RRRAAAAAAWR!

Whether it’s a silly dexterity game or a multi-hour brain burning strategy slog, dinosaurs are a reliable mainstay in the tabletop gaming sphere. And not just in recent years! Back in the 1980s, Dizzy Dizzy Dinosaur featured a wind-up toy dino that rampaged around the board with a goofy smile on its face. Of course, Jurassic Park has been licensed for many games over the years, from the early 1990s all the way into the golden age of gaming that we’re currently enjoying!

For this installment of Gamer Groupthink, we not only asked the DWP writing team for their favourite dinosaur games, but also polled the Board Game Spotlight community on Facebook! Let’s first share the thoughts of our DWPeeps, and then share the results of the poll at the end of this article.

SCOTT M:

Raptor all the way. There was a point where my partner and I were playing it once or twice a day for probably a month. It’s relatively simple to master the rules, leaving the players free to dig into the mind games- and that cat-and-mouse outguessing does the theme perfectly.

STEVE T:

Seconding Raptor as an excellent game, but for variety I’ll back Draftosaurus. It’s fast-paced, simple to learn, and pretty adorable. Players draft Dino Meeples to fill the paddocks in their Dino parks. Each paddock scores points in different ways. One scores for pairs, one scores for the more different dinos you put in it, and another for having as many of the same as possible. And it’s on BGA for people to try!

MILO M:

Dinosaur Tea Party hands down!

I love that it’s essentially multiplayer Guess Who. It’s super fun and quirky. The artwork is spectacular and it makes a great party game too! My friends and I usually like to do silly voices when we are asking the questions. Ugh, so much fun! There’s also an easier variant for younger players to make it easier ??

SEAN J:

I don’t know if I’m legally allowed to say anything other than Fossilis, but for me, it has to be EVO. It’s such a brilliant combination of genetic modification, dinosaur wrangling, and volatile climate shifts. It has a lot of similarities to one of Phillipe Keyaerts other games, Small World, but for me, EVO is the superior title.

JON-PAUL D:

It’s a toss-up for me between Dinosaur Island and Fossilis, but since I’ve played the latter a few more times, I’m going to give Fossilis the nod. The actual removal of bones from the plastic playing area is just so darn fun, and using them to reconstruct dinosaurs just tickles me in the right place!

Let’s take a peek at the Board Game Spotlight poll now! Nearly a dozen games received votes from the community, with the top five receiving the vast majority of support:

1. DINOGENICS (released in 2019 – 1 to 5 players, 120 minutes, Ages 14+)
2. DINOSAUR ISLAND (released in 2017, 1 to 4 players, 120 minutes, Ages 8+)
3. DRAFTOSAURUS (released in 2019, 2 to 5 players, 15 minutes, Ages 8+)
4. FOSSILIS (released in 2020, 2 to 5 players, 60 minutes, Ages 8+)
5. APEX THEROPOD DECK BUILDING GAME (released in 2015, 1 to 6 players, 290 minutes, Ages 14+)

As you can tell, there’s no shortage of dinosaur games out there to enjoy – games that are short or long, games that are simple or complex, games that are deadly serious or completely light-hearted!

Did your favourite dinosaur game get overlooked in this article? Let us know on your favourite social media platform!