I don’t know about your house, but in ours, once the turkey has been devoured and a few glasses of something lovely have washed it down, it’s time to crack out the board games and attempt to give the kids a run for their money. This year, we’re trying out a handful of family board games with options to suit just about everyone. Let the games begin!
Mission Ocean
£16.50
Mission Ocean is an educational eco board game for little ones aged from four to six years old. It uses gentle messaging and fun gameplay to teach them about plastic pollution in the seas and how it impacts wildlife.
The aim of the game is to free your chosen animal from the plastic waste (six pieces are loaded onto each animal token at the start of the game) by rolling the dice and carrying out the special actions shown on the white die.
The winner is the first player to have gathered all of the plastic waste from their animal and loaded it onto the 3D ship at the head of the board.
There is a lot to like about this game, with its cute illustrations and great messaging. A portion of the proceeds from the games go to the non-profit organisation The Ocean Cleanup, which is a nice touch.
Holding their attention could be challenging for the youngest children, as only one piece of waste can be removed at a time. The blue die that tells the player the number of places they can move uses thin, wavey lines rather than numbers, which could be hard for them to interpret. With a little help, though, they will undoubtedly enjoy playing.
Skullduggery
£10
Avast me hearties! This great little card-based game from Cheatwell will test memory and strategy building for 2–6 players aged eight and above. The idea is simple — the winner is the pirate player with the highest four-digit number on the cards in front of them. The catch is that they don’t get to look at all the cards.
With each turn, the active player draws a card from the deck and can choose to discard it, replace one of their cards with it (with the bonus of now knowing the number on it), or use the red and blue tokens to replace one of their neighbour’s cards with it. This can only be done once per game, so make it count!
The discarded card then triggers the action on it, which can mean switching or passing cards or getting a peek at one previously unseen.
Each game of Skullduggery is designed to last up to 15 minutes so younger players will remain engaged rather than lose interest. A lot of fun in quick-fire bursts and a great chance to practise your best pirate impression — that’s what decides who starts the game.
Richard Osman’s House of Games
£20
If you’re a quiz show fan, you will doubtless have come across the BBC2 show Richard Osman’s House of Games, the panel game that pits celeb against celeb with word and picture-based quiz questions before crowning them the weekly winner.
This board game version of the hit show will give you plenty of giggles as you work your way through the four randomly selected game rounds and the final answer smash round, and the highest scoring player is declared the winner and presented with the tiny trophy.
With some of the game rounds played as team games, this is a board game that works best with more players, so gather the family, assign your very own Richard Osman to oversee the proceedings and get quizzing. To add to the competitive atmosphere, players or teams can scan the QR code within the box to access a digital buzzer.
It is a family-friendly game for ages 12 and up, which, for most rounds, relies more on wordplay than general knowledge, making it more inclusive than many quiz-style games.
Taskmaster The Board Game
£20
If you’ve never seen the TV show, Taskmaster, this game could seem a little… off the wall. To be honest, it’s barely any more sane if you have, but we’ll let that pass.
The playing board represents the areas of the Taskmaster house used in the show, such as the lab, the kitchen and the shed, and the tasks use things you would find in those places. During our first game, the kitchen task was “make a tiny sandwich. Tiniest sandwich wins”. Simple, yet effective. And yes, the kitchen looked like a small herd of rhinos had made lunch, albeit in tiny form.
The game is designed for three or more players aged eight and over. What is really great about it is the flexibility it offers. You can adapt the game to best suit the number and ages of the players, and you can either select a person to act as the Taskmaster for the duration of the game or change the Taskmaster for each round — it really is up to you.
More players will mean more chaos, but that’s all part of the fun. The tasks will involve needing to rifle through cupboards and drawers to find the right things to win, which might be a bit odd with a group of players from outside your household, but if you’re not a private or shy person, it’s a blast.
