Family Board Games with a Difference
How about Mindware Qwirkle Board Game? Winner of the Parents’ Choice Gold and Mensa National Award, this board game brings together family members of ages from 6 to 100, combining fun with logic. This game consists of 108 blocks featuring coloured symbols which in the manner of Tetris, players must try to create matching rows (regarding symbols or colour) and score points. The rules are simple but the game requires strategy. Will provide hours of fun. Great reviews speak for themselves.Tactical Games for Families
Blokus Classics Game by Mattel is easy to play board game for anyone aged 5 up which makes family play ideal, but is really suited to 4 players. Receiving a Mensa award, Blokus consists of 84 tiles of 4 colours and a 400 square gameboard. Each player must try to fit every tile onto the board (not adjacently but adjoining) before anyone else. Strategies can be used to block opponents. A novel way to play Blokus is to reverse the goal, so the winner is the one with the most Blokus tiles.
Novelty Board Games for Kids and Adults
Rummikub by Pressman Toys is another example of a family board game that develops logical thinking for all ages and is fun to play. Each player starts with 14 tiles, each tile exhibiting a number of a particular colour. During play, components place the tiles into racks to keep them in place. The aim, like the traditional game of rummy is to meld all the tiles into groups of three of a kind (sets of numbers of the same colour) or a ‘run’, groups of 3s, 4s and 5s of the same colour). As the game progresses, finding sets becomes harder.
A Different Kind of Family Game
Headbanz Game by Spin Master Games is a board game suitable for anyone over the age of 6 and could be a great party game for adults with a little adjustment. Each member is dealt a card and 3 tokens. Each card exhibits a noun which the member must place into a headband without looking at the picture. Against a one-minute clock, the member wearing the headband must fire questions at his/her group against a one minute clock to establish what the noun (or member) is. Any deductive question can be asked except ‘what am I? Get the answer right, you get rid of a token. The first to get rid of all 3 tokens is the winner. Of course, you could substitute ‘safe’ nouns for anything you want by making your own cards, including pictures of celebrities or rude words.Board Games for the Holidays
Spending time with the family during any holiday period could end up with the usual dusty board games, but there are alternative games on the market to liven up any protracted time with the family that could test anyone’s tolerance. Look for the fun factor, durability, compatibility to all age groups and test of skill.
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