These days you can't throw a rock without breaking a vital piece of a serious, strategic, horror board game. But just because the board game industry is blowing up now doesn't mean we didn't have plenty of awesome games in ages past! The years have afforded us tons of bizarre, fun, challenging, and silly horror board games, and we'd hate to see them lost to the sands of time. Here's a look at our first collection of vintage games worth revisiting: Vampire Board Games!
The Fury of Dracula - Games Workshop (1987)
Here's a game of cat and mouse (or should we say bat and mouse) that was truly ahead of its time. 'The Fury of Dracula,' for two to four players, set one player against the rest of the table in a race to control Europe. One player assumes the role of Dracula, who sneaks around a map of the European countryside. The other players play as vampire hunters intent on thwarting the evil Count. Dracula hides his trail, sets traps, encounters, and evil minions for the vampire hunters, and tries to create six new vampires before he's caught. The other players will try to deduce where Dracula's been, where Dracula's headed, and what he's up to next. This is not to to be confused with the 2005 board game 'Fury of Dracula' in which its rules were re-implemented for a new generation. 'The Fury of Dracula' was a game of deduction, horror, and mystery long before those types of games became popular. And that's why we love it… that, and the insane art on the box cover.
Game of Dracula - Waddingtons Games (1977)
Beware the kiss of Dracula! In this fun little suspense-filled game players take a romp through Dracula's castle. Each player has their own pawn, and there's a pawn for the menacing Dracula. If, through unlucky dice rolls, Dracula and a player end up on the same space the Dracula pawn actually engulfs the player pawn. That player is now turned into the Green Vampire, wears a special mask, and must try to bite another player's pawn before he can return to normal. This is an awesome, old, highly collectible board game (in mint condition). If you like sneaking around and screwing over your friends, find an old copy of this game and go to town.
The Count Duckula Game - Milton Bradley (1990)
You remember Count Duckula, right? That oft-forgotten vegetarian vampire and his cooky cohorts are the stars of this Milton Bradley game. We love this game for a bunch of reasons. A, it's about Count Duckula. The cartoon character could barely hold up his own show, and yet he got a board game. B, it's actually a pretty fun game. You're moving all around, trying to match, pick up, and deliver certain treasures. If you're the first to find all four treasures that correspond to your color, you win! But, that damn castle keeps teleporting all over the map. This is a wacky game, but it's a total blast to play. If you can find it, scoop it up!
Dracula Mystery Game - Hasbro (1963)
Here's a true vampire classic. 'Dracula Mystery Game,' produced by Hasbro in the early sixties, takes all of its inspiration (and licensing) from the Universal Pictures flick from 1931. It doesn't have a lot of depth to it (players spin a wheel and move their pawns, a Dracula pawn does the same), but that's not why we love this game. This board game has some of the moodiest, weirdest artwork we've ever seen on a vampire board game (or any board game for that matter). The box cover is a bizarre collage of macabre images, and the game board is simple, almost folk-art, with grim sixties imagery. If we find a clean enough copy of the board you won't be invited over to play… you'll be invited over to see it framed on our wall!
I Vant To Bite Your Finger - Hasbro (1979)
Ah, 'I Vant To Bite Your Finger,' the creme de la creme of vampire board games. Equal parts terrifying and ridiculous, 'I Vant' asked children to stick their finger inside Dracula's mouth. Two to four players roll dice and move their pawns around a board. If they reach a certain marker they have to turn Dracula's clock a corresponding number of times. If he "wakes up" his cape flies open to reveal a terrifying gaping mouth. The player puts his or her finger in the mouth, presses a button, and if he or she's been "bit" they have to go back to the start. Yes, for real. With the use of two felt-tipped red markers to make fang-like bites on players' fingers, this is realistic enough to be a super weird experience. As insane as that summary sounds, there was a precedent for games like this (such as 'Don't Wake Daddy,' where you pray your pressing of an alarm clock won't send your plastic Daddy jolting out of bed). This was childhood fun for the sick and twisted little ones in your family. Don't believe us? Watch the frenzied commercial: