Mumsnet Talk

Looking for a present for step brothers family don't see them much but will see then at Xmas was thinking a game for them all would be good but need ideas.

How old are the children? How big is the family?

I think Animal upon animal is fab

Depends on how old the DC are. I like:

Bang! (bullet version) for teens
Apples to Apples for 10+
Cranium for 8+
Junior Monopoly for 7+
Coppit for 5+
Ludo for anyone smaller than that

Pass the Bomb
Articulate

Kids are 2, 6 and 16!

Who nu cranium is brilliant

Agree with Pass the Bomb and Cranium

Crokinole (v. expensive: www.mastersgames.com/images/table/crokinole-octagonal-b-WIL-002.jpg)
Pitchcar www.wired.com/geekdad/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/pitchcar1.jpg
Gulo gulo www.wired.com/images_blogs/geekdad/images/2009/03/05/gulo.jpg
Hey, That's My Fish!
Loopin' Louie

kokoriko by Lego isn't a board game but it's a great family game for kids about 5 up. It's even better if you get the kids to build barns for their chickens out of dominoes.
Unfortunately my nephews always gang up on me when we play and leave me with no eggs!

Blokus
Ingenious

Both simple rules, easy for kids to pick up, but still really fun for adults.

I love the classics like pictionary (there's a similar one with plasticine) and monopoly. There's also taboo, if anyone knows it. My family has always been pretty big on board and card games, trying to convince my DP on how cool they are for the sake of our LO

Chinese chequers
Agree Monopoly
Big jenga (not a board game but works across all ages)

Monopoly is pretty awful as a family game, as it

(a) takes too long
(b) involves cut-throat behaviour
(c) involves long periods of time where one or more players have effectively lost and everyone else is twiddling thumbs either already bankrupt or waiting to land on their Monopoly

and lots of people would own it already anyway.

Not a board game, but a card game - Set. It's fab. The 6 yo will be able to play it (and probably win).

It might be quite tricky to find something that a 2yo will concentrate on.

I love qwirkle cubes.

That animal upon animal looks fab, I've put it on my wishlist! Thanks!

Not sure you'll find anything that appeals to a 2-year old and a 16 year old and doesn't leave the 6-year old feeling outclassed by the older sibling and bl**dy irritated by the younger sibling!... 2-year old might like a giant floor version of snakes and ladders, but much beyond that and he/she will probably get bored halfway through and mess up everyone else's counters/playing pieces. If a well behaved 2-year old, maybe Frustration (like ludo, only the die is contained in plastic so said 2-year old can't throw it across the room and lose it under the furniture, although will probably cause all the little men to jump out of their holes by pushing the button too hard on the die casing). As for the 16-year old, I suspect he/she will roll eyes in despair at the thought of having to play a board game with siblings, anyway .
For children of more board-game ages and that way inclined, then most games provide some fun. Labyrinth (by Ravensburger) is good fun - you have to try to create pathways for yourself to get to particular items of treasure on your card, whilst keeping an eye on what other people might be heading for so that you don't help them... and it probably isn't as well known as other games, so more chance the family don't already have it. Or Battleships, or Trivial Pursuit, or Cluedo, or all the other traditional board games... Uno is a fun, simple card game. Connect 4 is a fun 2-player game that quite young people can enjoy, but maybe not 2-year olds and besides, all these games are the sort of thing people are already likely to have if they like that sort of thing!!!!!!!!

Liking the look of the animal one. But will check out others.

I'm swithering between, animal apon animal, kokoriko and bettle drive. TBH I'm not sure there a board game kind of family but I have no other ideas.

orchard toys make great games for kids

saying that with the age range it will be tricky

at 4,6,and 8 mine love
run,run as fast as you can<orchard toys>
hungry dinos<like hungry hippos>
build a beetle
snakes and ladders 3d

avoid pig goes pop at all costs<i know no one who has bough this game its worked properly!>

set is good, ds is getting it (might need to handicap older kids though)
settlers in good, everyone keeps involved, but may be too old yet
simple card game called Turn left Turn right (I think, we have it in dutch, not not 100% sure of English name) has policemen cards and you have to work out which item is 2 steps left then 3 steps right. It works for mixed ages as once you have won, you have to move on to second level of instructions on the card (our variation)

What about creationary, the lego version of pictionary? I'm thinking about getting it for us for our family present from Santa this year.

Toom of doom, is a year on year favourite in out house, along with good old fashioned Ludo.

KittyLilith - creationary had awful reviews on the bad toy thread - sorry!

