16 best family board games for hours of fun, from cult classics to new releases

Few board games beat Monopoly, it’s a fan-favourite for a reason, after all. And despite picking up countless other games, it’s one we keep coming back to time and time again. Whether you choose to be the dog, hat, penguin, or car is up to you as you work your way across the board to beat your opponents, just narrowly avoiding jail each time. If you’re anything like our tester, it can get extremely competitive, so be sure not to flip the board over. But remember, a good game can take time, so get ready to settle around the table for a night of light-hearted fun with no cheating, please!

For anyone who has watched Family Fortunes, this game follows a similar set-up, so if you were ever taught to think outside of the box, it’s now time to come back into the pack. With questions such as: “What sound does an animal make?” you’ll want to know your opponents well to make sure you guess the same answer as them. If you do, you’ll be rewarded with a cow. If you don’t, the dreaded pink cow will be yours until you can pass it on to someone else.

Bringing a lot of laughs, this game gave our tester a great time, and we’d say it can be played by those younger than 10, too, as the questions really are accessible to everyone. Suitable for four to 20 players, it’s the perfect pick for large groups of any age and also doesn’t take up too much space, so no need for an extra large table top.

This game is definitely for adults only, as it is rather rude. From secret sexual fantasy questions to funny findings such as “name three things you hate about family gatherings”, we would say this one is best played with friends rather than your family.

Depending on who you play with, you can tailor how X-rated the game gets. “Name three things you put batteries in” for example, could be completely innocent, or it could be a little bit naughty, the choice is yours. But be prepared to learn more about your friends than you may have ever wished to know. Our tester and their friends had so much fun playing this one, and it’s sure to perk up even the dullest of dinner parties.

If, however, you fancy putting everyone’s quick thinking to the test on some much more family-friendly themes, then we also rated the original version of 5 second rule (£8.49, Amazon.co.uk) when we rounded up the best card games.

Looking to secretly sneak some learning into your kid’s playtime? Let us introduce you to Zingo, the language-learning board game. As the name suggests, it works in a similar way to bingo, or snap, where players match the tiles to what’s on their sheet. Best for pre-readers, words like “cat”, “house”, or “bird” are all included, alongside little pictures to help them on their way. Who said learning couldn’t be fun?

Cluedo is a classic for a reason, sending you on your very own murder mystery mission. For those who haven’t played before, be prepared to get your thinking hats on to try and deduce who committed the crime, the room where it happened and the object responsible in order to win the game. You will need a pencil to keep track of your notes and get ready to concentrate on each and every clue.

For those who have played before, a new character, Dr Orchid, has been brought into the mix to make things even more exciting. Our tester found it to be a little bit boring for children, so this may be one you reserve for older kids and adults – and, speaking from experience, you won’t want to have too many drinks beforehand as it can become rather complicated to keep track! But for whittling away a few hours while spending quality time with the family, it is hard to beat.

You may have played Pictionary before, most likely with a pen and pad in the old-school way, but this game has been made incredibly modern as we turn to our trusty tech. So long as you have a smartphone and a smart TV, anyone can play, no matter how many people there are, and this one has even been given a Star Wars twist.

Using the lightsaber, draw your design in the sky and magically see it appear on the screen. Then standard rules apply as each team battles it out to see who guesses the most things correctly. Of course, it helps if you’re a fan of the franchise and know the difference between your R2-D2 and C-3PO, but once you get the hang of it, almost everyone can play.

If you want to challenge yourself while playing a board game, then Race to Escape is ready and raring to go. With a 3D board, it certainly looks impressive (although it takes a little while to assemble), and cryptic clues are sure to keep you on your toes. Looking for hidden codes, secret passwords and crossword clues, it’s similar to the life-size escape rooms, just shrunken down.

Our tester found it was a great option for those who are competitive, yet it takes concentration and attention to detail, so not one to be played half-heartedly. But when you take the time to truly try it out, you’re bound to lose a couple of hours chasing each other around the rooms.

Fancy yourself a bit of a comedian? The Taskmaster board game may be for you. Taking your favourite TV show into the comfort of your own home, this game allows you to compete for the crown while one person plays host. Best played in your own home, with tasks including “make your own packed lunch” it can get messy, but trust us when we say it brings a lot of laughs. And, as with everything, the more you put into it, the more you will get out.

Our tester found it was best played with six people, but you can cut your group number down to just three, with one host and two players if needed. And if you’re someone who often struggles to sit still when playing a traditional board game, this one will certainly have you on the edge of your seat.

