11 Best Family Board Games in Amazon
My son is growing up to be very outdoorsy by the day. Every day he holds my hand and drags me out the door. I normally take him to a park nearby and let him wander around in joy and excitement. Few weeks ago, during the weekend, I was taking him to the national park, but the weather took turn for the worst. So, instead I drove him to one of my friend’s house. It was at this moment, while in my friend’s living room, I noticed a few board games lying around. I suggested that we play to one while we wait for the weather to get better. Although my son was still young to play board games, my friend’s kids were old enough. So, we ended up playing for the entirety of the day.
This incident made me realize the importance board games in the overall development of a child. I remember gaining experience of strategy and risk taking while playing monopoly as a young boy. Board games can be a glue that unites the whole family around something fun and educational. There are variety of board games designed to be played with myriads of rules and objectives and I sincerely believe this variety helps kids influence and enhance their different traits during overall growth. With this conviction I have compiled a list of some of the best family board games that will benefit the whole family in leisure and learning. You can also explore our selection of some of the best board games for kids.
Contents
Our Top Picks of Family Board Games
- Best Rated Family Board Game: Exploding Kittens Card Game
“It also involves some strategy, which is perfect, as the more you play, the better you get! Keeps things fresh and interesting!” - Best Board Game For Kids: Wonder Forge Richard Scarry’s Busytown, Eye Found It Toddler Toy
“Excellent game for toddlers and preschoolers! This collaborative game (everyone works as a team) is so easy to learn and play” - Best Simplest Family Board Game: Qwirkle Board Game
” It dumps the polarizing themes that tend to put newcomers off and the rules are so straightforward that the game can be explained in just a few sentences.” - Best Hilarious Family Board Game: Watch Ya’ Mouth Original Mouthpiece Game
” This game is hilarious! The kids and adults were both laughing so hard I’m surprised no one peed their pants!” - Best Strategy Family Board Game: Sequence Game
” We enjoy playing both board and card games and Sequence is a great combination of both!” - Best Board Game for Preschoolers and Early Readers: ThinkFun Zingo Bingo
“The various ways to play this traditional game of Bingo make it both fun and educational.” - Best Family Board Game of 2018: Plan B Games Azul Board Game Board Games
“The build quality of the game is pretty high. Each player gets their own game board that is nice and solid/stiff.” - Best Adventure Board Game: Days of Wonder Ticket to Ride
“Ticket to ride is a light strategy game where the aim is to connect routes with the chain of trains you have and get points. It is a nice game for kids and elders alike.” - Best Board Game with Time Limit Rule: PlayMonster 5 Second Rule Game
“Most games I find I don’t have the patience to read the rules and following them is less fun than just reading the cards. This game is easy to pick up, follow as intended and have a blast!” - Best Board Game For Music Lovers: Spontuneous – The Song Game – Sing It or Shout It – Talent NOT Required
“This game is fun for any family who wants to have a good time, is willing to laugh at each other, and can think fast on their toes.” - Best Board Game for Parties or Family Gatherings: BLANK SLATE – The Game Where Great Minds Think Alike
“It’s great for all ages and can be learned and played quickly without tons of concentration, which is great when you have a house full of kids.”
Best-rated Family Board Game
- Explore — This family board game is more like a highly strategic, kitty-powered version of Russian roulette. Basically, if you draw an exploding kitten, you lose and you are full of loser sad-sauce. If you don’t explode, you win! It was the most-funded game in the history of Kickstarter and has paved the way for peace and tranquility in the modern world. This board game is also one of the most rated family board games with over 10000 happy players.
- How To Play — The rules for this fun family board game are pretty simple. You put cards on the table and take turns drawing from them. If you draw an Exploding Kitten, you explode and are out of the game. You can avoid exploding if you play a Defuse Card. Defuse Cards distract the Exploding Kittens with things like laser pointers, kitten yoga, and catnip sandwiches. You can also play various cards to skip your turn, attack other players, peek at the deck, or secretly relocate an Exploding Kitten Card.
Best Board Game For Kids
- Fun Play Experince — Eye Found It is a ton of fun for 2-4 players. It is a cooperative game for preschoolers where you race across Busytown along a game board that’s more than 6 feet long. This fun filled educational activities make it one of the best board games for kids.
