11 Best Board Games for Kids (and Adults) to Play this Year

Best Board Games for Kids to Play This Year

We’ve compiled a list of some of the best board games for family game night that will keep your kids entertained.

We have played a lot of board games over the last few years on our channel and a fun board game is a great way to get the family together and encourage kids to take a break from their video games. Plus, a great board game teaches them strategy, teamwork and interactivity, and creative problem solving.

Over the years there have been several standout tabletop games launched for kids between ages 7 and 12. Most importantly, they are also fun for adults to play making them great choices for family game nights. These games are far superior, in my opinion, to the classics like Candy Land and Chutes and Ladders. There are plenty of kids board games to explore outside of the typical ones that we all played as children. 

To save you time searching through all of the board games online, we’ve compiled a few of the best, based on our own playing experience. They’ll keep your children engaged and entertained, while also being fun for the whole family.

Best board games for kids

Here are highly rated board games for kids ages 12 and under based on our own gameplay experience. We also included approximate playtime, number of players and age range, as recommended by the game publisher and our go to board game review site BoardGameGeek.

Fossilis 

Fossilis is a really fun and educational game for 2-5 players who play as paleontologists working the dig site with shovels, whisk brooms, and chisels looking for a find that could make their career. This game is very unique and our son absolutely loves this game. 

The board consists of a 3D dig site filled with hidden dinosaur bones that are covered with terrain tiles. Players use strategy and luck to try to uncover the best discoveries. The winner of the game is the one with the most points by obtaining bones listed on their cards.

 

See it Played on our Board Game Empire YouTube Channel – Fossilis How to Play and Playthrough

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 2-5
• Playtime: 45-60 minutes

Buy Fossilis on Amazon

Monsters on Board 

Monsters on Board is a very fun game where players are trying to collect the most spook juice for the big party being held for Spider Jack. The game has really cute 3D fear mobiles for drafting custom dice that are used to move their colorful Grunt miniatures of the same color and scoring on the spider jack track. 

Grunts travel through neighborhoods scaring the townspeople and collecting bonuses. We had a blast playing this game that was only sold via Kickstarter and can probably still be purchased via late pledge. If not, I am sure you can find this game being sold second hand and we would highly suggest getting your hands on a copy. 

See it Played on our Board Game Empire YouTube Channel – Monsters on Board How to Play and Playthrough

• Ages: 12 and up
• Players: 1-4
• Playtime: 45-60 minutes

Buy Monsters on Board on Final Frontier Games

Nova Luna

Nova Luna is an abstract tile laying game, where players choose a tile to place in their playing area carefully deciding placements based on adjacent colors and tasks they are trying to complete. This is a very strategic game that requires players to think ahead. Turn order is based on who is furthest behind, so if played correctly, players can take multiple turns in a row. 

This game has great mechanics and keeps you on the edge of your seat as you hope the other players don’t take the tile you’re vying for next.

 

See it Played on our Board Game Empire YouTube Channel – Nova Luna How to Play and Playthrough

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 1-4
• Playtime: 30-60 minutes

Imhotep: The Duel 

Imhotep: The Duel is a fun worker placement game where players unload the most valuable items from the six boats. Players are building four monuments to gain as many fame points as possible. 

Mechanics are simple and a turn consists of placing a meeple, unloading a boat, or using a special action tile. Although the game is simple and easy to learn, it is strategic and quick to play, which is what makes it so fun.

 

See it Played on our Board Game Empire YouTube Channel – Imhotep The Duel How to Play and Playthrough

• Ages: 10 and up
• Players: 2
• Playtime: 30 minutes

Buy iImhotep: The Duel board game on Amazon

Exploding Kittens

Exploding Kittens is a fun, fast paced card game where players are trying to avoid drawing the exploding kitten. The cards are very humorous and are a hit with the kids. This game is very easy to teach and an easy game to pack when traveling.

There are cards to avert losing if you do happen to draw the dreaded exploding kitten card, however, eventually a player will run out of defensive cards and be forced to draw multiple cards. Once this occurs they will inevitably be knocked out of the game. The winner is the last one standing. 

