Quick Board Games For Families

Toy of the Year Awards 2025

The Toy of the Year Awards 2025 finalists are in, and we’ve outlined the 7 board games that are up for voting in the Game of the Year category. You can vote for your favourite game up until 10th January 2025.  From strategy-based adventures to fast-paced fun, these games promise hours of tabletop fun for kids and families alike. Let’s dive into how to play each game.

Age Rating 10+   Players 2-4   Time  45-60 minutes.   Type Tile Placement Community Building Game

This an immersive, narrative-driven strategy game where players create and shape their own civilizations.

How to Play Life in Reterra  To start, choose five building and the size of those building you want to play with.  There is a suggested starting strategy in the rule book. Each player starts with a Life of Reterra tile, 3 random terrain tiles and place five more terrain tiles along the side of the board. 

On your turn, choose a tile you want to add onto your terrain, you don’t need to line up the terrain types but if you do it can help scores extra points at the end, or you can work on patterns of gears (outlined on the building cards).  Your aim is to get a four-by-four grid.  Each building as a value point and outlines how extra points can be made.

The start of the game moves fast and then you get into managing resources, exploring new territories, and building cities while navigating environmental challenges and potential conflicts. The game blends strategic decision-making with, players to decide the fate of their civilizations.Want to expolore this a bit more, check out Hasbro video

Flip 7 card game

Age Rating: 6+   Players 2-6.   Time: 15-30 minutes.   Type Card: Luck with Strategy

This is a fast paced card game which is easy to learn, easy to take away for holidays or store and engaging with a fun twist of a bit of strategy. To win, be the first to score 200 points. 

How to Play Flip 7  

Shuffle the deck, and one play is the dealer. Place one card face up to each player, and if an action card is placed, solve that action card immediately.  On your turn, you choose to hit or stay. Hit = Deal 1 card, Stay = Score your cards from the ones in front of you.  If you get a repeated number card, you are immediately busted and out of that round and score zero.  If you get seven unique cards in front of you, you get 15 extra points, and that round is finished. 

If you are dealt a modifier card, place it above a card, and you add those points to your point total.  If you are dealt an action card, you can choose any person to complete this (including yourself).  A freeze card means you bank your points and you are done for that round, while a Flip 3 means you are dealt 3 cards. Second chance, you save for later.  Use this if you are dealt a second card of the same value, so you don’t go bust.  Add your points for each round, and then the player to the left of the dealer becomes the new dealer, and you continue until the first person reaches 200 points. 

Great game for helping with math calculations, and if math isn’t your thing, just grab a calculator.

Age Rating: 8+.  Players 2-4. Time: 30-45 minutes.  Type Strategy + tile placement

Great game to play over and over, as it incorporates a standard and an advanced side so great for repetition. And the board is modular, meaning each playthrough is different. Players can cooperate or compete. The aim is to create mushroom circles on the forest floor and gain mushrooms, flowers, and treasures from the circles you complete.

How to Play In Gnome Hollow

On your turn, draw a tile, and you have three steps to complete.  First is to place, examine the garden board, and collect 2 tiles; now you place these in the garden.  They must be placed beside the stump or other tiles already in the garden.  All the sides must match.  Each side must connect, e.g. If a title you wish to place has a path connecting both sides of that tile, then if placed in between two tiles, each of the tiles must be able to connect the paths.  If not, you can flip the tile over. 

Secondly, after placing this tile check to see if you have completed a path of white dotted mushrooms and added a mushroom token to the tile, these are shown on the tiles.  Count the tiles that made up this completed ring, and then move the leftmost ring marker (on your board) to the open spot under the number of tiles you had for the completed circle.  Some spots show a reward, which you collect at the time. 

The final step is moving your gnome. You can skip this turn; however, if not, take a gnome and put it on any mushroom path that doesn’t have a path already occupied by a gnome. With the intention of hopefully the circle being completed either by you or someone else and you gaining the mushrooms from that completed circle. 

This is a great, simpler tile placement, occupying territory type game for younger children.

Hitster Music Board Game

Age Rating 16+.   Players 3-6.   Time 20-30 minutes.   Type Music Trivia

Note:  You need to download the Hitster app and Spotify on your phone to start. 

The objective is a music trivia game where players test their knowledge of hit songs from various decades. The game features cards with popular song titles, and players have to guess the correct year the song was released.

How to Play Hitster   Can play in teams or individually.  Each player/team gets one card from the stack.  This card will outline a year, and this is your starting point.  Draw the card and scan the QR code, which will automatically play a song, and then place this card in the right timeline order, based on the first card placed.  You can challenge your opposition by placing a token on the other side if you think they have placed the card incorrectly.  Either way, turn the card over and see if you are correct.  You aim to get 10 cars in order for the win. 

Age Rating 13+.   Players 2-6.   Time 60-90 minutes.   Type Cooperative

Overview of Chronicles of Light: Darkness Falls

To start, shuffle the realm of light tiles and Chrystal Castles and place them one by one on the table with all sides matching, e.g., land to land and water to water, to create your board. Your team will consist of Hero Bell, Maid Maron, Bell, and Violet, starting at full health.   Place your movers at Chrystal Castle.  Mix the shadow tokens and place them on the appropriate spot on the board.  On the action board, place the team health token on the number of players.  Shuffle Chrystal Darkness cards for all the heroes in play. Draw cards based on the number of players.  Each player randomly chooses a quest card and follows the set-up on each card.  Assign a leader, take the top darkness card, and follow the instructions. Placing the vortex and an additional shadow token.  See the rules for either beginners or advanced play.

Once you have completed 6 actions, the round ends.

To win, you must complete three things.

  1. Each hero needs to complete their quest. As a team, you can either complete quests one at a time or all at once. 
  2. Defeat all the shadow creatures
  3. Destroy the vortex. 

How to Play UNO Show ’em No Mercy adds a new twist to the classic card game UNO. Mattel have added 56 more cards, even tougher action cards and additional rules.  In this version, special “Mercy” cards allow players to force others into unfavourable situations or take strategic advantages. The rules remain the same as traditional UNO, but the “Mercy” cards introduce a fun, competitive edge that can turn the tide of the game in unexpected ways.

What’s new:

Skip Everyone, Wild Draw 6 and even Wild Draw 10. The Stacking Rule lets players pass the penalty (Draw +2, +4, +6, +10) to the next player until whoever can’t play has to take all the cards combined. Pick up and play a ‘7′ players must swap hands with another player, a ‘0′  and everyone swaps in the direction of play. Discard All Card (of the colour of the card played), Miss Everyone.  The Mercy Rule means that if any player gets 25+ cards in their hand, they are out of the game.

Be the first to get rid of all your cards and shout UNO to win. You can read more about this ruthless game here

Age Rating: 6+.  Players 1-4. Time: 10–25 minutes.  Type STEM + Card

Description

SNAP 2 IT is a new board game where players embark on a race to be first to light up the game. Players draw 3 cards from the deck to start.  You place one card down and snap into place the piece shown on the card placed. While planning your victory, you also want to try and sabotage opponents play.  Players can strategically leverage the snap wire, or wild, skip any player or next player misses a turn card at the perfect time to be the first to light their lamp and win.

You can also check out the game and short video here.

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