There’s no better way to spend time with loved ones than a good, old fashioned family game night. Toy Insider Mom Laurie Schacht showed Woman’s Day senior editor Taryn Mohrman the best new games of the holiday season. Even as the games change from year to year, family game night will always remain a classic.
Neck of the Woods (Fat Brain Toys)
- The giraffes are hungry! – Can you help them reach the leaves in the tree?
- It takes a steady hand and a clever mind to stack the blocks, reach the reward, and earn the most points.
- On each turn, you must roll the die to determine which block you have to use. Keep on stacking turn after turn to stack your giraffe’s neck as high as you can.
- The higher the leaves are in the tree, the more points they’re worth. – Stack as high as possible to win the biggest reward!
- But beware. If your giraffe tumbles, you’ll have to start all over, and the other giraffes might start chanting -“Icarus lost his nee-eck! Icarus lost his nee-eck!”
- Once all the leaves have been grabbed, everyone flips them over at the same time to count up their points. The player with the most points wins the game!
- Designed with soft yet sturdy foam pieces and an engaging gameplay that emphasizes the balance between risk and reward, Neck of the Woods is one game that’s sure to be played again and again!
- Encourages fine motor skills, addition skills
- Ages: 3+
- MSRP: $25.95
Fish, Fish, Squish! (Winning Moves Games)
- The object of this game is to be the last player with an “unsquished” fish!
- Players start the game by molding their own little school of five, fun, dough fish.
- Cards are flipped, in turn, until a player completes a three-in-a-row. That player is awarded a free squish of any opponent’s fish!
- But, stay on your fins! Everyone else is trying to squish your fish too!
- Comes with a deck of 54 colorful fish playing cards, 4 resalable bags of safe modeling fun dough, 4 plastic fish molds, 4 player mats, and illustrated instructions.
- Ages: 6+
- MSRP: $17.97
- The neoprene pouch is both the travel kit and the game arena.
- Inside there are 40 custom bells in four different colors and three different sizes.
- Players use the magnet wand to pick up bells of only one color. They can make a string off the end of the magnet wand, or create a cluster—just don’t pick up bells of any other color or the turn is over.
- The game involves a blend of strategy and dexterity while playing.
- The first player to collect all 10 bells of one color wins!
- Ages: 6+
- MSRP: $19.99
Skylanders SuperChargers (Activision Publishing)
- In 2011, Activision launched the first toys-to-life videogame, and this year Skylanders is innovating the toys-to-life category yet again by allowing players to bring land, sea and sky vehicles to life with the recently-revealed Skylanders SuperChargers.
- Skylanders SuperChargers expands upon the franchise’s signature gameplay to introduce vehicles-to-life, an entirely new way for fans to experience the magic of Skylands.
- For the first time, kids can explore and navigate the mountainous terrains, deep-sea environments and big blue skies of Skylands like never before with detailed and articulated vehicles that will play in the real world and come to life via the Portal of Power in the game.
- The game introduces 20 new Skylanders characters and 20 new vehicles that feature a variety of designs and types – racecars, motorcycles, boats, tanks, helicopters, jets, submarines and more.
- Not only are the toy vehicles playable in game, but also many will have movable parts, which makes the toys fun to play with outside of the game.
- In addition, Activision has added two iconic Nintendo characters to the Skylanders SuperChargers lineup! Turbo Charge Donkey Kong and Hammer Slam Bowser will be playable in both Skylanders SuperChargers and select amiibo-compatible games. Amiibo, from Nintendo, is a toys-to-life game that features Nintendo character figures that can interact with compatible Wii U games when players add them to the Wii U GamePad controller.
- Will be available for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS4, PS3, Wii, Wii U, Nintendo 3DS and iPad.
- Ages: 6+
- MSRP: $74.99
LEGO Dimensions (Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)
- For the first time in any LEGO videogame, fan-favorite universes from movies and TV are fused together just like kinds can do with real LEGO sets, bringing their toys to life!
- The worlds and favorite characters from DC Comics, Scooby-Doo, The Simpsons, The Lord of the Rings, The LEGO Movie, The Wizard of Oz, LEGO Ninjago, Back to the Future, and many more are part of the immersive adventure.
- The LEGO Toy Pad unites physical and digital realms through unparallel interactive puzzle play. It also functions as an additional game controller, giving kids a unique way to interact with the toys and games through the experience.
- Allows for any combination of seven characters, vehicles, and gadgets to be simultaneously brought into the game at one time. Kids can also interchangeably interact with any combination of characters, vehicles, and gadgets throughout the game in any of the worlds. Imagine Homer driving the Batmobile down the Yellow Brick Road!
- The initial Starter Pack will offer endless opportunities for kids to customize their experiences with LEGO building and re-building. Expansion Packs are interchangeable and compatible.
- Introducing Adventure Worlds, where every character has the ability to unlock a corresponding world of the same brand to provide additional gameplay.
- Available on September 27 for Xbox One, Xbox 360, PlayStation4, PlayStation3, and the Wii U system from Nintendo
- Age: 10+
- MSRP: Starter Pack $99.99, Level Pack: $29.99, Team Pack: $24.99, Fun Pack: $14.99
- In this hilarious party game, give the wrong answers to easy questions is not as simple as it sounds.
- Sometimes you have to give the right answers too, and a roll of the dice determines which questions you have to answer correctly.
- Think you can retrain your brain to spit it out in 30 seconds?
- Great fun for the whole family!
- Ages: 10+
- MSRP: $19.95
Lay It or Break It (Fotorama USA)
- A crazy race to save eggs from the frying pan and return them back to the safety of their nest.
- Two players wearing their chicken beaks and playing at the same time must use the chicken-shaped magnets to lift the eggs from the frying pan and carefully take them back to their nest.
- No hands allowed! The player with the most unbroken eggs will be the winner!
- This game will create laughter and fun for kids and adults of all ages!
- Ages: 5+
- MSRP: $19.99
