Board games for the family

Best for Younger Kids:. Little kids will love racing all over Busytown with this board game. It's supposed to help develop critical skills like teamwork. Best for Older Kids:. Made for explorers at heart, this game tests your problem solving and strategic thinking skills.

It's perfect for older kids 10 and up. Best Fantasy:. A magical maze game made for fantasy lovers: The brand says it's curated to help sharpen your memory skills. Best Strategy:. Players will have to engage heavy critical thinking and planning to succeed in Catan.

Best Cooperative:. Because players are on the same team, it's a great option for siblings and cousins of various ages and learning levels. Best Trivia:. Packed with trivia questions for all ages and generations, this is a game all members of the family can enjoy. Best Guessing:. Get your brain pumping with this creative, dinosaur-themed take on the classic Clue game. In This Article Expand. Our Picks. What to Look For. Why Trust The Spruce.

What We Don't Like Pricey. The 9 Best Board Games of Board Game. View On Amazon. What We Don't Like Only three pawns per color. What We Don't Like Somewhat repetitive. What We Don't Like Four-player maximum. Catan Review. The 8 Best Cooperative Games of All of Us Family Trivia Game. What We Don't Like Not ideal for younger kids. The 7 Best Trivia Games of View On Fantasticgames. What We Don't Like Five-player maximum. What We Don't Like Poor-quality drawing materials.

Abstract strategy games like Blokus are entirely based on the placement of their game pieces. Reviewers say Sorry! Shoppers looking for a family-friendly tile-laying game praised Tsuro highly.

Players loved that you used tiles to build paths, and that you could try new paths in each game. Simple as that. Each tile has a set of paths on it. When you place a tile in front of your dragon marker, you follow the path you create. The whole concept of Jenga is pretty straightforward: Build up a tower, and then each player takes a turn of removing a block until the whole thing topples.

Shoppers with young children said HiHo! Cherry-O made a great entry point into the world of board games. My kids want to play it over and over and over. She also loves putting the small puzzle together which is small enough for a 2-year-old to do on their own. Makes for fun on a rainy day or for family game night. Peacock with the rope in the library? Or Professor Plum with the candlestick in the study? In the classic family board game Clue, it's up to you to solve the mystery by sussing out Tudor Mansion's many rooms, weapons, and guests.

Can you answer this: Who lives in a pineapple under the sea? OK, that one might've been too easy, but your family will have a night of fun playing Trivial Pursuit and seeing who knows their trivia the best. We love that there are separate kid and adult decks so that nothing's too easy or too hard to be enjoyable.

This nostalgia-packed trivia game celebrates Black popular culture with hilarious question-and-answer cards that'll get the whole family debating. Have you ever tried to speak with a mouth full of marshmallows?

This family board game challenges you to whip out those same marshmallow-mouth skills to say a list 0f family-friendly phrases with the mouthpiece in place. This edition comes with over phrases for your family to mumble through as each team tries to figure out what is being said.

Bust a move and stretch it out to be the winner. Can you hit a green spot with your left foot while balancing on your right hand over a red spot? It sounds hard, but that's the point. Create words on a board that'll keep your tiles secure. It's just like the classic game of Scrabble, but without destruction of the game if your pet jumps on the board. Our family board game prayers have been answered. This game needs no explanation — just a space in your game closet.

Jenga is such a blast, and if you think it's too simple to get excited over, just wait until your adrenaline starts rushing at the tug of each block. This set includes 54 hardwood Jenga blocks. This game is not only easy and fun to play, but it's really beautiful. The original version of the game was fairly convoluted and took a long time to learn. This new, updated version takes about 5 minutes to learn and can be played over and over again, happily. Each of these activities nets you victory points, which leads to the win.

In this classic family board game that's perfect for little ones, each player moves along the board, finding candy-filled adventures along the way. The classic packaging is a beautiful nostalgic touch. This game is gross and hilarious but extremely fun. You play by rolling the dice and creating a path to trap the bugs inside a little zone, safe from infesting the rest of the kitchen.

Throw down knives, forks, and whatever else you can find to cordon them off. Best for ages 6 and up, this game can be played in as little as 20 minutes, with two to four players, and it is surprisingly durable. This game is an absolute classic. Yes, it is a little stressful trying to keep your ice from breaking, but that is half the joy. Most millennial kids will recognize this game as the first game to have taught them real anxiety. It's great. This is very much like Tic Tac Toe, but supersized with a bit more strategy.

It's perfect for ages 6 and up, and plays extremely fast. We suggest setting a timer before playing. The complete version of the game mentioned earlier, this is the classic strategy board game by which most others are judged.

Each player strategizes to collect resources to build roads, settlements, and cities to gain enough points to win. Played with two to four players, it is a really great time. Gift Ideas. To see 10 tabletop games the whole family will love, keep reading!

Blokus is a strategy game in which players have Tetris -like blocks and an empty game board. Players have to position their blocks around the board so that their pieces are touching - but only on the corner.

Players aren't able to place pieces next to each other and have to strategically put them diagonally from one another, while trying to block the other players. The players have to try to fit as many of their own pieces onto the board as they can without running out of space to fit the pieces. This game is challenging, but fun and perfect to get people of all ages thinking!

Betrayal at House on the Hill is a strategic board game in which players build a super spooky house piece-by-piece as they play their way through the game and try to solve the mystery at the house.

While the players think they're working together, one player is actually working against the others and the remaining players have to figure out who it is and stop them before it's too late. This game is great for a family with older kids because some of the themes can be pretty dark and scary. It's a horror game, so it's definitely important to read about the game a little before you pick it up for family game night if you have younger kids or someone in your family doesn't like spooky stuff.

Yeti In My Spaghetti is a silly and fun strategy game that will have the whole family laughing as they play it over and over. This game is definitely one that is aimed at a slightly younger audience , but it's a ton of fun for adults to play, too.

This game is a fairly simple one. A plastic Yeti toy sits atop a bowl of plastic sticks that represent spaghetti. Players have to take turns carefully sliding out noodle by noodle without letting the Yeti fall down into the spaghetti bowl. The first person to pull the wrong noodle out and have the Yeti fall into the spaghetti loses!