As terrifying as the idea of Jumanji the board game is, there's something so attractive about it when you're a kid. The new Jumanji movie that came out recently in 2018 is about a video game, where the humans gets sucked into the digital game world. I liked it a lot, but it has nothing on the original Jumanji movie and book. In the original, you play this awesomely detailed board game that brings the jungle to you. Unlike the new Jumanji, your real body could get torn apart by an alligator. I especially remember fearing the bugs because they had huge stingers that could bust through glass.
I think why 90s kids wanted Jumanji to be real so badly was because the board looked so cool. Most board games are pretty boring. The boxes make them look good, but at the end of the day it's all just a flat piece of cardboard. Jumanji had character.