Family Games

Here's a nice family game that is simple to understand but you have to be quick to select the right item: Ghost Blitz

The back story is that a ghost took some pictures but they either came out wrong or actually right. When you draw a card, you look at the colors, the items and if something is right, then you pick that item, if nothing is right, then you pick what is missing from the picture. But you have to make sure you select the correct answer (whether right or wrong) and if you don't select the correct item, then you must give one of your cards (which you won by choosing correctly before) to the person who did choose correctly.

The game goes on like this until there are no more cards to draw and the winner is the person with the most cards. This game has 2 sets; Ghost Blitz and Ghost Blitz 2.

3.5 dice out of 5

CardLine and TimeLine are very similar family games; CardLine is more for kids and Timeline is more for players ages 13 and up. However, the premise of the game is all the same; start with one card on the table with either a size, age or weight (for CardLine) or a year (for Timeline) face up and each player is given a certain number of cards with this information face down and must guess if the card they hold goes before or after the one on the table (or between 2 cards on the table).

Here is an example for CardLine: On the table you have a Wolf and you decide that you are going to use the weight category for the game; the first player looks at their cards and chooses a giraffe, is that giraffe heavier or lighter than a wolf. If the person guesses right, then the card is placed on the table at the appropriate spot, if not, then the player discards that card and chooses a new card. The player with no cards left, wins the game. Now the second player will have 2 cards

on the table and must choose to place one of their cards either between the 2 cards, after the 2 cards or before the 2 cards... and this goes on until someone wins.

As for TimeLine: Same concept except that you need to know your history or be very lucky... these cards are usually inventions or things that were discovered, or books that were written, etc. and so you start with one card on the table with the year face up and then each player plays their cards in the same fashion as CardLine; before, after or between other cards. Again, first person to get rid of all their cards, wins.

Both of these games come in a nice tin canister and (you may not notice it in the pictures - also sorry for the quality - it was late when I took them) the cards are placed inside a nice felt holder. The cards in CardLine are bigger in size which helps when small kids are playing and the cards in TimeLine are quite small but you get more cards. There are many versions of both CardLine and Timeline and can all be mixed in to one major deck for more players. I believe the suggested number of players is 2 to 6 but I think you could be more if you put all the sets together and have a one heck of a 'TIME'. The price is nice on these as well so not a budget breaker if you are looking to break into small card games.

These games get a nice 4.5 dice out of 5.

 

Here is one of the many dice game out there that allow you to play a quick game with your family and introduce younger players to turn-based games. Dino Hunt DICE comes with 10 beautifully coloured dice that depict either a leaf, a dino print or a dinosaur. The point of this game is to get to 20 points before the others do. How do you do this? Simple, place all the dice in the cup (which is nicely illustrated) and take out 3 random dice, roll them and if you get dinosaurs, you want to keep them; if you get leaves, you take those dice and take out more dice from the cup (to a total of 3 in your hand) and roll again; if you get a dino print, they remain on the table until you get three and you lose your turn and any dinosaur you tried to score is lost. So you might want to stop rolling when you have 2 prints. You just keep rolling until you score your dinosaurs or get 3 dino prints.

 

This is a great game for small kids because the game play is quick and could be over in 10 minutes and then you start over again. Similar games to this would be Zombie Dice and Chupacabra but the themes of these two dice games are more mature in nature and aim at the older crowds (but I play them with my little guys and just explain them the rules in a cute way). They retail for 11$ to 22$ because they come with more and more dice (10 in Dino Hunt, 13 in Zombie Dice and 24 dice in Chupacabra).

 

All of these dice games get the max; 5 out of 5 dice. 

 

Who doesn't know the story of The Three Little Pigs? Well this game puts a small twist on the original tale.

 

In the box you get a bunch of house piece tiles (some wood, some straw and some brick) separated into roofs, doors and windows. You also get 5 dice that you get to roll a total of 3 times and then from there you decide what you want to build.



Here is a turn example: First place all the doors, windows and roofs into piles sorted by their type (straw, wood or brick), then the first player rolls the 5 dice and keeps the dice they want to use to build a piece of their house; if they get 2 doors and 1 window and 1 roof and 1 wolf, the wolf is set aside and the die cannot be re-rolled (if you get 2 wolves you spin the wolf wheel - will get to that later), they can keep whatever materials they want or re-roll any of the 4 dice that are not wolves.

Once the player has rolled three times, then the player can take a tile equal to the number of dice it shows; if you have 3 doors and 1 window, then the player can take a wood door and a straw window (you need at least 1 die to take any straw materials, 2 dice for wood and 3 dice for brick). Now that player places the two tiles so that the door is on the bottom and the window above that door - there are many ways of placing these materials - they do not have to be the same material at all but you must follow these rules: Your house must also start with either a door or a window on the bottom and a roof on the top. You can place more windows beneath other windows if there is no door under it, or you can place more windows above other windows. You cannot place 2 doors above or below each other and you cannot place any tiles on that house once you place a roof.

If you choose to build a house with all the same type (ie straw), there is an end-game bonus that goes to the player who has houses built with the same types for all levels of material. Also there are other rewards for the player with the highest built (completed) house - includes a door, at least one window and a roof - and so on.

Now I mentioned the wolf dice, well if you get 2 or more of these dice during your rolls (you must stop if you get to 2 but you could roll 3 on the first shot), you have select another player with tiles in front of them and select one of their houses to blow on. Then you spin the wolf spinner, and you remove any tiles from that house that match the type that is on the spinner (ie wood, straw or brick).

Very simple game and kids will love this. The price is a tad high for what you get but still lots of fun.

4 out of 5 dice

If you love poker and Yahtzee, well here is a game for you that combines both: Roll'n Bump.
The title says it all, you roll dice and you bump your opponent's dice.

What you get in the box: you get 26 dice (5 of 5 different colours - however some of the colors are really close and hard to tell apart - and 1 special die) and 49 coloured cards (including one special multicoloured card).

Setting up your first game is easy, you place the 15-point multicoloured card in the middle of the table and then, depending on the number of players - for this example, let's say 4, you place 6 piles of 8 cards around the middle card, flip the top card of each pile face up and give 5 dice of the same colour to each player and place the special white die in view of all players.

How to play: You get three rolls of your dice (which seems to be the case will most dice games) and when looking at the cards in play you may want to try and roll for a small straight of 3 dice, a medium straight of 4 dice or a long straight of 5 dice; or you might want 2 of a kind, 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind or go big and try and grad the middle card for 5 of a kind; or you might roll nothing good this turn and try and take the single die cards (a 4 or a 2, etc.). The goal is to have the highest rolled dice on any of these cards - whether you are trying for a small 3 dice straight, you will want a 4,5,6 so no one can bump you, or if you are trying for the 3 of a kind, you will want three 6's so no one can bump you; or once again you might want to place more than 4 on the single 4 card because there are no cards with 2 of a kind or more at the moment on the table. (I may add a quick video showing a single turn just to explain this a bit more).

Once you have placed your dice, then the other players play their turns trying to outscore your dice and bumping you off the ones you took. Each card has a point value and there are also 4 colours of cards that if you have more of one colour that end of the game you get more points.

This game was a hit at family parties and I recommend it for all ages; 5 out of 5 dice

All of these games are available at Multizone