Other lego games are good, eg shave a sheep

We love board games in our family and our favourites are...
For older children (my children are 10 and 12) and adults we have had many a happy hour with Ticket to Ride (be warned addictive) and Small Worlds (for the fantasy loving, contains hobbits, elves, trolls) also, Rummikub and rummikub word.

Set - brilliant card game

Harry Potter Cluedo (older ones), Ghostly Galleon, Pop up Pirate, Bop it,

Oh no I was looking forward to getting it. We usually love lego here. I'm off to check that thread now.

Carcassonne is a brilliant game, and easily adaptable for younger children. There's a junior version called Kids of Carcasonne which we didn't get much use out of, but it works for children 6 and under. Carcassonne though is an excellent investment as it is great for adults as well.

Uno is an excellent card game (very addictive).

We also like Pass the Bomb, Ticket to Ride, Pop to the Shops, Animal Safari (both Orchard), Dominoes and Snakes and Ladders.

This thread is turning expensive

Ticket To Ride is good, but Ticket To Ride: Europe is a more modern/tuned/geographically relevant version.

Carcassonne bit tedious for me.

Uno works for all ages I think (very easy rules and quite easy to fix so little ones don't cry!).

Coppit is fab - we've even played it as adults (drink was involved) and it was fun.

Pass the pigs is good too.

Jungle speed is good too but can get violent!

I think for those ages you need something simple but fast moving, that doesn't involve too much knowledge (like words etc.)

A great card game is "pig" also known as spoons.
Ordinary pack of cards. Pick out enough sets of 4 cards for each player (i.e. if there's 5 players pick out all the kings, jacks, tens, fives and twos).

Shuffle and deal out all the cards (so four each).

One person is designated to say "go". Everytime they say go, everyone places one card, face down, to their left. You then pick up the card from your right.

The idea is to get 4 matching cards (say all the kings). You keep going until one person has 4 matching cards. Whoever gets it first puts their finger on their nose (silently so as not to give the game away).

If you see someone put their finger on their nose then you copy them, even if you haven't got 4 identical cards.

The last person to put their finger on the nose is the pig. The variant with spoons is more violent - whoever gets a set of 4 cards grabs a spoon and everyone else follows suit. There's one fewer spoon than the number of players so one person won't have one. It can result in quite a tussle though.

Hope that's clear! It's a great game and very cheap

crap just re-read OP - thought it was suggestions for games to play at Christmas

<slinks off>

No no Bart, thank you for posting that! I had completely forgotten about Spoons! Used to play it as a child and loved it - now I'm all excited about teaching it to the DDs!

Rapidough is fab - play dough version of pictionary. It's great fun and very quick!

We're really into our board games and we've tried most of the ones mentioned on here. With a two year old, you'd need something where reading isn't required, but still interesting enough to engage the sixteen year old. These are all games that I'd consider to be suitable for any age but also fun:
Hedbanz for Kids
Uno Extreme (need to be able to read numbers to 9)
Wobally
Lego Creationary
The last two contain small pieces so two year old would be to be past the stage of putting things in his mouth.

Ticket to ride is definately our number one family favourite game.

Pit (loud and fun card game)
Yahtzee (dice game)

We have creationary and enjoy it. It's a decent game but I think for children older than 9 it would be a bit easy.

Monopoly Deal - card game version of Monopoly, I can't recommend it highly enough. We have taken it on two holidays with other families and each time both children and adults have got addicted to it. Unlike the board game version it only takes about 15 minutes to finish a game. 5 year old DS2 can play and it's also fun for adults. Everyone needs one! (but make sure you buy the UK version, for some reason the US version seems to be more widely available.)

Not a board game, but Toss Your Cookies is silly and fun for older and younger children. I don't think that you are likely to find a game that really works for such a wide age range, probably better to find something aimed at younger children and add a different gift for the older child. Something like a pack of UNO cards is not very expensive (playable by a six year old but not a two year old).

Risk - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Risk_(game)

World domination game and totally addictive. Since DH and DS taught me how to play, I haven't lost a game.

More votes for Ticket to Ride and Blokus.

Of all the games we've had, this one was played the most - Tummy Ache.

I'm talking young kids.

Agree this thread is becoming expensive as Blokus, Ingenious, Labyrinth, Set and Animal Upon Animal are all looking mighty tempting.

Ingenious was our game of last Christmas, 6 year old DD and 10 year DS coped no problem although DH and I enjoyed it more and sat up playing late! Have just ordered Dixit, on a whim, had good reviews, any feedback?

I'm another fan of Labyrinth. It is works well for children from 6 and up, is fun with everyone helping the littler ones to get to their treasures and is also fun for bigger people trying to prevent their opponents from reaching them. My 2 and 4 year olds also love just setting the board up and tidying the pieces away afterwards, so its good for the whole family!

