Friendly Local Game Store: Isle of Games

This profile on Isle of Games is part of an ongoing series about Friendly Local Game Stores I’ve visited. Read other profiles here. 

I have some friends originally from Tucson who now live in Phoenix, and they’re always talking about a great store down in Tucson. Last year, while I was in Tucson for RinCon, (which I’ll be attending again this year!), my buddy drove me to check out Isle of Games. I also recently had a chance to stop by again during a trip down south.

Isle of Games is a Tucson game store that opened in July 2014. It’s owned by Gordon Holton, who decided to open the store after two other Tucson-area game stores shut down earlier that year.

Having been a frequent customer of the now-shuttered Game Daze stores, Holton asked the managers who had been working there if they were up for running a game store.

“Those guys needed a job, Tucson needed a game store, and I wanted a place to play,” Holton said. “My day job allowed me to invest some money in order to make this work.”

And that it has. Isle of Games sells a large selection of board games, miniatures, puzzles and brain teasers, and painting and hobby supplies. The store is about 2,700 square feet, and includes space in the back for people to play games. Every time I’ve visited the store, the workers are always very friendly.

What sets this FLGS apart is its large collection of used board games for sale, which, Holton said, brings in a lot of traffic to the store. People can sell their games back for store credit.

Holton grew up as a gamer kid playing Dungeons and Dragons, chess and Monopoly. He discovered hobby games a little bit later in high school. After getting into video games after that, he rediscovered hobby games again back in 2007.

Holton is a big fan of train games, such as Railways of the World, and Power Grid. He said his third favorite game moves around a bit depending on what he’s playing. But owning a game store, of course, takes up some of that gaming time.

“If you want to play more games, you might want to avoid opening a game store,” Holton jokes.

In spite of having less time to play games, “when a family or gamer comes up and thanks you for being open and having the ability to play games and meet with their gamers,” Holton said, “things like that are the most rewarding about owning a store.”

Information and photos

Isle of Games is located at 7747 E Broadway Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85710. It’s open seven days a week. You can find more information on its Facebook page.