Words by David C. Obenour
Gen Con | July 30 – August 2, 2026 | Indiana Convention Center & Surrounding Area
Gen Con may have wrapped up weeks back, but the games are still fresh in our mind! After unpacking our first haul of highlights, join us for one more pass through everything we played and heard about for part two of our highlights from Gen Con 2026.
Thunder Road: Ignition (Restoration Games)
Race and blast your way to the finish line, Thunder Road: Ignition is a stream-lined standalone game of Thunder Road – or can also serve as an expansion for full throttled play! With all its high-octane thematic moments, this is an on ramp for less meticulous maniacs – and is also swervier with curved road segments and new hazards. Also has missiles. You’re going to need to watch out for the missiles.
Ji So Gi (Good Games Publishing / Esper Game Studio)
Inspired by the “you couldn’t make this up” reality of Japan’s anime studios, Ji•so•gi comes from an expression of barely keeping a business going – a bicycle that would fall over the moment its wheels stop turning. As the studio boss, you are the one keeping everything in motion – writing scripts, hiring staff, and even pulling together the beautiful original art by Eisuke Gou and Senkawa Teien and over six other guest illustrators.
Crab Rage! (Osprey Games)
The apocalypse has proven as brutal as it is awesome! In Crab Rage, sports entertainment has evolved to feature the crunching assaults and cold-blooded alliances set by tag teams of massive crustaceans. Assert control of an arena, team up with others to unseat the crowd favorite at another – winning fans over while doing so – all in the name of achieving the ultimate glory, the Golden Claw!
Wildblooms (Kosmos)
A meadow seems tranquil and serene when looking out over the field but get down to the ground and everything comes to life! In Wildblooms, players take turns claiming and growing up different colors of wildflowers. Creating systems and synergies are the bees, grasshoppers, ants, and more who adhere to sprouts in their own unique ways to speed along growth. Clever and interactive components with simultaneous and interactive gameplay on each turn.
Strange Slot Simulator (Hobby Japan)
The lights looked bright and inviting from the outside but now you find you can’t leave – and it’s not because you don’t want to! Grab your bucket of coins and pull up a seat at the Cursed Casino where the only way out is to play and figure out the slot machines to win their secrets. An incredibly interesting mix of mechanics collide with the tension of real time play for another house winner from Hobby Japan!
Forest Shuffle: Smoky Mountains (Lookout Games)
Having found wonder, symbiosis – and most importantly – points in the natural settings of Central Europe and Southern England, Forest Shuffle has made its way over to the Americas with Smoky Mountains. Expanding on the core multi-use cards tableau building roots of Forest Shuffle, the New World offers new mechanics with the addition of river terrain and new synergies of flora and fauna.
Viking Route (Ares Games)
On a mission from Odin himself, it is up to your crew to sail a magical Drakkar to the World’s Edge and stop Loki from unleashing Ragnarök! With modes of play for campaign and singular sessions, Viking Route utilizes tactile components for manning and sailing your dimensional cardboard ship, and the seas around you with magnetized miniatures to influence the winds. By the favor of the gods or of your own doing, can you emerge victorious?
Lion Dancer (Hot Banana Games)
It’s the Lunar New Year! Do you have what it takes to perform the finest lion dance while collecting festive items, and – if skill and fate will allow it – secure the Lucky Lettuce? Board games are often at their best when they let us experience and play within worlds outside of our own. Mixing accessible gaming elements like push your luck and set collection, enjoy a festive hour detour through a celebratory Chinese street parade.
Perch (Inside Up Games)
From yard to homestead to neighboring farm, there are so many places to rest your wings. So perch birds on one another and assert your flock’s dominance as you vie for control of this property’s Cornfield, Birdbath, Doghouse, the Precariously Hanging Nest, and of course – the Fountain! Featuring fun components and a modular board of different-each-time locations with special abilities and other native creatures to command, it’s your wild and wonderful world to discover.
Conan The Barbarian Deck-Building Game (Cryptozoic Entertainment)
By Crom! Look at that nostalgic art, leaping heroically from the covers of dusty beloved pulp paperbacks onto the soon-to-be-well-worn card edges in this new deck-building game. Bringing Cryptozoic’s Cereberus Engine Game (also used in their titles for DC Comics and other universes) to Hyboria, prepare for new adventures with a Kickstarter coming soon.
Polaris (Fractal Juegos)
Using mysticism and science, for generations mankind has stared up at the night sky in wonder. For those in the northern hemisphere, one guiding light has remained constant – the North Star, Polaris. Throughout five scoring phases played in under an hour, it is up to you to pull from the glow-in-the-dark box to select shiny foil action cards that match the rotating phases of the moon to fill the colored stars and stellar links found on the layered playing board.
Hummingbirds (The Op Games)
Fluttering from flower to flower at movement blurring speed, there’s a method to the work of hummingbirds. In this clever little game, hidden sand timers of different time increments keep track of the nectar filling in flowers. Players do their best to keep track of this and move magnetized hummingbirds to pull up and check for ones where the timer has filled. After decades of innovation from the modern gaming renaissance, it’s exciting to still encounter games that amaze with their cleverness of themes and components.
Our Queen Crumbles: Hallowed Edition (Nessun Dove)
Sweeping through the Lonely City, the assassin’s work was as swift as it was brutal. However, in her last moments the Queen’s essence was able to be captured and poured into a temporary and crumbling vessel of shards and dust. Time is limited in this single session role playing game as you weave narratives of revenge, death, and saying goodbye. Expanded from its original zine format, the Hallowed Edition includes beautifully illustrated elements to give shape to the land and people of the land of Halloway.
Raindrops (dV Games)
Wistfully staring out your window at the rain, each drop hitting the glass seems to contain pieces of meaningful memories. On their turns, players make small manipulations to construct sliding routes and claim every tile touched by their drop, playing these to complete and score memory cards. With simple core mechanics of tile collection and pattern-recognition, Raindrops shines with its engaging components and clever thematic overlay.
Rocking Raft (Horrible Guild)
Adrift on the ocean is a glittering pile of stolen treasure and it’s up to you to rock the raft and steal it once again! Circling the platform, players rotate and tip the compartmented raft playing board to free colorful gems that fill their lifeboats. Simple and tactile play with fun components for families (or adults who can enjoy the little things) with variant rules for boats taking on water and sailors having to do a little more thinking.
And that concludes the games we played at Gen Con 2026! If you hadn’t seen it, be sure to look at part one of our Gen Con highlights and our full gaming section.