My Letterboxd Top 4 Board Game Equivalents

For those outside of the loop, Letterboxd is simply a social media for sharing film reviews and it's decided when determining favourite films, you must pick four. Films and board games currently sit one and two on my preferred non-sport-related leisure activities so here's an exploration into which board games elicit similar immersion and enjoyment as my top films.

The Holdovers - This film is set in a place left behind; a place where even the Christmas tree is sold back to the shop a week before Christmas. In that vein Brass Birmingham is the first contender as The Holdover's board game representative. There's a couple parallels here that match the film. Firstly, the main colours in the film are white, grey and brown, a feat that Birmingham matches well, and so does the game. The film is an exploration into depths of people's character, with who they are and how they act explained as we learn about them - tenuous, but this game also has that feel as it takes several plays to learn different patterns that emerge. Ultimately, the fight for resources in a tricky network makes it depart quite far from the film. Instead, Micro Macro: Crime City offers a more Holdovers vibe of evening. This game is a co-op crime solver, where's wally type of game. It's quiet as you pour over the details of this map, fun to note the wacky unrelated events occuring in the city, and satisfying to work together and unravel the visual clues at play.

Spiderman: Across the Spiderverse - This is a brightly coloured, eventful film. So potentially Rising Sun as its equal, but not really. It also includes an infinite number of weird versions of Spiderman: enter Cosmic Encounter with it's many characters with all-over-the-place, game breaking powers. For this film though, it's artwork and soundtrack makes it stand out, paying close homage to its comic book roots and the music is atmospheric, anthemic and cohesive with the film. All of that aligns best with Mind MGMT. It has a comic style art, it's map is a sprawing city filled with varied items matching the multi-verse vibe, and it features characters with differing powers.

Up - Another film where an old man and slightly troubled youth unknowingly cure eachother of something they were missing - except swap Boston in a car for South America in a house flying using many helium balloons. Considering games with colourful adventures taken on flying ships, it has to be Libertalia. This game matches a lot of the vibes at play with the pleasing and colourful chunky pieces playing the part of the balloons and the quirky dynamics between characters by the 40 varied sky pirates. It's just missing the feeling of an adventure and that's one that Great Western Trail: Argentina has in its locker. Though a much heavier game for a lighter film, it's quite a whimsical premise herding your best cows then shipping them off to Europe before doing it all again. Not to mention, you venture on a South American trail, helping some granjeros with cows (Kevin & Doug) and at the end is a river (Paradise Falls); it's basically the plot of Up.

The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King - There are a lot of LOTR Games but I've played just two: The Fate of the Fellowship and LOTR Duel for Middle Earth (a 7 Wonders Duel rework). The latter has gone straight to being one of my favourite two player games. There's a push and pull on several fronts and the Nazgul chasing Frodo and Sam is a simple but pleasing mechanism that visually adds some drama. However, this is a film I specifically watch the extended edition of because it's longer and I want more of it. Thus, a 20 minute game won't do. The Fate of the Fellowship is seeping with theme in the art, rules and pieces (heck of a dice tower), it takes longer and ebbs and flows in the fight against Sauron nicely. Buuuttt it's too much of a messy web of project management to match how it feels to watch the film. Another good approximation is Lost Ruins of Arnak. This game is lighter than you expect, has the table presence to match the film's grandeur and you use a team of people to overcome obstacles en route a Volcano (depending on which board you play). It's very close, but ultimately, I think we should buy War of the Ring.