5. Acquire

I'm embarrassed to admit that I never played Acquire until 1997, a mere thirty-five years after its initial publication. In fact, the version pictured above (the one most universally reviled) is the one I learned on. My favorite is the latest Hasbro version (corporations instead of hotels don't bother me a bit), but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the big blue box version.

I can only imagine what my gaming background would have been like if I had discovered this game as a youth, in my teens, or even in my twenties. It's such a ground-breaking design! It would have been like discovering Settlers as a kid. If I'd known about Acquire as a teenager it would have turned me into a life-long hardcore gamer and I never would have experienced the gaming drought between 1983-93 (between D&D and Magic: The Gathering). In those ten years I had left gaming behind as a relic of my childhood, never realizing that such a hobby could be satisfying for an adult. Acquire would have changed all that.

I want those ten years back!