Designers: Christian Leonhard, Jason Matthews

Play as Nixon vs. Kennedy in a knife fight of a presidential campaign, which Nixon almost won by appealling to the most racist elements of America, but Kennedy managed to eke out a win based on pure charisma, a televised debate, and possibly by convincing some dead voters to get to the polls in Illinois.

1960: The Making of A President is a two player game made by the guys that made Twilight Struggle, and uses a very similar engine for the core mechanics. Many consider the latter to be one of the best board games ever made, but I prefer this one, because I’m a political junkie and this is by far the best game about American politics on the market.

Interesting Mechanic: Final Vote Tally. Counting victory points at the end of the game is normally not very interesting. However, in this game, you go state through state and decide who won the electoral votes. It feels very much like election night, and nails the overall theme of the game.

Now, just hope to god that no one updates this for 2016, because no one wants to relive that shit storm.

(Photo Credit: Board Game Meeple Lady)