Board games and video games are usually seen as complete opposites. One is digital, while the other is physical. Recently, however, many board games feature gameplay that is based around the concepts of video gaming, such as Adrenaline as an FPS game, Boss Monster as an old school pixelated reverse dungeon crawler, and even games such as Chronicles of Crime and Mansions of Madness through the use of an application as the game master.

What might also be a surprising overlap, is that occasionally video games make use of mechanics inspired by board games. Take a look at some of your favourite video game series here.

1.       Civilization

As a resource management and hexagon based area control game, the Civilization series bears an immediate resemblance to board game feature staples even down to the turn based movement and top down view of the map. As a Civilization fan myself, I’ve spent an embarrassing amount of time in Civilization V destroying pesky barbarian encampments, getting denounced by every civ under the sun, and winning culture victory after culture victory. Civilization also has a board game version, with enough tokens and boards to ensure, even at a glance, that, yes, this is a Civ game.

2.       Mario Party

Platforming is a distinctive mechanic in video games and one of the most popular aspects of the Mario franchise. For the Mario spinoff Mario Party, however, the platforming gameplay is confined to mini-games in favour of racing around a board game style map with dice movement to collect stars.  Fans of classic games like Talisman or anything involving dice movement will immediately Mario Party’s themed stages a familiar sight.

3.       Sumer

Sumer describes itself as a digitized board game, which combines modern board game design and exciting real-time action to create a platforming game with worker placement mechanics. The goal of the game is to claim the throne by earning Inanna’s favour, which is naturally done by earning and spending resources and goats. Because it’s a worker placement game, each action spot is limited, so first come first serve!

4.       Slay the Spire

Deck building has been a popular game mechanic for board games since Magic: The Gathering. Recently it has also been making huge waves in its transition to a digital format with games such as Slay the Spire, which is a rogue-like deck-building game that was released earlier this year. Slay the Spire features three core characters, over 250 unique cards, over 150 items, and plenty of combat encounters and events to keep you on your toes.

5.       X-Com

One of the most baffling and unique transitions from video game to board game there is, XCom is a game in which you control an elite team of soldiers defending Earth from Alien invasion. The digital version of XCom is a turn based tactical combat simulator, which just sounds like a tabletop wargame. However, the board game version is a real-time tactical combat simulator. This reversal forces players to be at least a little uncomfortable in both computer and cardboard variants, leading me to believe that the decision to flip these two around was clearly made by a mad genius. Or an Alien.