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.
We love Slide Quest, a cooperative dexterity puzzle game. Work together to slide the rolling knight through 5 levels, knocking enemies over on the way.
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Dice Throne is an easy game to pick up and learn. The core of the game is manipulating your dice to get the best result, leading some people to call it “battle Yahtzee”. However, the wide variety present in the cards and characters keeps games feeling fresh and allows for many different overall strategies.
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Constellations is a tile-laying, pattern matching game for 2-4 players, lasting from 30-60 minutes. The game was designed by Ian Zang and Dante Lauretta and beautifully illustrated by Ashley Kenawell. Lay hexagons to grow the night sky and score points as you match patterns on your tiles!
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I love eating baked goods, but my daughter loves making them. In Filler, 1-6 players are pastry chefs, reporting to work at the bakery. Use your supplies to fill recipes; may the best baker win!
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Pikoko turns traditional trick-taking upside down with feathery flair. Place bets on the tricks that each player will take. The only catch is that you can see their cards but not your own!
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In Gunkimono, you are a daimyo warlord, building armies and gaining honor to establish your strongholds. Gunkimono is an area control, tile drafting and placement game for 2-5 players and takes about an hour to play. Is Gunkimono a Feudal Masterpiece, or a Futile Mess?
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On a recent rainy day, we received a mystery box from Clever Kids Mysteries – the Mystery at the Lux Museum. Opening the box, the kids were immediately interested in what this mystery might be, and how they could solve it!
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Best Treehouse Ever: Forest of Fun from Scott Almes and Green Couch Games is a solid game that improves and expands on the original. What does an 8 year old think? Listen and find out!
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Have you always wanted to be an architect? Try your hand at creating towers to fit in tight spaces in Tokyo Jutaku, a speed building game from Jordan Draper Games.
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Kings of Israel is a cooperative game for 2-4 players. You and your fellow prophets band together to preach to the nation, destroy idols, gather resources, and build altars to the Most High God. Along the way you will courageously hold back the tide of sin as you race to build enough altars to save the people and avoid ultimate destruction.
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Forest creatures fight in a beautifully illustrated game reminiscent of rock-paper-scissors for 2-4 players. Nick tells us what his family likes about Inoka.
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When the teacher’s away, the penguins will play! Each player will take a turn being the hall monitor (or Catcher) while the other penguins (Runners) try to collect fish hanging over the doors. IceCOOL 2 is a sequel and/or expansion that we prefer slightly over the original IceCOOL.
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Four cookies enter, one cookie leaves, in this fast-rolling, dice chucking game of Gingerbread cookie carnage. Bring Thunderdome to the tabletop and take on the role of a Gingerbread cookie gladiator.
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Who doesn’t like shooting stars – and laid-back puzzley gameplay? That’s the premise behind The Stars Align from Breaking Games.
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In Junk Orbit, players take on the role of salvage ship captains scouring the galaxy for space junk and delivering it to any city that will take it. Eject unwanted junk from airlocks to propel yourself around the cosmos. Simple astrophysics for profit!
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We have loved Tiny Towns since the moment we laid eyes on it. The simple mechanics of the game left us to wonder how it was possible a game like this hadn’t already existed. Place wooden cubes in configurations to collapse into a building – so simple, our 4-year-old can play, but a surprising amount of depth and strategy as well.
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An alien ship has crash-landed in the forest outside of town. Agents have been tracking the craft and rush to the scene, hoping to dissect the Visitor and seize its craft. But a local Kid has also ridden her bike out to the wreck to save the Visitor. Who will make it through the ship’s force field first?
If you’re up for an unusual deduction game with asymmetric roles that accommodate many skill levels, we highly recommend Visitor in Blackwood Grove.
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