Comments on: How to Choose Board Games in Many Easy Steps

By: Kate McKee

Kate McKee — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 16:15:05 +0000

As far as Good Kid Games that the Whole Family Can Enjoy, we’ve had excellent luck with Heroscape.
Pros:
1) There’s both Basic Play (with very simple rules) and Advanced Play (for strategy whores.)
2) Setting up the board is itself entertaining for the young folk. I.e. “Why don’t you go arrange all the dragons for an epic battle, thus entertaining yourself quietly for an hour while Mommy finishes her work?”
3) It lends itself to customized variations, in which Nativity figures can be placed in play, e.g. PERSIAN MAGUS – MOVE 6 RANGE 1 ATT 3 DEF 7 Spec: Stealth Retreat w Engaged by Herod.
4) Every parent needs to know the pleasure of their 6-year-old saying things like, “Daddy, you can only melee, but I can fight from range.”
CONS:
1) Like an element in gaseous form, this game expands to fill all available space. Hope you have a heated basement, garage, or attic.
2) Kyrie wings break off, fall on floor, get eaten by Lab puppies.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:01:48 +0000

Unfortunately I’ve got almost no clue about good kid games. Candyland and Chutes & Ladders do have a point: teaching kids what games look like and how to follow simple rules. With Eli we’ve gone from that to playing games like Blokus that have simple rules and can be fun to play even if you’re not winning, or Bitin’ Off Hedz, the Cheapass Games game where you’re all dinosaurs racing to throw yourself into a volcano.

By: Paul O'Brian

Paul O'Brian — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:54:46 +0000

Thank you! If you’re ever so inclined, I would love to see a kids’ edition of this. I’d love to play more games with Dante, but it turns out that Candy Land, Hi-Ho Cherry-O, Chutes And Ladders, etc. make me feel all empty and hopeless inside.

By: Allis

Allis — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 16:47:23 +0000

Great list! We have Fluxx and really enjoy it!

I bought Zach Runebound 2nd ed. for his birthday. He wanted a RPG style game which he could really sink his teeth into, but we didn’t have friends readily available for a random game of D&D. Runebound is great for 2 players, but has a play time of 2-3 hours. Just long enough for my attention span and his depth requirement.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:11:05 +0000

Oh yeah, I’d meant to add Bohnanza or Space Beans. More editing!

By: abovenyquist

abovenyquist — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 06:07:55 +0000

Someone should make a game about harvesting Pepsi cans.

By: duchess

duchess — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 05:28:57 +0000

Clearly you forget the second time I ever played Fluxx. And how it lasted for 6 hours, till 3am. We were all begging to finish the game already!

For my non-gaming family, I’ve had a lot of luck with Bohnanza, but I can’t tell where it would fall in your list. Also, I seem to agree with your entire list except for Apples/Apples.

By: Stephen

Stephen — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 04:07:22 +0000

Oh, good suggestion! I’ve liked Lost Cities for a while, and have heard good things about Dominion from you and others. I’ll look at adding that in tomorrow.

By: dfan

dfan — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 03:40:09 +0000

Good list and nice way to divide up the field. One category I would add: quick (30 minutes or less) two-player card games, for which my nominations are Lost Cities and Dominion (the latter scales up nicely to more than two players as well).