When it comes to general knowledge board games, no longer will your parents have the upper hand, due to your Trivial Pursuit board being from 1987. Outsmarted has categories specifically for kids, teens and adults, levelling the playing field across the family.

Controlled via an app, the game can be cast onto your TV, for that real live quiz show effect. Move around the board using your chosen historical figure as your icon, answering questions from six categories, chosen by you at the start of every game, from an enormous library of more than 6,000 multimedia questions. From breaking news (updated daily) to 80s hits, Harry Potter, Marvel, F1, logos, science and nature, celeb arrests, back to school, Game of Thrones and many more.

You can even play with people around the world, so it’s perfect for connecting with long-distance friends and family.

We particularly like that this game is completely different every time you play, due to the ever-updating questions. While you do have to purchase many of the more niche question categories, the game offers us new ones for free almost every time we play. It’s the perfect board game for competitive quizzers of all ages.

A twist on the tried and true classic Monopoly, Monopoly Empire swaps the property market for consumer goods. Instead of collecting properties you collect brands, goodbye Mayfair and Trafalgar Square, and hello Coca-Cola and Samsung. The basic rules still apply, if one of your competitors- also known as your family and friends – lands on your brand, then they pay up. The bigger the brand, the bigger the payout, and the bigger sized tile you get to slot into your tower of power. The winner is the first to fill their skyscraper with brands.

The old musts are still there, such as chance cards, taxes and the dreaded “Go To Jail” card, but now they come with modern twists. We particularly liked the updated tokens, meaning you can play as McDonald’s fries, a Coke bottle, an Xbox controller or a sports car. Due to the licensing of the brands, this game can be priced pretty steeply, but Amazon offers slightly used editions of the game at a very reasonable price, meaning you don’t miss out on any of the fun, can save some money and make a more sustainable purchasing option.

Not strictly a board game, Dobble is too much fun not to include here anyway. Each card has exactly one symbol in common with every other card, and it’s up to players to spot and shout out the symbol before anyone else. It sounds simple, but is surprisingly challenging under pressure and soon gets intense – heated games of Dobble have soured otherwise pleasant holidays with friends.

Few board games are as satisfying to pick up, replay and invite friends along than Pandemic, a strictly cooperative experience that sees all players work together to eradicate different diseases across the globe.

Each player can take on a role that gives them different abilities and skills while taking turns to try and remove diseases from different countries, in a set number of actions. If players fail to eradicate a disease before it reaches a cerain number, an outbreak occurs, which can cause a knock-on effect in neighbouring territories.

There’s good reason why it’s often featured at the top of best board game recommendations and our round-up is no exception.

From the makers of Obama Llama comes Noggin, a word-association game where players place cards in three piles of letter cards around a table. When an action card is placed on one pile, all the players must quickly come up with a word associated with the other two letters, including initials, word association/disassociation or descriptors. Players can also steal other players’ cards if they spot a three-letter word that can be assembled from the pile.

From the makers of Exploding Kittens, Mantis is a colourful cut-throat card-collecting game, where players can either choose to take a card of a corresponding colour from a deck or steal a collection of cards from other players.

It’s very simple to set up and learn, well suited for larger groups and can lead to some interesting high-risk strategies to successfully steal cards from other players.

If you remember ‘choose your own adventure’ books, where different pages take you down different paths of a branching narrative, this game works in much the same way. There are three decks of cards, each with their own story of varying difficulty. Once the first card is drawn, each new card directs players through the deck until the story is resolved, but there are a few twists.

At certain points, each card will task players with completing a “mini-game” of sorts, such as assembling puzzle pieces in a set amount of time, locating different-shaped items in a blind bag or pushing a puck on a miniature shuffleboard. Players also have to be wary of “peril pieces” – essentially stackable cairn stones – and if players knock them down, it’s game over.

Naturally, the different story paths players can take also means each of the three campaigns can be replayed to explore different options but this can only be done a finite number of times before repetition will set in. The mini-games also offer a more dexterous challenge that gives the game some added flair. It’s fun alone but also works well in a group of four as an accessible party game that’s simple to set up.

For fans of Articulate who want to step things up, Hint is a party game where two teams race around the board by guessing what teammates are either drawing, miming, humming or talking about but there is one word on each card that is forbidden.

If another teammate accidentally says it, the round immediately ends and the other team has a chance to guess what the forbidden word was to score extra points.