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More Family Board Games
Photo: Simon Hill
There are many family board games. Here are a few more we like.
Tension: Top 10 Naming Games for $30: Theme cards have ten items in a category and the opposing team has 60 seconds to guess as many as they can. The cards are divided into two colors (easy and harder), making it easy to play with kids or quickly adjust the difficulty. This works well for any age or team size, but be prepared for lots of yelling and laughing.
Indiana Jones Cryptic for $24: The Indiana Jones-style escape room puzzle game is a license match made in heaven. This game is beautifully illustrated, with three events to solve that matching story from the original trilogy, narration from Indy Magazine, and coin rewards for success. The puzzles are a bit hit or miss (sometimes too easy, sometimes too hard), but once solved you won’t want to play again, although you can always continue the game.
You Must Be My Cat! For $10: A simple twist on bluffing and false dice aimed at calling bluffs; I’m in two minds about this game. On the one hand, the game is nothing special, on the other hand, cute cats! My moggy-obsessed daughter immediately wanted to play, and we had a few laughs at the sheer number of glasses, hats, and bowties on these cats.
Poetry for Neanderthals for $25: Each card has a word, and your seemingly simple task is to get your team to guess it correctly within a time frame by speaking only single syllables. If you break the rules, the opposition can hit you with an inflated “No” stick. Suitable for two to eight players aged 7 and up, it’s loud, silly and usually makes everyone laugh.
Danger threat for $15: Fast and furious, this simple card game for two teams tries to reveal the high-scoring cards at the end of each round. There are no turns, you can cover the other team’s cards, and the rounds are timed, but you have to guess when the round will end. Super simple and very fast to play, this game can be chaotic.
That quickly rose to $20: This game is fast, easy and fun for eight players. “I invented a new sport, what is it?” such scenarios are presented. players must bid from least dangerous (1) to most dangerous (10) based on the assigned numbers for each round. The tour leader should try to keep them in the correct order. Works well with witty players who know each other well.
Kitchen Rush for $48: A truly unique title that proves most cooks can spoil a broth; this game can get chaotic quickly. You work together to cook meals for customers under a strict time frame. A little too complicated for younger kids. (I’d say ages 10 and up are best.) If you like that, try the video game Overcooked.
Sounds Fishy for $20: Another fun group game from Big Potato, the challenge in Sounds Fishy is to spot fake answers. Each card poses a question, but only one of the answers you get is correct. It’s for four to 10 players, and we found it more fun, but more challenging with more people.
Zillionaires Road Trip USA for $13: Each of the 49 squares on the game board is a quirky roadside attraction from Bubblegum Alley to the National Mustard Museum, and players bid to buy them with the goal of securing four in a row. My kids loved it, the adults not so much.
Cards Against Humanity: Family Edition for $29: You can play this party game with up to 30 players and it will make the little ones laugh and giggle. Like the adult version, there’s not a lot of strategy here, but it’s satisfying to find the perfect combo to crack everyone.
