11 Unique Games You Haven’t Played Before

Whether you’re into board games, card games, casino games, or video games, it can be difficult to find something unique that you haven’t played before. But there are plenty of places to look. Try looking for games from other continents or dive into history, and you will find some hidden gems.

If you have a favorite game you already know you love, try tracing its heritage back and find out how it all started. You might find there was good reason to update or virtually reinvent the game, or you might find the original was even better than its replacement.

1. Sic Bo

China is a great source of games, including some that have gone on to become extremely popular, and some that remain more difficult to find. Checkers, Mah Jong, and Go are some examples of games with their roots firmly planted in China. Another example is that of Sic Bo. Sic Bo is a dice game played with three dice with players betting on the outcome of those three dice.

Although still very popular in China, the game is a lot more difficult to find in other parts of the world. Fortunately, the advent of the Internet has made it more accessible, and keen players can find Sic Bo online at casino websites.

Available bets include specific doubles, any doubles, any triples, and small or big bets. Small or big bets let players bet on whether the total of the three dice will be between 4 and 10 (small) or between 11 and 17 (big) and are the simplest bets. While the odds are short on small and big bets, they also have the smallest house edge, which makes them a favorable choice for players looking for value bets.

2. Pai Gow Poker

Pai Gow Poker is another casino game that is quite rare to find in Western casinos. It is based on a traditional Chinese game that originally used dominoes. Pai Gow Poker was invented in 1985 in the US.

In Pai Gow Poker, players are dealt seven cards. They have to make two hands: a five-card hand and a two-card hand. These are compared to the dealer’s hands. If the player wins both hands, they win. If the dealer wins both hands, the player loses. If the player wins a single hand, it is a push bet.

In the original game, players used special dominoes, although this progressed to dice over time before finally transitioning to a card game when it reached US shores.

3. Uta-Garuta

Uta Garuta is a traditional Japanese card game. It consists of 2 sets of 100 cards. The cards are separated into a draw pile and a table pile. The table pile cards are played face up and consist of the second half of well-known traditional poems. The dealer draws the top card from the draw pile and reads it out loud. These cards contain the first half of the poems. As soon as one of the players recognizes the poem, they can take the corresponding card from the table pile.

The dealer then moves on and reads the next card and play continues until all the cards are gone. The player with the most cards at the end of the game wins.

Uta-Garuta is still played in Japan, most commonly during New Year celebrations and you can buy Uta Garuta cards to play at home. There are also English and other foreign language versions of the cards available, and they can make a great learning tool for students of Japanese culture.

4. the Monastery Cards

The playing card suits we’re used to today are known as French suits and were first used in France in the 15th Century. However, they weren’t standard at the time, and different countries and different groups of people used different suits or groups of cards.

The Monastery Cards are an example from 16th Century Germany and they included nuns, monks, priests, and cardinals. The cards were likely used to play many different games, in the same way that modern decks of cards can be used.

While it is unclear exactly who came up with the design, there are theories on the matter. Cards had largely been denounced by the time the Monastery Cards existed, and any cards that were found were burned. Some believe these cards were made by monks and members of the church to get around the problem. Others believe they were crafted by followers of the Renaissance.

5. the Landlord’s Game

Not many people have heard of The Landlord’s Game, but just about everybody has heard of its successor – Monopoly.

The Landlord’s Game was created in 1904 by Elizabeth Magie and was meant as a means of teaching players about the benefits of Georgism: an economic philosophy where rent from land is shared equally between all society members. Magie attempted to sell the game to Parker Brothers but they turned it down for being overly complex. The rules and board design of the original are very similar to today’s Monopoly, although Magie included a second set of rules where players shared in the success of one another.

Today, there are hundreds of different variants of Monopoly including local versions for a lot of major cities and regions, and those created in collaboration with games, cartoons, films, and other franchises.

6. the Royal Game of Ur

The Royal Game Of Ur is one of the oldest board games known to man. Its exact age is unknown but archaeological digs have unearthed versions that are nearly 5,000 years old.

Ur is described as a two-player strategy race game. In the game, players have 7 pieces and the aim is to get them around the board before the other player. It used a four-sided dice, rarely seen in modern games outside Dungeons and Dragons, and it is believed to have been very popular with players of all classes.

Modern versions, based as closely as possible on the original, can be bought today, and while the game is largely luck-based, relying on dice rolls, it doesn’t necessarily feel 5,000 years old.

