The Fifth Meeple Board Game Podcast
Jul 23, 2026 · 48 min · 14 segments
The Rating the Rankings series rolls on! Today we're breaking down BGG's #11–20, discussing what makes each game worthy of its spot, which ones deserve to climb higher, and whether any have overstayed…
[upbeat music] Well, we're gonna start today with BGG's number 11 ranked game, Spirit Island, designed by R. Eric Russ and first published in 2017 by Greater Than Games.
This is a one to four player co-op game where you play as spirits defending the island from invaders.
Now guys, before we get into our opinions, what would you guess is the highest position that Spirit Island has ever held on BGG's list?
11.
[laughs]
I'm gonna come in at eight.
All right.
Pete will win that one.
Spirit Island was ranked at number nine for about four months in 2022 as well as a single day in 2023.
It fell out of the top 10 in July of last year.
As far as the game itself, I'll start on this one.
I, I absolutely love this game.
I have it in cardboard form.
It's a brain burner.
It's got a weight of 4.07 out of 5.
I haven't played it as much as I'd like to.
I have, I think, 18 plays at this point, but that's primarily because of the heaviness.
Uh, but this game is constantly calling me to get back in to play it.
I'll also say the game can be brutal at first, but then you learn some things.
It becomes easier, and then you start jacking up the difficulty, and there are plenty of ways to do that.
So there's a lot of replayability, different spirits, as well as the ability to add in adversaries, add in scenarios, and there's tons of expansions available as well once you get to that point.
I love this game.
[upbeat music] Well, we're gonna start today with BGG's number 11 ranked game, Spirit Island, designed by R. Eric Russ and first published in 2017 by Greater Than Games.
This is a one to four player co-op game where you play as spirits defending the island from invaders.
Now guys, before we get into our opinions, what would you guess is the highest position that Spirit Island has ever held on BGG's list?
11.
[laughs]
I'm gonna come in at eight.
All right.
Pete will win that one.
Spirit Island was ranked at number nine for about four months in 2022 as well as a single day in 2023.
It fell out of the top 10 in July of last year.
As far as the game itself, I'll start on this one.
I, I absolutely love this game.
I have it in cardboard form.
It's a brain burner.
It's got a weight of 4.07 out of 5.
I haven't played it as much as I'd like to.
I have, I think, 18 plays at this point, but that's primarily because of the heaviness.
Uh, but this game is constantly calling me to get back in to play it.
I'll also say the game can be brutal at first, but then you learn some things.
It becomes easier, and then you start jacking up the difficulty, and there are plenty of ways to do that.
So there's a lot of replayability, different spirits, as well as the ability to add in adversaries, add in scenarios, and there's tons of expansions available as well once you get to that point.
I love this game.
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