Small Box, Big Game(s) | A Comparison Review of Bandida vs. Bandido

There’s something about a game that hides behind the façade of a tiny box. Fitting neatly onto a shelf, sliding effortlessly into a bag, and never demanding you make room by banishing your books or plants to the garage.

For hobbyists, small box games are prized for being portable, an easy way to smuggle games into pubs, coffee shops, and onto camping trips. But even for the average person who isn’t building their living room out of Kallax cubes, there’s comfort in knowing you can own more than one or two games without fearing your home will start to resemble a board game café.

Of course, a small box doesn’t always mean a small game. Some can deliver a crunchy, engaging decision space that rivals boxes ten times their size, while others sprawl across the table with reckless abandon, turning a modest little package into a game that demands half your dining room. That’s exactly where Bandido, and later Bandida, make their grand escape.

Tunnels Upon Tunnels

Bandido is one of those games that’s burrowed its way into our permanent rotation. Within an unassuming tiny package is a sprawling experience that takes over the table, scattering tunnels left and right until the whole structure tips into someone’s lap.

On paper, it’s simple: connect cards to build tunnels, close them off before the bandit escapes, and hope the deck doesn’t betray you. But as any seasoned player knows, this game is sneaky. Do you burn through your bad cards early, hoarding those precious flashlights until you’re staring down the last possible exits? Or do you try to choke off the bandit’s routes quickly, only to realize you’ve run dry of closures and now need to gamble on loops to seal the deal?

After 20-plus plays, we still argue around the table about the “right” strategy—though the truth is that it’s more about surviving the draw pile than mastering the plan. And yet, it works. It’s quick, it’s tense, and one friend in particular never lets us get away without playing it at least once. So when the chance came to try Bandida, Bandido’s so-called successor, there was no question.

Bandida’s Bag Full Of Tricks

Dressed in the same charming packaging, Bandida offers the same promise of a co-op tunnel-building showdown. At its core, you can still play it exactly like Bandido: close all the exits and declare victory, but now item cards sneak into the deck, shaking up play with backpacks that expand your hand, shovels that force you to dump everything at once, or dynamite that lets you play double. Maps, water bottles, and alarms… there are just so many items.

They sound exciting, but in practice, they burn through the deck faster, which often just means fewer chances to snag flashlight dead-ends.

Too Many Escape Plans

Bandida also introduces new modes: helping her escape by steering her toward the single ladder card, or the more ambitious “lovers’ escape” where Bandido and Bandida reunite by tunnelling toward freedom together. Although these variants sound clever, in reality, they feel like someone took a perfectly tuned system and kept fiddling until it rattled.

When More Becomes Messy

We’ve found ourselves reluctant to bring Bandida to the table with friends because Bandido already strikes the balance so beautifully. It’s easy to learn, quick to play, and sprawling enough to feel bigger than it has any right to be. Bandida complicates that formula. The extra modes are neat, but they stretch the game without really adding depth, and the spice of the new cards ends up tasting more bitter than bold. What was once lean and focused is just messy.

That said, Bandida doesn’t suck outright. It’s still fun to sprawl a network of tunnels across the table, still thrilling to hold your breath when the deck is thinning, still satisfying to snatch victory from the bandit in the final moments. The item cards will take some more getting used to.

It’s clever, playful, and the kind of game you can play multiple times in one sitting, because you’re always convinced you were just one card away from pulling it off. For us, though, more game didn’t mean more fun.

Final Verdict?

So where does that leave us? We’ll always recommend Bandido, the tiny titan that can turn any table into a sprawling puzzle. It remains a classic in our household, one we’ll happily play for years to come. Bandida? We’ll bring it out eventually, if only to see how our friends react to its new tricks. But in this case, the original reigns supreme.