Top 5 Family Board Games of 2017

Go Nuts for Donuts card game — Go Nuts for Donuts is one of our favorite family games from 2017.

Happy 2018!!

Ok, so we may be a little late on wishing everyone a Happy New Year since we’re already 3 weeks into 2018. But we still wish you a great new year!

I’m a bit slow on getting this out mainly because I got a new job at the start of January and it’s taking almost all my time coming up to speed on everything related to my new job. Most my time spent outside of that is trying to keep up with family duties and church service. And any little time I have for games, I’ve opted to play them instead of write about them.

Now on to the good stuff!

As I’ve done for many years on our website, I like taking time to look back at the past year of our game experiences and take stock.

Let’s start with the stats.

In 2017, I played 134 different board games!

For most people, that will sound like a ton of games. But perhaps not so much to regular visitors to our site. Comparing to last year, it’s a huge drop off. In 2016 I played 183 different games! Of course, the large amount in 2016 had a big boost from going to Gen Con 2016.

Of the different games I played last year, 70 were games I played for the first time. So it still holds that the majority of my game playing is with new games – but just barely at 52%. In 2016, 71% of the games I played were new.

That statistic drop is one I’m very happy about. That’s because I set out at the start of the year to play more games I’ve enjoyed from the past. As a game reviewer, new games are constantly before me. So it’s a lot of fun to just go back to games I already know and love from the past. I hope to do a lot more of that this year as well.

As far as total game plays, my tally for 2017 was 297.

Again comparing to 2016, it’s a big drop off. That year I recorded playing 449 total games.

The games I played the most in 2017 were:

It’s also fun for me to note that I played games with 87 different people and in 17 different locations during 2017.

I love looking at that stat because it reminds me why I play board games – because I like enjoying face-to-face time with others. It’s also been a great way for me to find and make new friends.

Top 5 Family Board Games of 2017

Now let’s get on with which family board games, published in 2017, we’ve enjoyed the most as a family…

1. Go Nuts for Donuts

Go Nuts for Donuts is a fun and light card game for families that also has the cutest donuts you’ll ever see. Of course, we’re not just saying this game is at the top of our list because of the cute donut artwork, but that is a fun factor. The reason it shot on to this list is because it’s fun to play. In Go Nuts for Donuts, players collect different types of donuts to score points. Each type of donut scores points in different ways and some donuts even dish out negative points.

The crux of the game though is in how players collect their donut cards. Each round, donut cards are set out in a row with one donut below each number (# players plus 1). Once set out, players secretly and simultaneously choose which one they want by placing their corresponding number card face down in front of them. Then all players reveal their choices at the same time. If more than one player selected the same number, nobody gets that donut and it’s discarded! The rest of the donuts are collected and any actions on the collected cards are carried out.

It’s a fun and quick game that we’ve played over and over since getting it for Christmas.

Since it’s available for less than $10 on Amazon.com, we highly recommend you grab a copy.

2. Queendomino

Queendomino is a fun tile-laying game where players construct their own kingdom made up of different terrain types and territories. Queendomino is a follow-up to the fun game, Kingdomino, from 2016. The games have “domino” in the name because each tile has two portions. And when placing a tile, at least one of the sides needs to match a similar terrain already in the kingdom. Queendomino builds on the basics and adds a new terrain type, buildings, knights, a Queen, and a Dragon!

See our full review of Queendomino.

Queendomino board game — Our Kingdoms have a lot more going on in Queendomino.

3. Sagrada

If you love dice games in your family, we highly recommend you check out Sagrada.

In Sagrada players draft dice and use the tools-of-the-trade to carefully construct their stained glass windows. At the start of every game, random pattern cards are revealed that show how players will score for that game. A handful of colored dice are rolled at the start of every turn and players, in turn, choose dice to add to their windows. Players have unique configuration cards that restrict where they can place certain dice in their window. That challenge is in following the placement rules while also trying to maximize your score. Win or lose, we love seeing our colorful, finished masterpieces at the end.

See our full review of Sagrada.

Sagrada dice game — Sagrada offers variable set up, public and personal objectives, and tons of dice.

4. Codenames Duet

You may have already noticed how much we love playing Codenames. The original game was published in 2015 and was an immediate hit. Since then, 4 new Codenames games have been released: Codenames Pictures, Codenames Disney, Codenames Marvel, and Codenames Duet.

As the name implies, Codenames Duet is made for 2 players. While it can be played with more, the real focus is on 2-player games. And that’s a perfect match for my wife and I to enjoy playing together. The best part is that it’s a cooperative game!

Instead of having two teams go head-to-head in finding their operatives among a grid of words or pictures, in Codenames Duet players work together to find operatives. It’s another game we got for Christmas and have played a ton since.

Codenames Duet card game — Codenames Duet is a very fun way to play Codenames with just 2 players.

5. Clue: The Legend of Zelda

Since we just posted our review of Clue: The Legend of Zelda last week, you may already know why we’re putting this on our top family board games list for 2017. Since we’re already big fans of playing Clue together as a family, and all the boys in our family love The Legend of Zelda, we’re super happy that the game turned out to be a fun one as well.

See our full review of Clue: The Legend of Zelda.