Swap Meet isn't too dissimilar to Pick-a-Pair involving larger prizes with one chance, but there's a unique element where you don't get to see the price of one prize before you know the price of the other, so I'd keep that game. It could really use a set update, however. With that explained, I'll now provide my three games that I feel not only benefit the show's precious fee slots, but allow for some of my less than enthusiastic games to disappear with them.
Many fans have Stack to Deck as their least favorite active game, and I'm among them, mostly due to the brutal difficulty to win. It takes a GP spot too, and I'd much rather have Gridlock! instead. Sure, its quick for a car game, but its not exactly a pure quickie where it takes one decision to win or lose, and the freeway theme is a halfway decent given what you're playing for. Those extra Stack slots could go towards those cash/GP games or other car/GP games like Hole In One, Pass The Buck, or even occasional regular grocery GP games with a NCFC. That's by far my #1 game I'd like to get the heave-ho the most.
A dark horse candidate would be to eliminate Triple Play. Sure, the concept of winning multiple cars isn't unique to this game, thanks to It's Optional. But if you were to win multiple cars on the show, just go with a car for winning your game and maybe another car for winning your Showcase. This would add slots for Golden Road and 3 Strikes, as rarely as they get played nowadays, or even provide a few more appearances of More or Less, which ends with a car but allows you to keep everything you win along the way.
It was nice to see Card Game's return, and the theme still remains cool compared to TTM, but the pricing concept and inflation is what's killing this game's concept, and there are far too many losses recently. It usually takes considerably longer to explain and play as well, and if the game wasn't unretired, I wouldn't have been too upset. I'd much rather play the late Hit Me for a car since there is a unique set of skills that can usually result in a win.
That said, as you can see on the graph, there hasn't been a noticeable purge in games since Drew's earliest seasons. But effectively, I feel that the show would work best at around 60-70 games, enough where it doesn't feel too repetitive like in the early hourlong era, but not so many that it allows for many games to be reduced to monthly, bimonthly, or even quarterly appearances. The best way to balance would be by eliminating fee games or other games that take long to play like 10 Chances and by introducing quicker play games, and is why I would like to see an improved Magic #, the continuation of Shopping Spree (it's basically a reverse of the retired Credit Card), and Check Game since those would make all of the common non-fee games like ME, 1WP, 1RP, or Double Cross have even more appearances.
