These Board Games Will Make Family Nights Even More Fun

Turn your family game night into a top secret mission. In Codenames, players are divided into two colored teams, and the goal is to make contact with all their agents. Each team has one spymaster who knows the secret identities of 25 agents, and everyone else only knows them by their codenames (thus the name of the game). The spymaster must give one-word clues to their teammates in order to have them guess the words in their color without saying any of the words in their opposing team’s color. If you say the word on the assassin card, you automatically lose. You can play with four people, or add additional teammates if you want more help guessing the words. Codenames is the most fun to play with those you have inside jokes with and anyone who can find a word to link the words “engine,” “Germany,” and “penguin” (sounds weird, but you’ll understand when you play).

This adorable game is a perfect introduction to strategy games. Instead of battles and trade wars, Takenoko is a game where you cultivate a bamboo plantation and feed a cute panda. On each round, players choose between various actions such as laying a new plot, moving the garden, or drawing a new objective card. Players then get points by completing objectives such as growing certain colors of bamboo or feeding the panda, and whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins.One happy reviewer said, “There is a great feeling of playing a competitive game with everyone without any of the stress of games with more conflict; everything is very calm and relaxed as players take their actions. Even when someone moves the Panda to eat the bamboo you’ve been growing for three turns, it’s all very fun and forgiving. Who could ever get mad at that hungry little cutey happily munching away at all your hard work? The limited confrontation that is introduced with his mechanic of you choosing to grow bamboo while another player might be choosing to eat bamboo is good friendly fun.”

Pit has been around since 1904 and is the Black Friday of card games. It’s loud, frenzied, fast, and loud again. Cards are dealt to 3-8 players, a bell is rung, and the action begins! Players try to “corner the market” on a specific commodity (e.g., coffee, sugar, wheat) by getting nine of the same cards. To do this you have to trade with others, make fast deals, and often yell to be heard above the rest of the action that is simultaneously happening around you. There’s also a Bear card you don’t want to be stuck holding and a Bull card that acts like a wild card.Don’t say we didn’t warn you, this game is *loud*. One reviewer said, “The game play is fast and loud. The more players you have, the louder it gets. I definitely recommend this one for game lovers. It’s been around for over 100 years. That should tell you something!”

Disney heroes get all the attention and praise, but if you have secretly always wanted to be a Disney villain, here’s your chance. In this board game, you can choose from six different characters you love to hate: Captain Hook, Maleficent, Jafar, Ursula, Queen of Hearts, or Prince John. Each has their own stories, schemes, and objectives to reach. Each villain also has a Fate Deck that features their protagonist counterpart (Ariel, Tinkerbell, Aladdin, etc.) and actions that other players can use against you to thwart your evil plans. The goal is to be as cunning as you can to achieve your goals first, and each time you play will be different depending on which villain you choose and what strategies you (and your opponents) use. For anyone who loves Disney and board games, this is a no-brainer. The game also won “Game of the Year” at the Toy Association’s 2019 TOTY Awards.

You probably remember playing this classic game as a kid (and also remember losing at least a few of the various pieces and replacing them with whatever small objects fit in their place). Now you can relive the nostalgia and play Operation with your own little ones. In this game you get to be the doctor and cure Cavity Sam of his funny ailments by operating on him, i.e., using a tweezer to take out his wishbone, Adam’s apple, bread basket, writer’s cramp, broken heart, and more. If you have a steady hand, you get paid, and if you touch the sides of the openings, Cavity Sam’s nose lights up and you hear a loud buzz. The goal is to be the best doctor and collect the most money. This is a great game for your kid to play on their own or with the family.

Based on the super popular video game, Minecraft: Builders & Biomes transports the digital fun to a tabletop strategy board game using the same style of colorful, pixel art. Each player takes turns choosing actions between exploring the Overworld, mining resources, building structures, collecting weapons, or fighting mobs. You gain experience points in performing actions, and the player with the highest points after three rounds is the winner.One reviewer and parent said, “If your child loves board gaming, problem solving, and mine craft, he or she should like this. Each turn you have a choice of the same 5 moves to earn experience points. If your child is quick to pick up patterns, he or she could play. Our 5 year old plays just fine, but also enjoys the ticket to ride series and Queen domino. It feels easiest to teach kids the game when playing just two players… I would recommend this to families looking to give a tactile Minecraft experience to their kids or introduce a more complex, European style game to their family game night.”

Don’t let the name of this game fool you — no kittens were harmed or will be harmed in playing this game. This wacky card game originated on Kickstarter and quickly became a crowd pleaser (with 24,000 reviews on Amazon to boot). Players take turns drawing cards until someone draws an exploding kitten and then must defuse it (using things like laser pointers and belly rubs) or explode and lose. If this sounds fun and absurd, just read the description on the box, which calls it “a card game for people who are into kittens and explosions and laser beams and sometimes goats.”One reviewer described the game as “a huge hit, especially with the kids, because what 6-year-old doesn’t love exploding kittens? (At least conceptually.) It took a little bit of explaining and coaching to get the kids up to speed but after that they ruled the table like the merciless sociopaths kids are. They will throw you into the path of an exploding kitten card without thinking twice.”

Jenga is a simple, entertaining party game no matter what age you are. It takes just a few minutes to set up and play — build a tower of wooden blocks and take turns removing one block at a time and putting it on top without knocking the whole thing over. The longer each game gets, the more precarious the tower becomes.One reviewer said, “For the cost of this game, for under 15 dollars, you really can’t beat the amount of fun and suspense that it delivers. My fiancé and all of my friends love this game very much; as well as my parents which tells you that all generations love this game. This is probably one of the best ‘board games’ there are around; if you have little kids this would definitely teach hand eye coordination. Definitely durable given the amount of times the tiles have came crashing down going every which way. This game has suspense with no real danger, appeals to all ages, is simple to play, and lasts forever.”