Our staff reviews games to help your family find new games to play that are worth your time and money! Please see our review policy for more information.
Miller Zoo is a great introduction to cooperative resource-management games and legacy games. The challenges will encourage players to try new strategies, while tempting them with more stickers to show their progress.
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Most fantasy themed games put you in the role of the adventurer. Who doesn’t want to traipse around in dungeons or caves defeating nefarious villains? After your adventures, you return to town to barter your goods and perhaps buy new weapons from the local shop. But how do those shops get their supplies? How do merchants learn how to craft
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A band of hearty explorers sets off on an adventure. Will they return victorious, with treasure to spend, or will they crawl back in defeat? Sounds like a video game RPG, but this is the concept behind MegaLand by Ryan and Malorie Laukat, the forces behind Red Raven Games.
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There are many city-building games out there. But how many of them let you physically build the buildings? As an architect in futuristic MegaCity Oceania, you’ll raise buildings of glass, concrete, and steel, meeting the requirements of contracts to gain the most prestige.
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Our favorite little wooden characters must defend the city of Rowan! Train them up into clerics, warriors, knights, and more, while building new buildings and working toward the final battle with the Dark Overlords!
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Design your Meeple Land theme park – full of fun rides and attractions for all kinds of meeples… Wait, where’s the bathroom?
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“Meduris isn’t complicated, but it definitely requires planning at a level I haven’t seen in HABA games before. It also punishes players for failing to plan correctly, another distinctly un-HABA like trait. Nonetheless, it’s still a great game with many layers of strategy that we’re still unlocking multiple plays in.”
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Playing puzzle games with children can be frustrating. If it’s mildly challenging for me, it may be impossible for my 7-year-old; but if it’s the right level for him, it’s far too easy for me. I don’t want to hold back: I want to beat my children fair and square. What to do? Match Madness gives us a possible solution.
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All players race to come up with words or short phrases that connect the ideas on each pair of dice. Try to come up with something for all ten possible combinations before time runs out.
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Maps of Misterra is gorgeous, but it may be a better fit for game schooling than family game night.
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Remove windows from the Macroscope and be the first to guess the picture correctly. Did Macroscope reveal hidden depths, or was it out of focus?
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Arnak conjures up impressions of adventure, and boy, does The Missing Expedition add a story! You’ve got everything you’d want in an archaeological adventure with a fantasy twist…
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When I cracked into Expedition Leaders I was excited. I enjoy asymmetric player powers because they can help you figure out how to play a game and introduce even more ways to play. But how many different versions of a treasure hunter/archaeologist could they have?
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Lost Ruins of Arnak isn’t kidding when it says it’s for players 12+. The decision-making space is probably too much for kids much younger than that. But it’s a great game for teens and parents alike.
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Tile-laying games are special to me because they were my first introduction to the wider world of board games beyond the Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers games of my youth. They promise more intriguing replay because it’s nearly impossible to build the same board twice.
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Arr, mateys! We be pirates, sailing the high seas in search of Loot. We play cards to capture or defend merchant ships. Loot is one of the earliest games from designer Reiner Knizia. It’s been available in the United States since 2005 from publisher GameWright, but the newest version has updated artwork and comes in a metal tin.
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Living in the Midwest, there are no ocean waves. But surfing is on my bucket list of things to try someday. In the meantime, I’ll try the next best thing; running a surfboard shop right at my kitchen table.
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Lightning Dice is a competitive dice-rolling game that rewards both quick reflexes and quick thinking. It’s one of those pick-up-and-play types of games that’s approachable for both gaming groups and families.
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It’s not often that these two interests of mine intersect. Barbecue and board games? I’ve never seen it before.
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Let Them Eat Shrimp is a game for two to five fish. Players will swim, spawn and eat shrimp while trying to avoid sharks on the way to a sea worthy victory. During the game players will place fish tiles to collect sets of different types of fish to score points at the end of the game. The game is
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