The Best Board Games for Family Nights

A family playing a board game on the floor © Pexels

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The Student content cell, published on September 23, 2024

8 min

For a successful family evening, there’s nothing better than getting together around a good board game. But you still need to know which one is likely to please those around you, at the risk of seeing your little brother leave the table in tears, fleeced down to the last penny by your father who is determined to win the game. Here is our selection of the best board games for memorable family evenings!

The timeless classics

As the saying goes, the best jams are made in old jars. So, before you get out your credit card (mom or dad’s, of course), how about a quick look in the attic to see if there are any games that could do with a dusting?

Le Monopoly

Ultimate timeless classicMonopoly remains as fun as ever despite the weight of the years. The game, which will celebrate its 90th anniversary in 2025, skillfully combines strategy, luck and excitement as the game progresses. A perfect metaphor for capitalism, Monopoly pushes players to dominate each other without the slightest qualm. Low blows and betrayals are therefore on the menu for our greatest (dis)pleasure!

Did you know? Contrary to popular belief, Mr. Monopoly, the game’s mascot, does not wear a monocle. This is one of the most famous examples of the Mandela Effect, a strange phenomenon characterized by the sharing of an erroneous memory between different individuals.

Le Time’s Up

The great strength of Time’s Up lies in the variety of game rounds. For those who are not familiar with this board game, the concept is simple: several teams must guess famous personalities – real or fictional – through three series of consecutive tests:

1. Guess the celebrity using partner’s clues (eg: “He is a footballer, he is the captain of the French team, he…”)

2. Find celebrity with just one word (eg: “Footballer”)

3. Finding fame with the help of a mime (Imagine your mother faking a chest check and a volley, and objectively tell us it’s not worth the effort).

The team with the most points at the end of the three rounds is then declared the winner.

The Pirate Trick : You can easily improvise a game without having to buy the official game. With a pen and a few sheets of paper, each player can choose the personalities of their choice. Then, simply gather all the invented cards and mix them up and that’s it!

Le Trivial Pursuit

Combining strategy and general knowledgeTrivial Pursuit is also one of the timeless classics. The goal of this board game couldn’t be simpler: we move forward on a board and answer questions corresponding to various themes (geography, entertainment, etc.). The first player or team to have filled out their entire pie chart – that is, to have correctly answered a question from each category – wins the game!

Good to know : there are a multitude of versions of Trivial Pursuit, with questions that are more or less recent and more or less difficult. Among them, there is for example a family version that adapts to each person’s level. A good point to not make your little sister of 8 and a half years old cry after yet another question on the foreign policy of the former member countries of the USSR during the Cold War.

What’s new to discover

Once shelved, board games have found a second wind since the mid-2010s. Today, it is even difficult to make a choice given the influx of new products to discover. To help you in your quest for the perfect game for your family evenings, we offer you 3 gems released in 2024.

Pixies

Strategic card game, Pixies can boast of garnering very positive reviews since its release earlier this year.. Designed for 2 to 5 players, this board game requires you to build the best possible hand. But to choose a card in the playing area, you have to get rid of one that can then be picked up by another player… To win the game, you must therefore concentrate as much on your game as on that of your opponents!

Captain Flip

Renowned for its accessibility and fun sideCaptain Flip is a great new thing to discover. A mix between memory game and tile placement, This board game encourages risk-taking to build the best crew possible. With games lasting around 20 minutes for 2 to 5 players, Captain Flip is an ideal party game for a family evening!

Trio

Elected As d’Or 2024Trio is a board game based on memory and deduction. Playable up to 6, the goal here is to form trios of cards (e.g.: 3 cards of value 7) by drawing from the opponents’ hand or directly from the draw pile. With its extremely simple concept (but extremely addictive!) Trio is without a doubt a gem to discover for wild family evenings!

Cooperative board games

While most games involve shooting each other to win, others are based on mutual aid. These so-called cooperative board games emphasize team spirit. Does that mean your family evening will go off without a hitch? Nothing could be less certain…

Cosmopolitan

Totally crazy party gameKosmopolit brings together all the ingredients for crazy family evenings. Playable up to 8it immerses us in the world of a fictional restaurant where each player occupies a very specific position (cook, head waiter, waiter, etc.). The special feature? The orders placed by customers are done in completely invented different languages. Will you be able to recognize the dishes ordered and provide service without panicking?

Good to know : To play Kosmopolit, you need to download a mobile application. Equipped with a pair of headphones, the player who plays the role of the server will have to try to decipher the commands, which he will then repeat to the rest of the team.

Just One

Simple and effective! This is how we can describe Just One, a party game par excellence. Here, The goal is to get a teammate to guess a word using clues written on a slate.. Easy? Not so sure, since if two players write down the same clue (e.g. “batteries” to guess “remote control”), then the latter is skipped, making the task more difficult for the player who must guess the correct answer. With games lasting around 20 minutes and up to 7 players, Just One is a fun cooperative board game, easy to set up and accessible to all..

Festival of the Dead

This cooperative board game is based on the principle of Chinese whispers. The aim is therefore to avoid the loss of information over the rounds.which is often easier said than done! Roughly speaking, the course of a game of Fiesta de los Muertos goes like this:

1. Each player receives a card with the name of a deceased personality, which he does not share with the others. He writes it down on a small slate, hidden from view by a flap;

2. Each player writes a clue referring to the deceased he has drawn (eg: “Guitar” for Elvis Presley);

3. When everyone has written down their word, the slate is passed to the person on the right, who erases the clue to write a new one, based on the previous one (e.g. “Guitar” becomes “Instrument”), and so on;

4. In the last round, we collect all the slates;

5. The game master draws up a list of the deceased to be found, to which he adds other personalities to confuse the tracks;

6. Each player must match the correct clues to the corresponding deceased;

7. We check the correct answers: if the team reaches a sufficient number of points, then the game is won!

Family board games: what you need to know

In short, you are spoiled for choice when it comes to board games for family evenings. While you can always refer to the timeless classics, you also have access to a plethora of new games with a wacky and offbeat concept. Party games, strategy games or cooperative games, it’s up to you to choose which ones are likely to please your family, for lively evenings, without a doubt!