Bill & Ted's Excellent Boardgame (2016)

Overview

Bill & Ted's Excellent Boardgame is a light strategy and programmed movement game based on the 1989 cult classic film Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Designed for 2–4 players, the game invites players to take on the roles of various alternate-universe versions of Bill and Ted, racing through time in a phone booth to collect historical figures for a most triumphant school report.

Players must navigate the Circuits of Time, a modular board representing different historical eras. Each player programs their movement in advance by playing direction cards face-down. However, the more historical figures they pick up, the more unpredictable their movement becomes—making time travel increasingly challenging. In addition to racing against other players, players must avoid two "villain" standees who roam the board and may cause characters to be lost or reshuffled.

The game combines accessible rules with chaotic strategy, encouraging players to plan carefully while embracing the absurdity of time travel. Thematically rich and humorously illustrated, the game evokes the irreverent tone of the movie, with each historical figure portrayed in a cartoon style reminiscent of the film’s zany spirit.

The first player to successfully return to San Dimas with the required historical figures wins the game—and hopefully passes their history class with flying colors.

Similar to:

Robo Rally – Both games feature programmed movement and chaotic navigation, although RoboRally emphasizes obstacle-laden factory floors while Bill & Ted’s Excellent Boardgame focuses on time travel and character collection.

Gravwell: Escape from the 9th Dimension – Features movement that depends on the state of the board and may change unexpectedly, much like the increasingly erratic phone booth in Bill & Ted.

Dragon Delta/River Dragons – Players pre-program their moves to race across a dynamic board while interfering with each other, resulting in frequent unexpected outcomes—much like the wild time-travel hijinks of Bill & Ted.