10 Reviews: Best Board Games for Families (Mar 2023)

With this original Pac-Man board game, take a journey down memory lane and rediscover the popular arcade game! Play as Pac-Man, Blinky, Pinky, Inky, and Clyde, as well as their ghosts! Pac-Man creates realistic sounds as it moves around the board, including the traditional “waka, waka, waka.” For a fantastic night of gaming, play with two or more pals!

I bought this game to play with my sons (12 and 9). It is loads of fun. This is the first board game adaptation of a video game I've played that actually plays like the source material. One player takes the role of Pac-Man, while the others play as the Ghosts. Once the Pac-Man player loses all of their lives, the score is tallied and the players switch roles. This cycle repeats until everyone has had a turn as Pac-Man. Highly recommend it for fans of Pac-Man, and/or families.

by S. Falibota

Because there are strategies involved with Ticket to Ride, it’s a lot more relaxed experience. Players earn points by building railroad tracks throughout a continent, in this instance North America, in the regular game. The player with the highest score wins. Because certain routes are worth more points than others, it’s a race to collect train cards and claim those lines before anybody else does. It is competitive, but not to the point that players are forced to leave. This immediately puts it in the running as one of the best board games for families. Ticket to Ride, like so many of the finest board games, can be expanded with a variety of spin-offs. It’s really rather wonderful.

Having played this game multiple times with all ages 8-65 years old, we have made a few modifications. At the beginning of the game, we deal out six train cards instead of four. We also can draw cards and play trains in a single turn. I agree with other reviews that 2-4 is the ideal number. It is a favorite game now in our family. Last January on a no school day, we had three games going and then a championship game and a consolation game. The kids, aged 8-12, only played one game but enjoyed playing and were competitive players. The championship game was game on and very competitive!

by Grandma

Herd Mentality is one of those timeless board games for families; unlike many trivia versions, it won’t be obsolete in a few years. That’s because it’s based on consensus, not a predetermined solution. The game begins with a card that offers a basic puzzle. What’s the finest sauce? Then they jot down what they anticipate the group will say. If they are correct, the majority receives a cow token to add to their herd. The first eight tokens win. It’s simple and easy to grasp. It’s also very replayable. This concept’s delight is that no two groupings are alike. They’ll all respond differently, so Herd Mentality is a family board game with staying power.

This is a perfect family game! We played this tonight, and we all had so much fun! Our 9-year old hosted with us, and she was a bit too young (due to lack of knowledge, not maturity level), for some of the questions, so we let her read the questions for us and answer only when she wanted to. She had just as much fun as the rest of us! The pink cow is adorable, and the questions are easy enough to answer quickly, but interesting enough to spark conversation and (mostly) friendly debate. This one is definitely going into regular rotation for family game night, and I hope it gets popular enough for Big Potato to make expansions!

by Melissa Bezner

Catan brings you to a period when the wild borders of the world were being tamed. Because there’s an unoccupied island to claim and kingdoms to create, commerce and civilization growth are high on the priority list. You’ll need all of your wits about you while deciding where to sow roots. The landscape will change every time you play, so you’ll have to be cautious where you set up shop. Because making the right option may make or break your chances of winning, foresight is rewarded. Adults who like tactical board games will enjoy this game.

Beware! Don't try this unless you plan on getting addicted. Your life will forever be altered. You'll find yourself begging strangers to come over to play. Watching youtube videos to improve your game, bribing your children. Your spouse will become a tricky, sneaky person you hardly recognize. While you will plot ways to take over. Side effects include: less tv watching, more under the table kicking, spontaneous manical laughter, snacking while plotting the demise of your friends and family. Best fun you've had in hours!

by R Zeman

Instead of sketching items suggested by cards, players create them with dough, as the name indicates. As a result, it’s an excellent board game for families with children, who will appreciate how interactive it is. Rapidough, on the other hand, isn’t only for kids. The ensuing concoctions/monstrosities are often amusing, and attempting to figure out what your buddy has concocted is a good chuckle. To put it another way, creative ability isn’t necessary. It’s really more entertaining if you have no idea what you’re doing.