7. Killer Sudoku

Around 30 years ago, most people in the West had never heard of Sudokua. Fast forward to 2024 and just about everybody is aware of the grid-based game. The original game likely stems from the 18th Century, but by the 1990s the Japanese had introduced and popularized a version called Killer Sudoku.

The basic premise of Killer Sudoku is the same as in the standard variant but rather than the grid giving some placement of numbers as initial clues, Killer Sudoku uses cages, which are grouped blocks of squares. In the upper corner of each cage is a number, which is the total sum of all the numbers in that cage. No individual numbers are given in this arrangement, and it is considered a more challenging alternative.

Killer Sudoku hasn’t quite gained the popularity of the original, but you can get apps and books dedicated to this numerical puzzle game.

8. Chaturanga

Chaturanga originated from the Ganges River area of India. It was played around 300 BC and its name means four divisions. The four divisions the title refers to are infantry, cavalry, elephantry, and chariotry, and these are represented by four types of pieces in the game.

Chaturanga is considered an early forerunner of chess, which is the best-selling board game of all time. Chaturanga has some definite similarities to the modern game of chess, but there were no checks or checkmates. If the king was in trouble, he was forced to move to a square which meant he would be captured. The aim of the game was to eliminate all of the opposition’s pieces.

You can buy Chaturanga today, although it is rare and it can be expensive for a well-designed and crafted set. But it is fascinating to play the game that inspired chess.

9. Dark Tower

Dark Tower is more modern than other games on the list and fits in the retro class of games. It is widely acknowledged as having been the first electronic board game launched in 1981.

On its launch, it was the most expensive game of its type, by some way. The price of the game was partially responsible for its ultimate failure, although the game’s manufacturers also ended up embroiled in lawsuits over the game, which certainly contributed.

You can buy Dark Tower today. If you can find an original copy, you can expect to pay several hundred dollars, and there’s a good chance it won’t work. However, a company called Restoration Games released a version called Return To Dark Tower. Although it is billed as a sequel, it does feature the eponymous tower as well as most of the same game mechanics of the original.

10. Spacewar!

Spacewar! was the first-ever digital video game. It was launched by a group of MIT programmers in 1961. It used joysticks and was played head-to-head between two players, who attempted to wipe the other out. The game was never actually released to the public and was never meant to be.

It was created and run on MIT’s DEC PDP-1 microcomputer. Although never commercially sold, the game did spread to other installations of the DEC PDP-1 so it was, strictly speaking, the first distributed digital game.

You can find online emulators that enable you to play an accurate version of the game but, unsurprisingly, it is incredibly simple by today’s video gaming standards. It is worth having a look at the game, however, because it is surprising how advanced it was considering the limitations of the time.

11. E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (Video Game)

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (Video Game) is noteworthy and earned a place on this list due to its somewhat checkered history. It was released in 1982 on the Atari 2600 and attempted to cash in on the popularity of the film of the same name.

The game took just 5 weeks to develop. And it would be fair to say that this rushed launch showed. Despite this, the publisher had printed millions of copies, the vast majority of which went unsold, and the quality and poor performance of the game is cited by many as the cause of the video game crash of 198, having destroyed the trust between gamers and publishers.

Thousands of copies of the game were found to be part of the Atari video game burial in New Mexico – more than 700,000 Atari cartridges were buried in a landfill, including E.T.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the Most Popular Game in the World?

The best-selling game of all time is chess, although more recently Monopoly has likely outsold it. More than a quarter of a billion copies of Monopoly have been sold and such is its popularity that hundreds of versions have been made, including those based on popular cartoons, TV shows, and movie franchises.

Can You Still Play the Original Pai Gow in Casinos?

Pai Gow is rarely played outside of Asian countries. Even the US Pai Gow poker variant is rarely seen in Western casinos, although you can find online casinos and dedicated websites that offer one or both variants of the game if you’re willing to look around.

Can I Play E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial Anywhere?

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial is widely regarded as the worst video game ever made and is certainly one of the biggest commercial flops of all time. This not only gives the game a place in video gaming history but also attaches a certain morbid fascination. And, as such, you can play online emulations of the original title. If you really want to.

Conclusion

Board games, video games, card games, and dice games all offer entertainment and escapism. Some even offer education and cognitive development. In any case, it’s fun, sometimes, to play something new, rather than keep trying to best your previous performances. And with thousands of years of history and five continents to explore, there are lots of opportunities for keen, and not so keen, gamers to do exactly that.