresses Dragon Quest VIII’s story. The Blob from A Boy and His Blob can transform into various objects (to help the player solve puzzles) by eating different flavored jellybeans.

The original A Boy and His Blob is at best unbalanced, but the concept is neat. I like the idea of a blob morphing into a ladder if fed a licorice jellybean or a parachute if it eats a pear jellybean. The other combinations are fun: tangerine (trampoline), berry (balloon), and punch (hole). But my favorite had to be apple and jack. I see what you did there, A Boy and His Blob. And of course, coconut transforms the blob into a coconut. Were you expecting anything else?

A Boy and His Blob got a sequel in 2009, but I wouldn’t mind some more time with this property. Not going to lie, I ate more jellybeans after playing this game. What would a Buttered Popcorn Jelly Belly turn me into?

**2: Rush (Mega Man Series)**

Rush from the Mega Man Series is our one dog-like pet on this list. I could’ve gone a different direction here, but I don’t think Rush gets enough love. So, what if Rush makes another list in the future? He’ll make a future Top 5 video game dogs list. He’s Mega Man’s best buddy.

Rush continues our trend of pets who have multiple uses. Throughout the Mega Man Series, Rush has been a coil (trampoline), a jet to cross long pits, a submarine, a spaceship, a flashlight of sorts (with its “Search” function in Mega Man 7), and a motorbike to name a few. Mega Man’s Rush bridges the gap between a pet that can help in a fight or solve a puzzle and one that aids with pushing the story further. The first two Mega Man games are two of my favorite games from that era of video games, but those two games have a lack of Rush.

1: Yoshi (Nintendo)

Could it be anyone else? Even if I included Pokémon, horses, and all video game dogs, Yoshi from the Super Mario Bros. series would still take the top spot. Heck, I named my dog after Yoshi the dinosaur. And who wouldn’t want a dinosaur as a pet?

Yoshi may be the one character on this list who doesn’t need an introduction. Most people know them and their abilities. Like Rush, Yoshi has done it all. They’re even one of the few characters on this list that have had their own video game series. They’ve had more than one.

You’re probably wondering why I keep referring to Yoshi as they; Yoshi is a sapient species of dinosaur-like creatures. They can lay eggs, which suggests that they’re female, but most people refer to the Yoshi one finds in Super Mario World as he. Yoshis (or Yoshisaurs) blur the line between male and female. They can be both or neither.

I also loved playing as Yoshi in the original Super Mario Kart. I got pretty good at managing their fast acceleration and the fact that they couldn’t take too much damage without getting knocked off course. Yoshis come in different colors. Some of these colors depict different abilities, but usually, these colors are cosmetic. Whatever their color, Yoshi rules.

Which Yoshi is your favorite? Did we miss any video game pets that aren’t dogs, horses, or Pokémon? Let us know in the comments. And wherever you are, I hope you’re having a great day.

Tag: pokemon

Top 5 Tabletop Games from 1996