I agree with the posters suggesting Labyrinth -ds1 got it last month for his 8th birthday & it's been a huge hit with the whole family.
I also like Rummikub but it's only been this year that ds1 could play it with the rest of us-ds2 age 6 still finds it too difficult.

Are blokus and ingenious quite similar ie buy one or the other, not both? Looks a bit like that as far as i can tell,

Another fan here for Labyrinth, a very clever simple game! You can make it easier or harder depending on who is playing.

another vote for pit here, especially as we found a moshi monsters version of it in waterstones

Best game I think for any age range is Jenga.

My DD then aged 3 beat the entire family, 3 generations, 7 times one Christmas. 3 years on she is still awesome at it.

Oh kiery you got there first with Ticket to Ride 11yr old DSD loves it and I am totally addicted. Not strictly a board game but 'Dominion' is a fantastically addictive card based game for older children and adults. A good one for anyone over about 5 i reckon is 'No one but us Chickens'. For thinkers I would strongly recommend 'Pandemic' as well. All available on line. Games rock in our household!

Sorry, just read back and everyone got there first with Ticket to Ride!

Mine are 5 and 8. My DM bought coppit it at at charity shop. It is like crack cocaine. No wait sherbet dibs abs are like crack cocaine, they just like playing coppit all the fucking time a lot.

agree gulo gulo is a great one for when you have very young children playing, because their tiny fingers are an advantage to them and they can beat the grown ups.

Mine love 3d snakes and ladders
pictionary, monopoly, cluedo, guess who, game of life to name but a few,

Rummikub is very good for older kids

Not a board game as such, but Pass the Bomb is great fun, again for older kids and adults. It is fast and does not last too long.

Pass the Bomb Junior, much better/easier but more fun than the normal version.
UNO

They are our fail safe games, everyone loves them and everyone can play them from our two year old (with a little help) up to Grandma. DCs are 2, 5, 10, and 12.

snap and go fish with cards - very simple
memory - you can play with themed cards or with special packs -or normal cards
snakes and ladders
draughts - and variations of these

we also have a few of the haba games - the orchard game and witches / storm they are very nice simple games for even young children - we saw families all over a campsite in france playing them all and bought them and haven't looked back

my daughter love snap! - for older people you play Animal Snap. Each person is an animal and you can only get their cards if intead of saying snap you make the sound their "animal" makes

Bartimaeus- great game suggestion! Don't slink away! I'm going to play that this evening with my crew! They'll love it!

Has anyone mentioned good old UNO?

It's a really easy card game that spans the generations.

We played it on holiday 3 forty year olds, a 10 year old, a 7 year old and a 6 year old.

The adults kind of play each other at a more cruel competitive level.

Rapidough is great - like pictionary but with plasticine - my niece loved it last year (she was 4), although really she just sat playing with the dough while we played the game!!

Have just ordered family pictionary which looks quite good.

The Really Nasty Horseracing game is great for adults!

These are all brilliant thanks, Can anyone direct me to the ones that take 15/20 minutes? My two (8 & 10) like to play a family game after tea but we don't have a lot of time before bed and with a new addition due in the next few weeks we will be even more pushed. They love uno extreme, sorry, and flipping monopoly which takes hours and never gets finished so I will be getting monopoly deal for christmas!

Cranium family edition takes 15 minutes max. We usually go round twice as it's over so quickly!

Ah thanks Erebus

We always played loads of card games as a family and Pig was always a favourite as it's so quick, lots of fun and very easy for new people to understand. An excellent game to play with foreign exchange students too!

Also good to play with very competitive people my brother because there is no winner, just a loser (in a nice way) and no point scoring.

Can't believe no one has mentioned Settlers of Catan. All our family (5-14) love it, although the youngest has to play in a team with someone else. Can take a long time, but much more interesting than Monopoly.

Also we love UNO, and that's usually quick - and very accessible for all ages.

Boggle (not for a 2 year old but in a few years maybe!)

Yahtzee!

I have a fab game called Dread Pirate (may keep 16 yo amused and has shiny treasures).

Happy Families (preferably with the old, non-happy illustrations which are really gross but 'the way it should be'.)

MixMath is a Maths version of Scrabble my family like (but I hate maths personally...)

Uno, Ludo, Simpsons Board game, Jigsaws, Monopoly all firm favourites in my childhood home! I think 2yo is probably going to be waiting a couple of years before they really have the patience for any board game so concentrate on the older ones likes and hopefully littlest will grow up wanting to be on a team or join in with what can become a great Christmas tradition

My dc from age 2 to age 15 all love pictureka, it's great because anyone can play and it's not about skill so anyone can join in

The older ones love battleship, cluedo and guess who

Settlers of catan is fucking AWESOME. Probably not for a 2yo, but now you've mentioned a 5yo playing, I should give it a go with DD.

