Do all of your board games get jumbled together too?

When we saw this Baby Blues comic in yesterday’s newspaper, we just had to share it. Our day doesn’t seem quite complete if we don’t read Baby Blues. Even the kids love the funny family comic. So when it mentioned board games, we especially got a kick out of it.

It also reminded us of a number of comments we received from friends after they saw us on TV on Studio 5 and noticed the shot of our game closet. They mentioned how organized our game closet looked with games stacked nicely on the shelves. By comparison, while they only have a handful of board games, they’re laying disorganized on a closet shelf with all the pieces scattered amongst them.

They have to go somewhere.

Organized by Default
Of course, we can’t claim that our game closet has always been organized either. In fact, we didn’t start out with a board game closet even on the list. Our current board game closet was actually built to be a storage closet. And we planned for a cabinet in the family room where we’d place our games so we could easily pull them out to play. But then the family board game bug struck and before you know it, we got carried away.

With a current board game, card game, and party game count coming in over 250 we need to be organized. It’s that simple.

Thus our storage closet became our walk-in game closet. And when we’re looking for a game, we simply head to that section. Kind of like a library. We’ve put all the party games in one area and card games in another. The large box games are stacked near the back and the kid games are on the lower shelves. And so it goes.

Stormtroopers on the beach in '44.

If we didn’t organize it some way, we’d be overwhelmed.

Creative Kids
But the thing that I love about the Baby Blues comic is how the kids make creative use of the games. Who says you have to be limited by the rules of a game? And in a like manner, who says you have to keep the games separate at all?

Why not just have fun with your games in any way you choose?

We know there's treasure here.

In fact, that’s probably just how some board games get designed. The designers take parts of games they enjoy and then find creative ways to combine them with a new theme.

And if your game pieces do get mixed around, that might bring fresh life to some of your family board games. Why not have Star Wars characters storm the beaches in Memoir ’44 or Gold Miners look for treasure on Forbidden Islands?

So this week we challenge you to add some creativity to your family board game time. Mix it up a little and see what your family can come up with during your game time.

This post is from The Board Game Family. How organized are your board games? The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

We’re often asked what our favorite new board games and card games are. And when the year rolls around to a new year, the question gets asked more frequently. Many people are anxious to hear what the best board games of the past year were.

While we’d love to give the definitive list of best board games to the world, it brings up a few issues.

1. With about 1,000 new board games releasing every year, there’s no way for one person to judge them all. How can one person or one family get through all those games to compare them?
2. With so many different types of games, how should we compare one against another (party game vs. a deeply themed strategy game) ?
3. When’s the best time to judge the games? Can we judge it like a movie with a singular experience or should it first stand the test of time?

So with those issues in mind, we’re happy to point you in a solid direction.

This month The Dice Tower podcast released 2 episodes focused on the Best Board Games of 2011. The great thing about this source for a “best of” listing is that contributors from around the world weigh in on what they believe the best games of 2011 were. They also break them down into various categories so it’s easier to compare one against another.

In regards to how soon a game can be declared “the best”, the final Dice Tower list will come out in the summer of 2012 – after many plays and rounds of nominations and voting from game reviewers across the globe. That’s when we’ll have a better feel for how the test of time will treat these new games.

With that in mind, here are the games that made The Dice Tower preliminary list of Best Board Games of 2011. (Of course, at the end we’ll also tell you which board games our family liked best from 2011.)

Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 – The Dice Tower

• Super Dungeon Explore
• Star Trek Fleet Captains
• Discworld: Ankh-Morpork
• Mage Knight Board Game
• Eminent Domain
• Yomi
• Kingdom Builder
• BattleCON: War of Indines
• Quarriors
• King of Tokyo
• Castles of Burgundy
• Eclipse
• Paperclip Railways
• Risk Legacy
• Battleship Galaxies
• Core Worlds
• Node
• Sentinels of the Multiverse
• Airlines Europe

And their Runners Up are:

• Letters from Whitechapel
• Dungeon Run
• Fealty
• Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath Board Game
• The Ares Project
• Conquest of Planet Earth
• Few Acres of Snow
• Panic Station

Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 – The Board Game Family
Here are the 2011 games that our family liked the most:

• Knock Your Blocks Off
• City Square Off
• Say Anything Family Edition
• Dixit Odyssey
• Reverse Charades Junior Edition
• Martian Dice
• Dominion: Cornucopia
• Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan
• Castle Panic: The Wizard’s Tower

(As you can tell, we’ve got a few of these game reviews still coming.)

