Family Game Night! Who didn’t have a family game night growing up? For anyone under 65 and under, it was probably used to get everyone away from the TV for a night, but family games are so much more than just a time out from tv!
A recent study conducted by Hasbro showed that 91% of those polled said playing games gives their family’s mood a positive boost. And 96% of families who play games together say that they feel close!
Playing games also provides several developmental benefits to children. For early-age, simple games help young players identify colors, count spaces, and develop hand-eye coordination and dexterity in moving cards and pieces around the board. Plus, learning to wait your turn and follow the rules are skills anyone can appreciate. For older children and teens, games can improve focus, language skills, creativity, decision making and teamwork.
As family units, we can all use the time board gaming provides, to reconnect and RELAX. In our chaotic fast paced world, sometimes all we need is a little time out.
I’m sure we all have played some of the classics like LIFE, Clue, Uno, Scrabble, or the dreaded Monopoly; but here are our top 5 family games, you might have not tried yet!
1. Dragonwood
Dare to enter Dragonwood! Deep in the heart of this mythical forest lurk angry ogres, giggling goblins, and even the famed and fearsome fire-breathers themselves! Collect sets of adventurer cards to earn dice, which you will use to roll against your foes. Stomp on some fire ants, shriek at a grumpy troll, or strike the menacing orange dragon with a magical silver sword. Choose your strategy carefully because the landscape of Dragonwood is ever-changing. Only the bravest will overcome the odds to emerge victorious in Dragonwood!
Ages 8+
2. Fireball Island: The Curse of Vul-Kar
Welcome to Fireball Island! You may have heard stories. You may have visited when you were younger. Perhaps you even saw a fireball engulf a fellow traveler in a hellscape of horror that makes you afraid to close your eyes at night. Whatever the case, welcome back! Turns out that Vul-Kar didn't like having his gem stolen way back when, so there has been some volcanic upheaval, an explosion in our snake population, feral tigers, new types of trees bent on ending human life, and swarms of bees everywhere. But don't worry — we have top people working on it.
Start your day of adventure at the helipad. Be sure to sign the waiver, which legally obligates you to take snapshots across the island. You'll race down the many paths, avoiding hazards all the while. On the plus side, you get to keep all the treasure you find.
Ages 7+
3. My Little Scythe
My Little Scythe is a competitive, family-friendly game in which each player controls two animal miniatures embarking upon an adventure in the Kingdom of Pomme. In an effort to be the first to earn four trophies from eight possible categories, players take turns choosing to Move, Seek, or Make. These actions will allow players to increase their friendship and pies, power up their actions, complete quests, learn magic spells, deliver gems and apples to Castle Everfree, and perhaps even engage in a pie fight.
Ages 8+
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4. Similo
Similo is a co-operative deduction game, and each version of the game — e.g., Fables, History, Myths — comes with a deck of thirty cards, beautifully illustrated by Naïade, showing the portrait and the name of a series of characters with a common theme.
Your goal is to make the other players guess one secret character (out of the twelve characters on display in the middle of the table) by playing other character cards from your hand as clues, stating whether they are similar to or different from the secret character. After each turn, the other players must remove one or more characters from the table until only the right one remains and you win — or it is removed and you lose!
You can play with one of the Similo sets on its own, using the cards from, say, Fables both for the characters being laid out and for the clues being given to the guessers, or you can use the cards from one set for the twelve characters on display and the cards from another set as the clues. The game is far trickier this way!
Ages 7+
5. Wizard Kittens
These wizard kittens have accidentally unleashed the contents of a book of curses! You and your fluffy friends must collect the escaped curses and put them back before the librarian, Professor Whispurr, catches you!
Perform the best magic while putting all the curses back in their tome and win! But if you don't manage to put all the curses away before Professor Whispurr arrives, then the kitty with the cleanest paws will get away scot-free and win the game!
Ages 7+