While I don’t prescribe to the theory that you ever need a ‘right time’ to enjoy board games, it can be argued that the best time to enjoy games with one’s family is over a long weekend when you’re maybe away together or just at home, looking to spend some quality time.
But when looking for games to play with your family, we’re looking for something different from the games I usually gravitate towards. They need to be games that don’t have much of an age barrier, don’t take hours to play and are easy to bring to the table.
So without further ado, here are games that are not only easy to learn the rules to but also easy to teach and fun to play – regardless of your family members’ ages or familiarity with board games. May your long weekend be filled with all the games!
Bananagrams
For Families That Love A Good Game Of Scrabble
Players: 1-8
You’ll enjoy it if: You enjoy playing word games like Scrabble but don’t like how long it takes or having to count up points at the end of the game.
Bananagrams takes everything players know and love about other popular word-building games like Scrabble and improves upon it while streamlining the rules and reducing the time needed to play.
At its core, Bananagrams is a fast and fun word game requiring nothing other than the fabric banana-shaped carrying pouch in which the game comes. Games can be played in as little as five minutes, depending on the player count, and so long as players can read and spell, it’s a game that everyone can enjoy.
Bananagrams consist of only 144 plastic letter tiles, and the game plays with each player working independently to create their intersecting grid of words faster than their opponent can.
Whenever a player uses all their letters, they shout out PEEL, and then all players, including them, must grab a brand new title from the face-down group in the middle.
After all the face-down tiles have been depleted, the game is won by being the first to complete your entire word grid with legally accepted words.
Where you can find it locally: Grinning Gargoyle Gaming
Throw Throw Burrito
For Families Who Want To Throw Things At Each Other
Players: 2-6
You’ll enjoy it if: You enjoy more interactive games that will get you up and moving.
Throw Throw Burrito is best described as a card game that had a baby with dodgeball. And yes, it’s every bit as outlandish and ridiculous as it sounds. Throw Throw Burrito will see players collect cards, play their hands and throw Burritos at their families… what’s not to love?
While playing Throw Throw Burrito, players will try to collect matching sets of cards faster than their opponents can while ducking, dodging, and throwing squishy burritos at each other.
Any card sets that are collected will earn players points but getting hit by flying burritos lose players points. To succeed, you’ll need to learn to become the master of both. Throw Throw Burrito is more of an outside game, but it’s also one of the most fun card games, regardless of player age.
The game works by placing the burritos in the middle of the table. Each player draws cards they will keep secret from each other. Players can and will rack up points by finding sets of three within the deck, and if anyone plays a Burrito Card, a Burrito battle ensues.
Players can then steal points from each other by standing back to back, walking three paces, and pelting each other with squishy burritos. It’s amazing.
Where you can find it locally: Meeps and Veeps
Sushi GO Party!
For Gamers Who Enjoy Minimal Rules
Players: 2-8
You’ll enjoy it if: You enjoy fast-paced gameplay complimented by minimal, easy-to-learn rules and bright, colourful art.
Sushi Go! is a fast-paced card game inspired by one of the best food types in the world, Sushi. In Sushi Go! Players are eating at a Sushi restaurant while trying to grab the best combination of Sushi dishes as they come by. Players will score points for various Sushi-related tasks like collecting the most Sushi rolls or making up a complete set of sashimi.
Sushi Go is a twenty-minute game that anyone can play and love, and while it’s a card-drafting game, it keeps rules to the minimum. First, all the cards are shuffled and dealt to players. The game takes place over only three rounds.
To start a round, all players will simultaneously choose one card from their hand they would like to keep, face up on the table and then pass their remaining cards to the player on their left. This continues until the final remaining card is passed on.
And that’s it, that’s the entirety of Sushi Go! The game is all about constantly weighing which cards to keep and which to pass on, and the different scoring methods allow for some clever gameplay mechanics to unfold.
Where you can find it locally: Meeps and Veeps
Telestrations
For Gamers Who Enjoy Drawing Games Like Pictionary
Players: 4-8
You’ll enjoy it if: You enjoy childhood classics like Pictionary and Telephone.
Almost everyone has some fond memory of a time they played Telephone or Pictionary as a child. Telestrations is the game you would get if you combined the two childhood favourites.
There is little to explain regarding Telestrations. At the start of the game, each player is given a drawing book and a marker. In each round, players are given a card with a list of secret words, each with a number between one and six. One player rolls a die to determine which word each player will draw. The players then have sixty seconds to draw their words or phrase on page one of their drawing book.
Once the sixty seconds have passed, the players pass their books to the player on their left. On page two, the players guess what has been drawn on page one of the book passed to them. Once all players have written their guesses, they turn their books to page three and pass them to the left again. Players continue to draw and guess until they have their original books back.
The players then take turns revealing what was drawn and guessed in their books. The beauty of Telestrations lies in how easy the game is to play with large groups of people, regardless of age.
Where you can find it locally: Grinning Gargoyle Gaming
Spot It!
Like Snap, But Snap-pier
Players: 2-8
You’ll enjoy it if: You enjoy the highspeed thrill of spotting things before anyone else can.
Spot It!, otherwise known as Dobble, is a dangerously simple game of pattern recognition where players compete against each other, trying to find a matching image across two cards. Spot It! is a game consisting of cards with multiple symbols printed across. These symbols can vary in size from one card to the next, and any two cards will always have exactly one symbol in common.
At the start of the game, players will reveal one card, then another, and whoever spots the symbol both cards have in common first will claim that card. The game repeats itself, and whoever has collected the most cards by the time the 55-card deck runs out is the ultimate winner. At its core, Spot It! is snap but snap-pier.
The one area where Spot It! shines in is its slightly different rules for each available game version. Each game of Spot It! is observation based with a speed element. Still, the slight differences keep the games exciting with each new release.
For example, Spot It! Harry Potter has a bunch of mini-games that change how Spot It! is played. In one of these games, The Poisoned Gift, each player will get just one card, with the rest placed in the middle. Players are then competing to try and find a match between the centre card and one of their opponent’s cards.
You will call it out whenever a match is found and put that centre card on the other players’ pile. This is the poisoned gift because the player with the fewest cards at the end wins in this game mode. Another popular version of Spot It! is Marvel. Players must spot the repeated Marvel character, call out the character, and slap down their cards to reveal that they match.
Whoever can spot the most Marvel champions the fastest win the game.
Where you can find it locally: Grinning Gargoyle Gaming
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What do you think about our list of fun, light-hearted games to bring out over the long weekend or the next time your family is all together? Let us know in the comments below.