It’s an understatement to say that there’s a ton of 2011 board games that we haven’t had a chance to play yet. Here are the 2011 board and card games that we’re most anxious to try:

• Kingdom Builder
• King of Tokyo
• Dominion: Hinterlands
• 7 Wonders Leaders
• Power Grid: The Robots
• Ticket to Ride: Alvin and Dexter
• Small World: Underground
• A Fistful of Penguins
• Secret of Monte Cristo
• Lost Temple
• Pastiche
• Rumble in the House
• The Road to Canterbury
• Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of Ashardalon
• Dungeons & Dragons: Conquest of Nerath Board Game

It’s a long list and who knows if we’ll have a chance to try these board games or not, but it should be fun trying. After all, we’re thinking there may be another cool game or two come out in 2012 that we’ll want to play along the way.

Have a great 2012 with your family!

Do you have a Best Board Games of 2011? Tell us about it in the comments below.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Best Board Games and Card Games of 2011 The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

What defines a board game or card game?

In our view, the whole definition of a board game or card game revolves around it being something physical that you can touch, feel, and move around. Playing board games is all about the social interaction of sitting around, face-to-face and moving stuff around on the table or from hand to hand.

So what’s the deal with board games going digital? And do they still qualify as “board” games, “card” games, or “dice” games if they don’t have physical boards, cards, or dice?

So many board games have gone digital

Take your games with you.

With the rise of the iPod, iPad, iPhone, Android, and other mobile devices, digital gaming has gotten another big boost. It’s amazing what they can cram into mobile devices. And one of the most popular uses of these “phones” is actually games. It seems everywhere we turn, we’ll see people playing games on their devices.

Board games have also shot up in popularity over the last decade as more and more great board games and card games are developed and sold. So it’s really no surprise that the two forces should meet. And over the last year, we’ve seen a huge rise in the number of board games and card games that are being ported over to a digital medium.

Digital games have also gone physical

Bring on the birds!

As we’ve watched the rise of these fun board games being given their digital incarnation, we’ve seen the blurring definition of “board game”. Is it dependent on what medium a game starts out with? If it first comes to life as a physical board game and then goes digital, is it still considered a board game. But if it first comes on the scene as a video game and then goes physical, is it still a video game?

Because that has happened too. Angry Birds is an amazing example of that. Angry Birds may be the most popular game on digital devices. But did you also know, that not too long ago it came to life as a physical game where you build structures, place pigs, then fling birds to knock them down? So what is Angry Birds – a video game or a board game? Or can it be both?

Great Board Games gone digital

Great digital cooperative games.

Whatever we call them, one thing is for certain – great games will find a way to live. And in today’s world, that means they’ll go for whatever medium will support them and will gain a huge following. (And makes financial sense for the designers, developers, and publishers.)

So maybe instead we should be surprised if fantastic board games and card games don’t go digital.

Just to give you a glimpse, here are great board games that are now available for playing on mobile devices:

• Smallworld
• Forbidden Island
• Ticket to Ride
• Carcassonne
• Hey That’s My Fish
• Roll Through the Ages
• Zooloretto
• Tikal

That’s just a sample – there are a ton more available. Just check the iTunes store for board games and you’ll find plenty. And if you look beyond mobile gaming, you’ll see even more available as online computer games.

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em

So what’s a board game lover to do?

Games are played very quickly.

Leaning towards the purist side of the equation, we held off for a long time on playing digital incarnations of these fun board games. However, with kids interested in games, “life will find a way” (to quote Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park). And sure enough, before you know it, we’re playing digital versions of our loved games.

Our best example is the recently released version of Ticket to Ride on the iOS. Since we love Ticket to Ride, we had to take the plunge on this one. So last month we loaded the Ticket to Ride app on our iPods and iPhone to check it out. And it was a hit. It takes all the fun of the board game and boils it down into a fantastic mobile game loaded with goals and achievements to get you hooked into playing over and over.

And what did the kids think of it?

Nice Christmas present, eh?

