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Best Family Games for 2023 – CNET

Years ago, just the idea of having regular family board game nights would have elicited overly dramatic sighs of despair from even the hardiest of family members. While games like Monopoly and Clue have their place, most of us can’t stand to play them every week for decades. Thankfully, modern board games are full of variety that makes playing them feel fresh each time you sit down. My family tries to play every Friday night, and with kids aged 5 to, er, 43, we need a lot of games to keep things entertaining.

Iello

Like

  • Kaiju battles are fun for everyone
  • Good amount of luck to offset lack of skill
  • Colorful

Don’t like

  • Can feel simple for older families

King of Tokyo has been a longtime favorite family board game in our house because it’s easy to pick up (even for younger players), quick to play and still strategically satisfying. Each player takes control of a monster — think Godzilla or King Kong — and attempts to control Tokyo on the central game board. What ensues is a fun and often hilarious game of dice-rolling (imagine Yahtzee, but using dice with claws, energy bolts and points on them), aggressive play and chaotic attempts to wrest control of Tokyo from your competitors. The game ends when only one monster remains alive or when someone reaches 20 points. It’s simple but endlessly fun, even in a mixed crowd.

James Bricknell / CNET

Like

  • Fantastic drinking game
  • Great for adults
  • Waterproof pieces

Don’t like

  • Adults only

Heroes of Barcadia isn’t a normal family game; it’s an adult family game. The game is a cocktail of dungeon-crawling board-builder and a literal drinking game. You build your dungeon as you play and battle against your family, but because it is a drinking game, you use your glass to measure your hit points and drink when you take damage. It doesn’t have to be alcohol, but it’s a lot of fun when it is!

The best thing about the game is that it’s fully waterproof. Everything from the cards to the manual is made of a thin, flexible plastic that acts like paper but won’t be destroyed the first time you drunkenly spill your “health potion” all over it.

How we test family board games

As you can imagine board game testing is a grueling and often stressful experience. I’m kidding; testing board games is awesome. It is, however, subjective in a lot of ways. I tend to look at certain criteria as to what makes a board game “good, however.”

  • Is the board and piece quality good?
  • Are the instructions clear?
  • How long does it take different age groups to learn?
  • How long does the game take to play?
  • How fun is it? (This is incredibly important)
  • Can you replay it and it still feel fresh?

Because board gaming is a team sport, my family’s opinions are used to help me average out testing. While I may like a 5-hour-long game with 1,000 pieces, my 17-year-old son may not feel the same. Getting a good spread of opinions helps me find the best overall games in each category.

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