- What You Get — The board game for kids includes 1 game board, 4 movers, 4 mover bases, 1 spinner, 1 ferry tile, 10 magnifying glass tokens, 6 food tiles, 30 goldbug cards, 1 sand timer, and instructions.
- Clear Instructions — The game is easy to learn with clear instructions, so you can start playing right away!
- Great Replay value — With this fun board game kids can race across Busytown over and over, and have a new and fun experience each time!
- Develop Critical Skills — Eye Found It encourages teamwork, promotes attention to detail, and reinforces object identification and matching skills. It also encourages teamwork and kids have fun and build confidence every time they say, “I found it!”
Best Simplest Family Board Game
- Explore — Qwirkle is a simple board game of matching colors and shapes that requires tactical maneuvers, quick-thinking and a well-planned strategy. Qwirkle combines the game play of Dominoes and Scrabble and is the perfect combination of skill and chance! This easy-to-learn, yet challenging game for children and adults will have all generations on the edge of their seat! It’s simplicity makes it one of the best family board games ever.
- Entertaining & Educational — This simple family board game lets families enjoy the competition and learn along the way. Qwirkle enhances many skills for young and old alike including color recognition, shape recognition, math strategy and problem solving.
- How To Play — A typical board game of Qwirkle lasts about 45 minutes–longer when you’re first learning how to play–and players will likely catch on to the rules in no time at all. The game can be set up anywhere, although a large tabletop is best to accommodate the generous number of tiles. The only other thing you’ll need is a pencil and paper to keep track of everyone’s point count. Each tile has an illustration on the back (circle, eight-point star, four-point star, square, clover, or diamond). Each of these symbols appears in six different colors (red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and purple). In total, the game has three tiles each of the 36 possible color-symbol combinations. To help make sure you don’t lose any tiles in between games, Qwirkle comes with a drawstring storage pouch which is also used during game play.
Best Hilarious Family Board Game
- Laugh Out Loud — Imagine your family and friends silly faces while they try to speak out “Warm Beef Meatballs” while wearing cheek retractors / mouthpieces. 3-10 players wear a mouth guard and speak out phrases while teammates guess what they are saying. Includes 143 family-safe phrases.
- FDA and CE Certified Mouthpieces — This hilarious family board game comes with 10 dental-grade mouthpieces that are dishwasher safe (or if you’re feeling nostalgic, they can be sterilized in boiling water like in the good old days). Our mouthpieces are both FDA (food quality) and CE certified. Each game comes with 6 medium (sized for most mouths) and 4 small (great for younger players). The design was carefully selected to balance strength and comfort.
- Expand Your Fun — With over 1,000 phrases available across the games and expansion packs (sold separately), the fun is nearly endless! With expansion packs ranging from family-friendly to adult only, the phrases have a great balance of humor, difficulty, entertainment and diversity. Some are two words, some are ten. Many are created through our Community Card Program, which are submitted online by wonderful fans of this most hilarious board game from around the world.
Best Strategy Family Board Game
- Develop Strategy Skills — While playing sequence game players select a card of their choice from their hand and place it face up on a discard pile. Then they place a chip on the corresponding space on the board. Each card is pictured twice on the game board, so choose your space wisely! It is simply one of the best strategy family board games out there.
- Jacks Add Excitement — Jacks with two eyes are wild and can be used to place a chip on any space on the board. A one-eyed Jack can be played to remove an opponent’s chip from the board. Keep in mind, you cannot remove a chip from a completed Sequence.
- Fun For Entire Family — Sequence can be enjoyed by players of multiple ages since it’s easy enough for kids and challenging enough for adults. The first player or team to score the required number of five-card sequences wins the game. It’s fun, it’s challenging, it’s exciting – it’s Sequence!
Best Board Game for Preschoolers and Early Readers
- Develop Critical Skills — This fun and educational board game is perfect for preschoolers and early readers, builds language and matching skills in preschool kids through fun, fast-paced play. Zingo is built to develop critical thinking skills. Playing will improve language skills through fun and fast placed play.
- Other Skills — Zingo also helps preschoolers with motor planning. Students also take turns being the number caller. This allows for independence in game playing. Students learn their numbers, identifying how many objects are in a group, addition using pictures, and number words. A lot can be taught with this one little game.