I like this game. This party game is easy to learn. You get a card, have to mold it out of dough and the person with who guesses first wins the card. There are a few twists and turns along the way to make this game a bit more challenging.

by CL

Wingspan is an unexpectedly popular adult board game. When the game went out of print a few years ago, some unscrupulous merchants charged three times the advertised price. Your goal is to attract as many species as possible. Dice are used to harvest food or eggs that attract birds, and they usually have talents that allow you to collect even more resources and birds. It’s a pleasant loop. The artwork is fantastic. It’s a beautiful burst of creative color. Wingspan is ideal for relaxing.

We have bought the Wingspan (original + European expansion) for a few days and my family (including our 8-year-old daughter) immediately fall in love with the game. We can't wait to play another game. We love birds and nature. We originally came from Hong Kong and we currently live in California. Due to the shelter-in-place in California, we have bought and played many board games lately and Wingspan is our top game! We look forward to having Asian expansion of the birds in the future for Wingspan.

by Clarissa Wong

Assemble a large, shaky residential complex for our hero to explore about in Rhino Hero. The kind of walls you may create each turn is determined by the roof tile you pick. There are both short and tall walls. After you’ve finished with your walls, you may place your roof tile anywhere you choose. To advance to the next level, you must first balance a monkey on the wooden rhino hero. Protect the tower from collapsing! While the little hands of a youngster will offer them an advantage in Rhino Hero, adults can figure out the best way to construct your home. Stacking goods and watching them fall is a favorite pastime of both young and elderly.

I bought this game for the Three Wise Men following other recommendations, for my son who turns 5 years old in March, it is a hilarious game, I really liked me too, I highly recommend it, I understand that it is a hit games, does not disappoint. An excellent detail is the small box as in other games comes a huge box that makes storage difficult. Buy 10.

by Belenchy

Sushi Go! is a quick game that you’ll want to play “just one more round.” That is, it is a family-friendly board game. Simple rules help a lot. Sushi Go! challenges you to build the most appetizing meal from a deck of cards. A few yield less but are quicker to acquire, while others reward the most of an item. That’s difficult. Everyone must transmit their cards to the next player. There’s a risk and reward factor since you never know what you may pick next. The outcome is a fun and strategic family board game. You’re in for a treat if you haven’t yet.

We have about 50 different card games and board games in the house and we have added a lot over the last year. Pandemic related lockdown and stress buying!! I'm so glad one of our kids asked for this game. Based on the instructions, it looked like there was a lot to learn but once we watched a couple of videos on Youtube and just started playing, everyone just loved it. It has quickly become the most favorite game of everyone in our family of all ages. Go buy this game if you don't have it already.

by K. Shah

The board, named after a walled medieval town on the continent, is built as you play. While everyone fills in a portion of Southern France with random tiles, carefully putting meeples wins points for each finished city, road, and field. The challenge is to plan your moves ahead of time. While there is some chance in the tiles you draw, positioning a piece to gain control of a town from an opponent demands strategic planning. So Carcassonne is one of those uncommon games that is simple to learn yet difficult to master.

I love this game!!! I bought it for my husband as a birthday gift because our family visited the actual medieval Carcassonne city in France. We have a 5 and 6 yr old who are getting into games. They easily picked this game up. I also like that a game lasts between 45 min- 1hr15min for us , which is great for either family game night, or a quick fun game with adults. I didn't realize it came with 2 expansions which we have worked up to. Compact, easy to set up and put away. Great travel game. We love this game!

by Bill Strosnider

Your objective is to gather cards from as many of the mansion’s spirits as possible. Some give you points right away, while others reward you later if you finish the set. So, do you go for a fast buck or do you wait for a bigger payday? In order to sabotage your opponents’ plans, you may go for the ghosts they require. That doesn’t mean easy, the ride’s famed Hitchhiking Ghosts are there to create havoc. Your token will be haunted if they pass by your token on their route around the board. You can only get rid of them by using up one of your restricted actions every round. A superb combination of strategy and reward in Haunted Mansion. As a consequence, it’s the ideal board game for families.

I’m a huge Disney Parks fan, and have been looking forward to the release of a proper Haunted Mansion board game, especially since it was designed by the same company that worked on Villainous. I was initially worried the game would be too simple and not that replayable, but I was wrong! While it’s still definitely simple, we played four games after opening the box and still wanted to play more! Because of how simple and easy to learn it is, it’s a great game to break out for a game night with new players, unlike how Villainous takes a few games in order to get a grasp on the rules. I highly recommend this game!

by Hayden Allred