DH and I were given it as a wedding present! Much better than all that crockery

In fact my DSS, who was 16 at the time and is ultra-competitive when it comes to games, was so desperate to play it that night that he said in front of all the guests in the bar "let's play it now, you can consummate later"

fuzzp

Can you still get Buccaneer? Happy childhood memories...

Zooloretto is one we like.

We bought it from amazon.de

http://www.amazon.de/Abacusspiele-03071-Zooloretto-Spiel-Jahres/dp/B000R3G914/

The instructions are in German but you can get the English ones online.

Cheaper than buying in the UK.

linkable click: www.amazon.de/Abacusspiele-03071-Zooloretto-Spiel-Jahres/dp/B000R3G914/

Ooh I've not tried zooloretto but the coloretto one is great, my friends have it

Another good card game is Bohnanza.

I think Zooloretto is basically the same as Coloretto but less abstract, you get cute animals (including babies).

We like Yspahan too, but it's more of a teen to adult game.

For younger kids:
Snakes and ladders.
Inch wincey spider game from orchard toys.
Connect 4
Guess who
For older ones:
Jenga
Monopoly
Cluedo
Traffic jam

We and our kids aged 9, 10 and 11 love Carcassonne. And there's all kinds of extension packs so be warned, you'll lose hours to it if you're not careful.

The 6year old and even the 2 year old would love elefun. My 2 loved it and still do .:-)

Just got a job lot of vintage games off ebay and my kids (3 and 5) love the Victorian Happy Families cards. Not quite abiding by the rules yet, but loads of fun!

Trivial Pursuit- my family has played it for years and everyone gets shit-faced and extremely competitive. Even as kids we joined an adult and played in teams and it was so much fun even if we didn't know the answers. Hoping to pass the tradition on to my DCs when they're old enough!

at your DSS, fuzzpig.

This will probably out me to anyone who knows me as I have told this to every single person I meet in RL, but I found Settlers at DD's school fair, for 30p! Reduced from 50p! BRAND NEW, STILL IN ITS PLASTIC!

It is my most bargainacious bargain ever.

My favourite board games are Pictionary, Articulate, Trivial Pursuit and Cranium.

My favourite child's game is Tummyache.

When we went on holiday as a family with children aged 3, 11, 13 we had great fun playing the card game Pit. Whot and Uno are of a kind and equally great fun.

Don't know if they do them anymore, but the 'family' games we loved best were Game of Life and Ratrace. The former was awesome... everyone always tried to land on the 'Goldmine' square - invariably my Dad would then whip out his 'Share the Wealth' card and say 'I'll have some of that, thanks'...

Oh yeah - Yahtzee I also agree with. An all ages winner and the two year old can have fun trying to throw the dice in the tray.

Carcasonne is also great but only played once.

Scattergories a list game
Ten things...in a bathroom, animals, things at the seaside.
You really only need pen and paper and every age group gets involved.

(cough) Can I please refer you to Visualart's earlier question - are Blokus and Ingenious very similar (we already have Ingenious)?

And has anyone got any opinions on the Logo Game?

We have 'RunAround' not sure about the two year old, but could pair up with someone.
You have to nominate 5 rooms, e.g. kitchen, bathroom, dining room, ds bedroom & dd bedroom. Then you go around the board collecting letters and when you land on 'Rummage' or 'Everyone Rummage' you have to run to that room to collect something beginning with one of your letters. You have to be fast as the game carries on while you are looking so you miss your go if you are not there.
There are variations where you can take from other peoples collections. But we skip those rules as too likely to lead to fights/sulks (or maybe that is just my two).
So if you have the letters T M & S your collection could include, towel, teddy, milk, sock and soap.

Grown ups can really enjoy this as well, but not so good for aged granny's who cannot run as fast! but could be a good pair for the 2 year old.

Ooh thanks moomshine - I am trying to restrict my spending so if blokus and ingenious are quite similar that would help! Have just come back to the thread but don't think i dare read any more - too tempting!
How did I not know about all these - some of them sound brilliant!

rush hour

Not really a board game but UNO is the winner in our family with the two year old getting the hang of it quickly.

We love scrabble, good fun, some funny words and improved the kids spelling!