Just take a look at the “present” Caleb, our 8 yr old, gave us for Christmas. It’s a card he made in his class at school and it’s simply a thank you card – thanking us for putting Ticket to Ride on our iPhone and iPod. What a simple thing to put a smile on our faces.

But don’t think that’s the only version of the game he’ll play now. Just the other day when I came home from work, I found Caleb playing and teaching the Ticket to Ride board game to one of his friends. And it didn’t stop with one play. His buddy wanted to play again and again.

Maybe, just maybe, that’s what the publishers are after – reach a huge, modern audience with digital versions and then hope for an upsell to the physical board games. After all, we don’t doubt that digital games are currently hitting a broader base than physical board games. So if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.

Now we can’t wait for some digital board games

With the fun we’ve had with Ticket to Ride, we actually find ourselves hoping to see certain games come out for mobile devices. And at the top of our wish list are Dominion and Thunderstone. We’ve seen announcements that Thunderstone is being developed, but we haven’t heard about Dominion yet.

Playing Dominion with friends when we can’t get together to play for one reason or another would be awesome!

Why would these make great digital card games?

Tile laying without the tiles.

First, because they’re addicting. With the random selection of different decks to play with every time, the game changes every time you play. But the other reason they’d made for great digital versions is because there’s a ton of shuffling. The deck building games are full of shuffling your deck over and over as you play. With a digital version, you don’t have to take time shuffling. You’ll just see your cards and play them.

So taking out the shuffling is a great benefit of digital gaming. You also don’t have to worry about the set up time of the game. Setting out all the decks of cards and putting them all away at the end does take time.

The same is true for a lot of board games. Setting up before play and cleaning up after play take up time. And digital gaming can save time on both of those fronts. So playing digital games will go much faster. Which also means that you’ll be able to play a lot more games in the same amount of time. Which is pretty cool.

But on the flip side, the setting up and cleaning up is also a great part of the physical board game play. Taking time to set up a game provides a great opportunity to talk with your fellow players and engage in the socialization that makes board game playing so fun. It’s not all about the game, but rather about the people you’re playing with.

Will digital games kill their board game version?

NO!

Moving bits is where it's at!

We don’t think that digital incarnations of great board games will kill the physical board game version at all.

Like we just mentioned, the big draw for physical board games and card games is the socialization. Getting together with friends and family is what it’s about.

Now, if you want to enjoy the game by yourself when you’re not with friends, then a mobile version is awesome. Or if your friends or family live far away, staying in touch by playing a digital game at a distance can be great fun as well.

But if you want a reason to get together and enjoy face-to-face time, then grab the game off the shelf and sit down at the table and have a great time together pushing bits, shuffling cards, and rolling dice.

What do you think about board games going digital?
We’d love to hear.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Digital Board Games – an Oxymoron? The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

So many games, so little time.

Our family had a great time playing lots of new board games and card games in 2011!

We also had a great time playing games that we’ve had for years.

In fact, it’s very relaxing to play a board game that we’re familiar with rather than always learning rules to new games. Don’t get me wrong. I love seeing all the new games that come out every year and learning how to play these fun games. But at times, it can feel like more work rather than relaxation. And to kids, familiarity is very comforting. So we make sure to intersperse both new and old games throughout the year.

So what are the board games that we played most in 2011?
Knowing what board games and card games we played most might be difficult if we didn’t have such a cool tool from BoardGameGeek.com (BGG) that let’s us track our game plays. Of course, most families that enjoy playing games, just play and don’t worry about recording what they play. But I guess that’s why the site has “Geek” in the name. For some reason, I find it cool to track things. And when there’s a tool for tracking game plays, and I can have access to it on my mobile device, why not record it?

You may have noticed in our right-hand sidebar a list of “Recently Played Games”. This little widget is pulled from the tool on BGG showing the last 5 games we’ve played. Pretty cool!

We can also run reports from the tool to find out what games we play most in a given period of time. Of course, since I’m not around all the time, I don’t keep track of what the kids play with each other or with their friends. So this list is what I (dad) have played the most in 2011. And while I’ve played a number of games with friends, you can bet that the majority of my game playing is with the family.

98 Different Games played in 2011
Ok – this is crazy to see, but I played as many different games in 2011 as I did in 2010 – 98!

That’s a lot of different games to play in 1 year – close to 2 different games per week. I knew we’d played a lot of different games, but to hit the exact same number as we did in 2010, is strange to believe.