• Ages: 7 and up
• Players: 2-5
• Playtime: 15 minutes

Buy Exploding Kittens game on Amazon

Flourish 

Flourish is a gorgeous card drafting, set collection game where players build a garden to gain the most points. This game can be played both with competitive strategy and co-operative game modes.

This game is very easy to learn and has a lot of strategy and rules stay the same whether played competitively or in cooperative mode. This is a light and fairly quick to play game with several expansions to give it more replayablility, which are included in the signature edition sold on Amazon. 

 

See it Played on our Board Game Empire YouTube Channel – Flourish How to Play and Playthrough

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 1-7
• Playtime: 20-60 minutes

Buy Flourish on Amazon

Candy Lab

Candy Lab is a quick playing game where players are fulfilling the candy orders on their cards by creating candy bar combinations and activating their effects to manipulate the game. The game ends when the last candy bar is collected or the draw pile is empty. The player with the most points wins. 

This is a fun strategy game that is easy to teach. This is one of our favorite games to play as a family.

 

See it Played on our Board Game Empire YouTube Channel – Candy Lab How to Play and Playthrough

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 2-4
• Playtime: 15 minutes

Buy Candy Lab on Amazon

Adventure Mart

Adventure Mart is a deck building bidding game where players manage a store and try to outsmart the competition and sell their goods to the adventurers for the most gold. 

Players can upgrade their fixtures and hire staff to gain abilities and effects. Each turn players are also trying to acquire the highly sought after stock items to sell to the adventurers passing through that round. We really enjoy playing this game and found it to be educational in supply and demand and did a great job of simplifying the aspects of running a business.

See it Played on our Board Game Empire YouTube Channel – Adventure Mart How to Play and Playthrough

• Ages: 10 and up
• Players: 2-4
• Playtime: 45-60 minutes

Buy Adventure Mart on Amazon

Sushi Go!

Sushi Go! is a fast paced card game where players are collecting sets to gain points. This game is very easy to teach and a great filler game. The game comes in a tin making it great for travel.

This game takes less than twenty minutes to play and plays over three rounds. Sushi Go! has easy pick and pass mechanics. Players choose one card from their hand to keep and pass the cards to their left. This card drafting continues until all cards have been chosen. Players tally their “sets”  which consist of various combinations; some are based on having the most, others are based on pairs or triplicates, while others gain points for each subsequent item. 

See it Played on our Board Game Empire YouTube Channel – Sushi Go How to Play and Review

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 2-5
• Playtime: 15 minutes

Buy Sushi Go! on Amazon

Potions & Profits

Potions & Profits is a card drafting, betting, and bluffing game where players are Wizards representing pharmaceutical corporations looking for new Potions to invest in. The game is a balance of stock value and public relations. 

The most profitable potions are usually the least ethical, however, your public relation score will go down. This game requires a balance of both to win the game. Because you are penalized for having too low of a PR score. The tracks on the board are ever changing each round and affects the number of ingredient cards you get to draw each round. Players add ingredients to the face up potions and some which are hidden. Then all place bids on the face up potions hoping to score the most profitable potion without negative cards. 

See it Played on our Board Game Empire YouTube Channel – Potions & Profits How to Play & Playthrough

• Ages: 8 and up
• Players: 3-6
• Playtime: 15-30 minutes

Willy Wonka’s The Golden Ticket Game

Willy Wonka’s The Golden Ticket Game was a great family game and one of my favorite movies. This was given to me as a gift and I was amazed at how fun it was. Players choose one of the original characters from the movie, each of which has their own unique player ability.  The components are really cool and it actually has little golden tickets to place in the Wonka Bar candy wrappers. 

The mechanics are similar to Istanbul, which is also one of our favorite games. Players can move to various locations to perform specific actions; in hopes of gaining a Wonka Bar. The end of the game is a hoot when players are frantically searching through their pile of obtained candy wrappers to see if they found the Golden Ticket. There can be ties as multiple players can find a Golden Ticket.

• Ages: 10 and up
• Players: 2-5
• Playtime: 20-30 minutes

Buy Willy Wonka’s The Golden Ticket Game on Amazon

What to see board game playthroughs? Check out our full playlist on our YouTube Channel.

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