N has been asking to play Lengendary for years. It sits tantalisingly on top of our bookshelf, a large game box covered in Marvel superheroes. Now he’s become more adept at games such as Dragonwood and Forbidden Island, we have finally relented. Legendary is a deck building cooperative game where you recruit Marvel heroes to… Read More Legendary: a cooperative Marvel superheroes game
We love Santorini! It combines everything you need for a great adult versus child game: It’s simple to grasp, can be relatively quick to play and has hundreds of variations to try (435 to be exact!).… Read More Santorini: battling it out to be top God!
Now the nights are drawing in and it’s dark after dinner, we’ve started playing Waldschattenspiel (Shadow in the Woods) again. There’s something mesmerising about being huddled in the dark around a flickering candle, that makes this perfect for younger kids. How it plays: In this classic German game, one person (the adult) is the searcher,… Read More Shadow in the Woods: a game to herald the coming of winter.
We’ve been looking for a “detective” style deductive game for a while now to step up from family favourite Outfoxed. So when we saw Scotland Yardgoing cheap we had a bit of a retro moment and picked it up. By chance not long after that N was given a copy of Scotland Yard Junior, which… Read More In search of a detective game (part 1): Scotland Yard versus Scotland Yard Junior
Despite all the great reviews, I could never quite grasp the appeal of the original Rhino Hero for adult players at family time. The original is a quirky but simple card stacking game and I was worried we would quickly outgrow it. Then Rhino Hero Super Battle came along and the addition of a dice… Read More Rhino Hero Super Battle: card stacking, tower toppling mayhem.
I waited for what felt like a long time for N to be old enough to play Forbidden Island. In the end we introduced it not long after he turned 5. Forbidden Island is a fantastic cooperative game by the same creator as Pandemic. The premise is perfectly pitched for kids: find the treasure and… Read More Forbidden Island – a nail biting co-operative game for kids.
When game designers Granerud and Penderson invented Panic Mansion (Shaky Manor in the US) they were literally responding to the challenge of thinking not outside the box but with it. And so Panic Mansion was born, a dexterity game based around sliding, rolling and shuffling objects within a box. It’s a simple fun concept that’s… Read More Panic Mansion- rolling your way to victory.
I find there’s something satisfying about 3D puzzle games. Mentally rotating objects and building things makes a change from the decidedly 2D world of most boardgames. N was given Triple Triumph for his 5th birthday. It’s made by the makers of Cranium, but there’s really no similarity. It’s a simple game of stacking bi-coloured pyramids.… Read More Triple Triumph- a 3D building game for the whole family.
Review of a beautiful, strategic tile laying game which can be adapted for younger players. Great family games night fun! … Read More Topiary- competitive hedge laying for all the family.
Outfoxed is a great introductory level cooperative deduction game for very young kids. The artwork is beautiful and the theme, a bunch of detectives trying to figure out which fox is the thief before he or she goes to ground, is appealing and easy to grasp. We added this to our collection when N was… Read More Outfoxed – a quirky cooperative detective game.
Family Games Review 