So out of those 98 different games, which did we play the most?

5 and Dimes
One of the standard reports in the BGG tracking tool is the “5 and Dimes” report. This is a report that categorizes the games played 5-9 times (5s) and those played 10 or more times (dimes). So you can see at a quick glance which games fall into those most played groups.

Here’s my list of 5 and Dimes for 2010:

Dimes:

1. Hive – 30
2. Memoir ’44 – 25
3. Dominion – 24
4. Dominion: Seaside – 24
5. Dominion: Intrigue – 18
6. Dominion: Prosperity – 14
7. Ticket to Ride – 10

Yep – Dominion is on there a lot. I could have lumped all the Dominion games into one category, but it’s also great to see which expansions I pull from the most.

Fives:

1. Spot It
2. Martian Dice
3. Pentago
4. Shake ‘N Take
5. City Square Off
6. Quarto
7. Say Anything Family Edition
8. Rack-O
9. Bug Out
10. Lemming Mafia
11. Ligretto Dice
12. Fastrack

You’ll notice that a lot of games on this list are shorter games, rather than long strategic board games. And that’s just fine because a lot of family game time needs to be caught in the moment. If the kids are ready for some fun, light games that don’t take too long, then by all means, that’s what we’ll play. Take the time with them and have fun when you can get it!

And here’s looking forward to another fun year playing games with the family!
Who knows – maybe this year we’ll surpass more than 100 different games played in 2012!

P.S. If you’re interested in keeping track of games you’ve played, I’d suggest you check out the tool on BoardGameGeek.com.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Board Games Played Most in 2011 The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Surprise, surprise – we got some new board games and card games for Christmas!

With so many great new family board games coming out every year, it’s hard not to put a few of them on our Christmas wishlist. The games we found under the Christmas tree this year were:

Great addition to a fantastic game.

Hive expansions – the Mosquito and the Ladybug
We first got a copy of Hive earlier this year and it quickly became one of our favorite two-player games. The chess-like strategy of Hive provides a great thinking game for people of all ages. But it’s much quicker than chess and can be played over and over in a sitting. So it wasn’t a surprise that the two expansions pieces for Hive, the Mosquito and Ladybug would tempt us to add them to our set. The Mosquito takes on the ability of the pieces it’s adjacent to and the Ladybug can move two spaces on top of the Hive and back down for a quick strike. Of course, if you pick up a copy of Hive Carbon, these pieces will already be included in it. We think Hive is a game you should definitely have on your family game shelf.

More cards for an addicting game.

Dominion: Cornucopia
The 5th Dominion expansion, Cornucopia, came out in the spring of 2011 and adds even more cards to the ever growing Dominion game universe. The central theme is variety; there are cards that reward you for having a variety of cards in your deck, in your hand, and in play, as well cards that help you get that variety. Some of the cool new cards we like are Farming Village, Fortune Teller, Menagerie, and Tournament that awards you with special prizes.

Dominion brought life to a whole new type of card game – the deck building game – and many game publishers have tried to replicate the formula. But Dominion still reigns. We’ve introduced it to many families in our area (as well as online) and they can’t help but get hooked. While the flow of play remains the same, the random selection of the cards to choose from each game adds so much variability to each game. Of course, it also makes it hard to stop with just one game. We heard of a number of families in our area getting Dominion expansions under their Christmas tree.

Indiana Jones style adventure game.

Fortune and Glory: the Cliffhanger Game
Fortune and Glory is game of high adventure, vile villains, edge-of-your-seat danger, and cliffhanger pulp movie action. Players take on the role of a treasure hunter, traveling the globe in search of ancient artifacts and fending off danger and villains at every turn in a quest for the ultimate reward of fortune and glory! This may be the perfect game to play on New Years Eve. Fortune and Glory allows for up to 8 players and can be played competitively or cooperatively. It’s also listed as a 90-180 minute game which could be great for keeping all of us up to ring in the new year. While we’ve opened it up and checked out all the pieces, we haven’t started an adventure yet. But we’re very much looking forward to the adventure that awaits when we do.

Hidden movement game fun.

Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan
Does every boy wish they were a Ninja? Because ours sure do. That’s one of the reasons why Ninja: Legend of the Scorpion Clan looked so compelling. Ninja is a hidden movement game where the ninja player/s of the Scorpion clan sneak into the castle to find their mission objective and escape while the guard player/s of the Lion clan try to thwart the sinister Scorpion. We don’t have a lot of experience playing hidden movement games, but are excited to give this one a try. And we hear it’s a different experience depending on the side you’re playing, so we’ll see if we end up having favorite sides to play.

Build your carnival rides first.

Carnival
It’s also great to just get some light, fun games for Christmas. Carnival looks like it will be such a game. It’s a set collection card game where you’re trying to build carnival rides along your midway before the other players do. But it’s not just a card game because there are dice involved. Each turn you can roll 3 dice which will let you perform different actions depending on the roll – like stealing parts cards from other players. You also get 3 “tickets” which can be used to affect the dice rolls as well as block your opponents (so there is some strategy). Should be fun.

Party game hilarity.

Reverse Charades Junior Edition
Christmas wouldn’t be complete without getting a fun party game for all the family and friend gatherings. And Reverse Charades is a great party game. So why not get the new edition of Reverse Charades – the Junior Edition? Reverse Charades has turned out to be perhaps our most borrowed party game. It’s always a lot of fun to play and everyone ends up laughing their heads off. In our review of Reverse Charades, our only complaint was that it didn’t work well for kids. So now that there’s a Reverse Charades Junior Edition available, we’re all over that! This should be another great game to play on New Years Eve.

We hope your family has some great new family board games to play going into the New Year as well.
Happy gaming in 2012!

This post is from The Board Game Family. New games for Christmas The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Board games make great gifts!

It’s that time of year when families around the world are looking for great family board games to get for gifts during the holidays.

Board games, card games, dice games, and party games are great gifts to give your friends and family since they promote interaction and strengthen relationships.

So we’re happy to announce our 2011 Game Gift Guide!

We’ve been working on it for a while and we’re happy to finally publish it. Hopefully it’s in time for your holiday shopping and gives you some great game ideas for gifts.

We’ve made it a permanent link on the menu bar above, so it should be very easy to find.

Go check it out and let us know what you think!

This post is from The Board Game Family. Our Game Gift Guide 2011 is here! The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Happy Thanksgiving!

We’re excited for Thanksgiving this week.

We love that Thanksgiving comes near the end of the year and before we move into the Christmas holiday and New Year resolutions. Why? Because Thanksgiving* gives us a chance to pause and think about all our blessings. And with it being near the end of the year, we naturally reflect back on our blessing for the year. It also helps us put things in perspective and in a giving mindset to those we love and those less fortunate than ourselves.

And when we’re thinking about our blessings, our thoughts naturally turn to our families. Our greatest feelings of gratitude are for our family and friends. It’s these cherished relationships that bring joy to our lives. Thanksgiving is one of the best times of the year to gather with family.

We’re also extremely grateful this Thanksgiving that I, dad, have a full-time job again. For those that have followed us this year, you may have seen our posts about being unemployed. Unfortunately that lasted most of 2011. But the great news and blessing is that I was hired by a local company in October. We send a grand “thank you” to all of those who kept us in their thoughts and prayers. Likewise, our thoughts and prayers go out to those who find themselves in that tough situation. We understand your struggles and hope that even in these tough times you can reflect on blessings you do have in your life and that you are able spend treasured time with your family this weekend.

So what are we going to do with this extended weekend of time with our family? Although we can’t foresee the future, we have a pretty good idea what we’ll be up to.

• Eating good food
• Catching up with extended family
• Watching movies
• Sleeping in
• Playing some video games
• Cold weather neighborhood football
• Celebrating a 16 yr. old birthday
• And Playing Family Board Games and Card Games!

I’m sure we won’t get to all the family board games we want to play, but we do have a bunch on our mind – of all different types. Long weekends are great times to pull out games that may take a couple hours to play. And when you have a lot of family gathered it’s also a great time for party games where everyone can participate. Games that let you talk and visit during the game are also great for these types of gatherings.

Here are some of the games that we’re really looking forward to playing this extended family weekend.