Best Family Board Game of 2018
- Explore — This fun-filled family board game revolves around picking up tiles and placing them to score points, that is the most simplistic explanation. The game start off slowly without much tension, but as your board fills up the game becomes pretty cutthroat as you try to force your opponent to take tiles that will cause them to lose points while mitigating the point loss on your own board. It requires thinking ahead and critical thinking. It’s a fantastic board game that takes 1 round to teach, and many rounds to develop a strategy. No wonder, it was awarded with the best family board games of 2018.
- Best Board Game of 2018 — Azul was the proud winner of the 2018 Spiel des Jahres, the most prestigious prize in board gaming! The award recognises games that are great for players of all ages and levels of experience – and it’s an assurance of fun and quality.
- How To Play — Azul is a tile-placement family board game in which players compete for the highest score by claiming tiles and arranging them on their board to score points. Extra points are on offer for collecting sets of the same color of tile, or for creating particular patterns, while there are penalties for taking tiles that you’re unable to use. But every tile that you claim affects what your rivals can take next. You’ll have to make choices that help you without helping them too much!
Best Adventure Board Game
- Explore — Ticket to Ride is a cross-country train adventure board game in which players collect and play matching train cards to claim railway routes connecting cities through North America! The original Ticket to Ride is perfect for an experienced tabletop enthusiast, families, and those new to the hobby. Simple rules and beautiful design make it easy for anyone to play and have fun! Further, these features also make it one of the best adventure family board games.
- How To Play — In this adventure board game players compete to connect iconic cities across the United States by claiming railway routes on the map board. The person with the highest number of total points wins! To earn points on their cross-country train adventure, players claim routes between two cities, complete Destination Tickets, and compete to claim the longest continuous path of routes across the map. A player will claim a route between two cities by playing matching train cards equal to the number of spaces in the route. Missing a specific color card? Try using the powerful Locomotive card that can be used as any color.
- Bonus — While connecting cities, keep an eye on your routes! If you manage to have the longest continuous path on the map board, you will earn bonus points at the end of the game. Earn additional points by completing Destination Tickets. These cards will ask you to connect specific cities through whatever route necessary. However, be careful because any Destination Ticket left uncompleted will result in negative points!
Best Board Game with Time Limit Rule
- Explore — You’ve got five seconds to name three things in a category…can you do it? It should be a piece of cake to name things like 3 Breeds of Dogs or 3 Finger Foods, but with the other players staring, waiting for you to get flustered? Time’s not on your side, so just say what comes to mind and risk ridiculous answers slipping out, and in turn, laughter!
- Super Fun — In this fun family board game the twisted timer makes a fun zoooop sound when flipped over, and balls slide down to mark the 5 seconds. Just don’t get too enthralled with it when it’s your turn… focus on your answers! You will be surprised how short 5 seconds are!!!
- Wide Audiences — 5 Second Rule Game is a superb family board game with mixed bags of questions, both super easy and highly difficult, that works for a wide range of audiences.
Best Board Game for Music Lovers
- Explore — While playing spontuneous – the song game, one player says a word and the race is on for the others to sing a song containing that word. Play begins with the Tunesmith turning the timer and announcing a Trigger-Word from his/her Hit-List. The first player who starts singing scores but must sing a minimum of 5 words containing the Trigger-Word. For example if the Trigger-Word was dawn the first player to begin singing a 5-word portion of lyrics from any song containing the word dawn scores.
- Super Fun — Spontuneous is simple family musical board game which suits for all ages and musical tastes. A word is given and it’s a race to blurt out any song containing that word. No singing skill is necessary and play crosses generations! Ages 8 & Up, 4-10 players/teams recommended.
Best Board Game for Parties or Family Gatherings
- Explore — Blank Slate is the clever party game from The OP where you try to predict what others are thinking. Everyone secretly writes a word that completes a phrase on the cue card, but choose your word carefully, you score the most points for matching words with only one other person. In this fun, easy to learn board game you get to think outside the box, but not too far or you won’t match words with anyone. Player with the most points wins!
- Super Fun — A perfect board game for family night which is easy to learn and super fun to play.
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