With the gift giving season around the corner, here are some of our favourites to recommend. Simply click on the title to find the game on Amazon. For these and even more game recommendations, check out our Idea List.
The Game for Any Kid
Instead of working up to our most recommended game, I’m just going to start with it. If we were to recommend only one game as a gift for kids, it would be Concept Kids. Not because it’s the best game out there, although it’s pretty close to it, but because it’s the most accessible.
In Concept Kids, one player has a secret animal that they must describe by indicating characteristics of the animal on the game board. Characteristics such as, habitat, colour, size, how it moves, diet, number of limbs, etc. Other players try to guess the animal. That’s it!
This game works for any age (grandparents can play with a 5 year old) and any gaming experience level (newbies or full fledged gamers). It’s the accessibility that makes this game a must have in every household and the perfect gift.
The Game for any Person, any Age, any Gaming Experience Level
If we were to pick one game to give as a gift, not limited to children, it would Just One. Once again, because it is strongly accessible. It has simple rules that can be taught in one minute with fast game play often featuring exciting laugh-out-loud moments.
Just One is a simple cooperative word guessing game where players all write down a clue, but any duplicates are eliminated and the guessing player has to work with only the remaining clues. It provides a tricky balance of giving unique clues that others wouldn’t give, but not being too vague that it would be hard to guess. Often you want to give the obvious clue to make it easy to guess, but then everyone avoids it and the guesser is left with a mish-mash of weird obscure clues that are only obvious to the people who know the word.
Honestly, this game makes the perfect secret santa gift. It’s a game that we know would work with anyone, even if they have never played a game in their life. It even works well with kids mixed in with adults. Younger kids who can’t read can give clues to their parents to write for them. We recommend this game so highly that we would confidently give it to a stranger we have never met!
The Game for Kids that you have Never Met
Just how we would give any stranger the game “Just One”, we would give a “Smart Game” to any child we have never met.
Smart Games make a series of logic puzzles that test their problem solving and critical thinking skills. These games really test a kids logic and pushes them to think carefully about what they are doing. What we love most is that is contains a series of puzzles that start off simple and very slowly get harder and harder. This allows kids to slowly learn the puzzle concepts and how to solve them.
We love these little puzzles, one of our favourites being the Three Little Piggies. Our kids quickly get engaged and thrive with the challenges, often proclaiming pure joy when they find the solution.
We often stock up on these games for birthday presents for our kids school friends since we don’t know what type of things they like. Surprisingly, we often get messages from parents asking “Where did you get this? We want to get more!”
The Game for Families who Play Board Games Often
If you know a family that plays board games on a regular basis, Zombie Kidz Evolution is a great gift idea. In this game you work together to protect a school from an invasion of silly zombies. What is unique about the game is that it plays as a campaign. You replay the game over and over again and each time you defeat it or complete achievements you gain access to secret envelopes. Opening those envelopes gives now game components and rules that change the way the game plays. Each time you play the game it evolves into something different, something more complex, something more interactive.
The legacy-style evolution of the game quickly turns into an experience that a family enjoys together and talks about long after they are done each play
Wreck Raiders and Honga
The Next Level Game
Maybe your kids have played games for years and you think they are ready for something more complex. Or maybe you have noticed they started eyeing your own board games indicating some interest in something more complicated. If you think they are ready to take the next step to something outside the realm of typical kids games, you might want to try Wreck Raiders or Honga.
Wreck Raiders is a worker placement game where you place your scuba divers at treasure sites to get treasures. You can trade in these resources to museum exhibits, to create beautiful aquariums, or to store in your personal vault, all providing different ways to gather you points. It uses a cool dice drafting mechanism to determine where you can place your divers. It also has a cool neighbour mechanic where placing a diver next to another player gives that player a bonus.
Honga is an action selection game where you place a card that indicates which of the many actions on the board you will do on that turn. You can collect supplies, search the forest, trade, gather mammoths, climb temples, etc. All providing different ways to get points in the game. One interesting aspect as that there is a sabertooth tiger, names Honga, that you have to manage to pet each turn to keep him calm, otherwise he comes and steals your food!
Wreck Raiders and Honga both provide and engaging theme with beautiful components that help ease children into more in-depth mechanics and gaming strategies. Just like popular games such as Catan, you are collecting resources to trade in for points, however they provide more interesting interactions between players and a larger variety in ways to get points. It’s hard to consider either of these games as “kids games” as both are solid games that adults often are happy to play without any kids around.
The Game for the Strategic (or wannabe) Chess Gamer
We can’t make any recommendation list without suggesting Santorini, a game that has the strategic spirit of chess but with simpler rules and quicker play time. It is a strong head to head strategy game that will challenge both kids and adults. If you think you would like your kids to get into chess, try this first. We guarantee you won’t be disappointed.
The Light/Quick Game
Often we get asked for recommendations that are light and fast. Something to quickly squeeze in before dinner or bed. Dragon’s Breath fits the bill. It’s a simple game of anticipating how jewels will fall so you can collect them. It’s definitely not a brain burner, but it’s light fun with amazing components that will keep your kids engaged with a satisfying gaming experience.
Honorable Mentions
Here are some other safe bets as gifts that we often have success with.
The Spiel des Jarhes winner (German Game of the Year that is like winning the Oscar for best movie), is a great gift for kids, but the adults might end up playing it more often.
King of Tokyo – First game (8+)
Rolling dice to fight other monster players has a “king of the hill” mechanic that determines who attacks who so no one can take it personal when they get hit.
Potion Explosion – First game (7+)
Candy Crush in board game format has amazing marble components and great strategies.
SOS Dino – First game (5+)
A fun, engaging, and often suspensful cooperative game about saving dinosaurs from exploding volcanoes.
Karuba Jr – First game (4+)
Simple and quick cooperative game for young kids that is simple to teach and plays fast. Often our recommendaiton to get young kids interested in board games.