Long Games:

• RISK Star Wars
• Power Grid
• Thunderstone
• Pandemic: On the Brink
• Mystery of the Abbey

Good overall games (under an hour):

• Confusion
• Smallworld
• Code 777
• Dixit
• Lemming Mafia
• Roll Through the Ages
• Stone Age
• Memoir ’44
• Survive: Escape from Atlantis
• Back to the Future the card game

Fast and short games to play multiple times:

• Hive
• Tsuro
• Knock Your Blocks Off
• Incan Gold
• Ligretto Dice
• Martian Dice
• Bears
• Spot It
• Got ‘Em
• Fasttrack
• You’ve Been Sentenced

Party games for the whole gang:

• Sounds Like a Plan
• Word on the Street
• Say Anything Family
• Train of Thought

As you’ve noticed, a number of these games are ones we haven’t done reviews of yet. So hopefully we’ll also take some time this weekend to film some more game reviews and give you great ideas of the best family board games to give as gifts this year.

Will we get to play them all? Extremely unlikely (but one can dream).

Regardless of what we play, we’re looking forward to a lot of fun.

And we hope you have a very enjoyable time with your family as well!

* We realize that Thanksgiving is a U.S. holiday. But we also know that the thousands of visitors to our site from other countries around the world have their own special celebrations that allow them to take time with their families as well. Enjoy your special family holidays.

This post is from The Board Game Family. Great family board games for a long weekend The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together

Are your kids tired of playing the same board games and card games over and over?

When someone suggests playing Monopoly, Life, Scrabble, or UNO yet again, does everyone turn and run out the door screaming or cower in a corner mumbling strange things?

It’s not to say that you can’t have fun with your family playing these games, but if they’re the only games you have to choose from when someone wants to play a game, then we’d suggest you consider expanding your options.

Many to choose from

A game for every situation

When someone asks us what our favorite board game or card game is we usually answer with “it depends.” It’s kind of like asking an economist a question – they’ll typically start with “it depends…” But it’s really true because there are so many factors to consider with board games. What games we like completely depend on the situation and mood we find ourselves in.

Because board games and card games are all about social interaction, the best board game really depends on the settings and players.

• How many players are there?
• How old are the players and what can they understand?
• How long of a game do we want to play?
• Do we just want a light game for fun, a deep strategy game, or a mental challenge?
• Do we want to just play one game, or multiple games, or one game multiple times in a row?

Once we’ve considered the situation and mood, then we can pull out a game that’s great for the situation and everyone can enjoy. And for that moment, it may just be our favorite game.

So do you have enough board games?

We don’t want that question to sound gluttonous – like we’re telling you to just buy, buy, and buy. But we do think it’s good to consider what types of situations the board games you have are good for.

A better question might be: Do you have access to a sufficient range of board games and card games that can be played when the opportunity to enjoy time together arises?

For instance, last week we had a number of friends over playing games. We had talked about a few games beforehand that would be fun to play. But when we had one more person come over than expected, we changed our plans and had a great time. Instead of a board game with limited number of players, we pulled out a few card games that play great with more people.

The same happens when we’re playing board games with the family. A couple weeks ago we bought a copy of RISK Star Wars: The Original Trilogy and were excited to play it. But that game really works best with 3 or 5 players because of the 3 different factions in the game. And we had a hard time rounding up the odd number of interested players those first few days. So instead we pulled out SmallWorld – a game that also has you vying for territories (in a different way from RISK) but has different boards depending on how many players you have. SmallWorld could fit exactly what we were in the mood for – some light, strategic combat around the table. And since it’s shorter than RISK, we even played a couple times.

Take a board game and card game inventory

As we’re approaching the gift giving holidays, now’s a great time to take a look at what family board games you have and figure out where you might have some gaps to plug.

If you’re a family of 6 like us, yet don’t have any games that allow for 6 players, then that’s a great place to start.

If your kids have hit a new stage of development, now might be a great time to branch into a new type of board game to try together.

Need help choosing?

And if you need help choosing a game, let us know and we’ll be glad to offer some board games and card games that might work great for your situation.

We’d also suggest you take a look at our list of Best Family Board Games and Best Family Card Games.

You can also look at our Find a Game tool that lets you sort our game reviews by different criteria – like age, players, time, and our average family ratings.

Or simply get out to your local board game store and have a blast exploring a huge assortment of games for your family.

Most importantly though is to just spend time with your family – so whatever you choose, have fun!

This post is from The Board Game Family. Do you have enough board games? The Board Game Family - Families that play together stay together