Frustration would work across those age ranges - DD has loved it since tiny & still plays now & DH loves it too, I can't really comment as I believe all board games are the devil spawn and designed to cause rows, or was that just my family as a kid

If you like monopoly but hate the length of time it takes to play, buy junior monopoly. Exactly the same format (but set in a funfair) but takes around 20 mins to play. For some reason it is difficult to get hold of. Make sure it has the dodgem car picture on the front.

I will never play real monopoly again.

Ghostly Galleon is good here though my caveat would be a tired 8 year old just might not handle being sent back to the beginning, one step from winning! We have had to 'adjust' the rules in the past to prevent potential meltdown!

It's a fun game for a bunch of pissed adults, however

I second or third Pictureka for a lively game that even little kids can join in with. Other games we enjoy are scattergories, Best of British, logo game, articulate and taboo. If you keep your eyes open you can pick up a lot of board games really cheaply in charity shops. I managed to get Best of British in a charity shop for £3, sealed and never used. Its £25 in shops!

Thank you for this thread, we have just bough animal on animal for the Christmas Eve hamper and a few others for presents for the kids.

Just to add our own suggestion we like Viva Topo - great for adults and children alike. It's a cat chasing mice who are trying to collect cheese game - the pieces are beautifully made from wood. Lovely game, guaranteed to get everyone excited when the cat is chasing their tails.

I love Pass the Bomb tho my articulate 9yo struggles with it tbh; it's about quickly thinking of words with a certain combination of letters so you have to be well read and a good speller!

My kids like Cluedo but be warned, you need the old version (I got it 2nd hand on Amazon) as the new one is Wrong Wrong Wrong.

We all like Rummikubb and it is quick to play but too hard for a 2yo.

Kids Triv Pursuit has been a hit here tho some people are struggling reading out the questions. It's also waaay too easy for adults (well bviously! but I mean they really can't play it in any meaningful way)

My ds1 (7) has just discovered Cluedo at his grandparents and is loving it. A game doesn't really take that long to play and the little bit of sleuthing involved is enough for his age.

It's not a board game, but the Nintendo wii has endless possibilities , something for everyone and even a 2 yo can join in.

Simpler stuff .... tiddlywinks, twister, giant jenga, rapidough,

I once baked loads of Christmas shaped biscuits with a hole in the top for attaching string to, then got all the kids around the kitchen table, gave them icing, silver and gold balls, loads of tubes of writing icing and got them to decorate them for hanging on the tree. They had fun for a good couple of hours doing that although not many biscuits survived to make it on to th tree!!!

A couple more good games (but not easy to get hold of) are Monopoly Express (dice version) and Doodle Dice.

I was given Lego Creationary for my birthday yesterday - it's fun, but really hard! <wail> I can't imagine being able to make good models like the ones on the box.

I'm getting kokoriko for my friend's birthday later this month, and animal upon animal as a family game for us this Xmas. This thread has been fab

Really good thread. Thanks for suggesting it, Fuzz.

I have £15 from my MN secret santa to spend on something - I thought a new board game would be good.

I'm going to look at the ones suggested on here but if anyone has more ideas about what might suit me & DS(7) as well as me, DS, DP, DSS1(7), DSS2(6), that'd be great. I'm too impatient for snakes & ladders and Ludo is tedious (apart from when I send all of DP's pieces back to the start )

These threads always cost me a fortune - have discovered and love Carcassone, Labyrinth and Blokus. Now have in my Amazon basket: Gamewright Forbidden Island and Small World. Any feedback before I hit 'buy'?

OP - Pit is great fun, loud but good fr younger ones too as you don't need to read and older ones just like the yelling.

Perrudo could also be good for the age range you mention- kids like it because you have to lie!

We have bought Carcassone for this year so hope its as good as people say.

DD (and my mum!) just like building the tiles into pretend villages

lololol@ "let's play it now, you can consummate later",fp! Thanks for this great thread, folks.

We were and and in equal measure, SP. Needless to say we didn't actually play it that night, tempting as it was!

I bought Qwirkle recently and my family really enjoys it. It involves matching colours and shapes and it is possible invent a very simple version with a 2year old. I have even managed to get DH who is not keen on board games to play it.

My son is 9 and is loving Monopoly. He can play it fully engaged for about 2 hours! but my daughter is 6 nearly 7 and lasts about 20 mins before she has lost interest. Junior monoploy would be great for her.

Has anyone tried Chairs or Q-Bitz? Both got good reviews on Amazon.

For the person asking about Dixit, you can actually watch the game being played here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6UlbxeDE0w (and lots of other games as well) I haven't played it myself but from watching the video it's definitely on my wishlist!

I quite fancy getting q-bitz myself but don't know if DH would enjoy it as much as me!

I know this is really late but if you havent already bought something try Twister for all ages.