Best Family Board Games – Fun for Everyone

Best Family Board Games - Reviews of Cranium, Eureka, Life, Scotland Yard & Sorry!

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This Best Family Board Games Page contains a growing list of our favorite Board Games!


Cranium

 Cranium is a game based on teamwork, great for 12-16 players. There are four Categories for playing: guessing fun facts; acting and humming; sketching and sculpting; and word puzzles. There are 600 outrageous cards covering 14 fun activities – truly something for everyone.

We love that there are brainy questions, singing options, acting opportunities, drawing tasks, and artistic challenges. There really is something for everybody – which makes it a very inclusive game for large groups. We’ve had many laugh until you cry moments playing Cranium. It is manufactured by Hasbro.


Eureka

Eureka by Ravensburger is a hilarious game as players roll dice to move their pawns to collect as much gold as they can. The tension increases whenever the single dice is rolled and it shows the train symbol. At that point the train on the board moves one space closer to the prospectors settlement. When the train arrives all of the gold that has been collected and stored in the prospectors house is sold, but gold that hasn’t yet been taken home is forfeited.

Another tension builder is that prospectors can easily turn into thieves as they can challenge each other for gold that has been collected.

Our kids loved playing this game when they were younger. And now that they are young adults, every once in a while they pull it out to play, challenge and steal each other’s gold.


The Game of Life

The Game of LIfe was one of our kids favorite games. We love the fact that you have to make decisions about college / debt / jobs / buying a house / having kids. Four to six players move through life to beat each other with the most accumulated wealth. Along the way you attend college, get married, buy houses and trade salaries all with the hope of avoiding disasters.


Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is an Awesome Family Game! Mr. X (or Mrs.) is chased all over London by 5 detectives. If the detectives can catch him, they win. But if Mr. X can dodge the detectives by using this double moves the Underground Railroad and buses or taxi’s – he wins. Awesome suspense and great family fun. When we play, Mr. X has been so closely watched that he’s resorted to wearing dark sunglasses and a hat so we can’t see where on the board he’s looking. It’s a lot of fun!You can also find it here too. This video provides a great description of how the game is played:

January 1, 2016 – Update. We had daughter Abbey and husband Collin with us all day along with daughter Becky’s boyfriend Nolan – we watched movies and played several games. One of them was Scotland Yard it was a hoot. Both Abbey and Collin wanted to be Mister X so we played two rounds. The five detectives successfully captured Mister X by the end of the first column. We proved once again that, “Crime doesn’t pay.”

Scotland Yard board game on a wooden table.


Sorry

Sorry is a Parker Brothers Classic from England in the 1930 – this game is fast paced with lots of twists and turns. Great for little kids, there are no sixes and nines to mix up and the person that looks like their going to win may soon be in last place. The thing we like about the game is that when you do choose to send a player back to start you have to apologize and say, “Sorry.” It may not be heartfelt, but it does make the kids aware that game choices can affect your opponents feelings.

If you have a favorite board game that your family enjoys playing, please mention it in the comment section and we’ll consider it for this page.

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