Looking to bring the laughs back to family game night? Toy Insider Senior Editor Marissa DiBartolo stopped by CBS 8 in San Diego to talk about the funniest new games of the holiday season. For more on the items featured in this segment, check out the product notes below, and for our complete rundown of the best gifts for the holidays, check out our complete holiday gift guide.
- No Thumbs Challenge is the hilarious game that calls for fast-moving teamwork creative thinking and maximum dexterity as players and team members try to execute simple tasks without the use of their thumbs.
- Using thumb straps, players “attach” their thumbs to their palms and then try to perform tasks like opening a water bottle, applying lip balm, or tying a tie. They still have four fingers, so this should be easy, right? Just wait. Divide into two teams and get ready to see who can do the most with the digits they have left. You’ll need a few household items to complete some challenges, and the game includes some colorful plastic thumbs just for laughs.
- Game includes 112 tasks on 56 Challenge cards, but you also have the option to create challenges of your own. Can you tie a shoe or peel a banana without using your thumbs? With this delightful game, you’ll find out!
- Age: 13+
- MSRP: $19.99
- Available: Kohl’s, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
- Break Free from YULU Toys is a new, challenging action skill game full of urgency, suspense and tons of fun. The objective: players must race to pick the lock on their handcuff as quickly as possible and before everyone else.
- Players are handcuffed together and insert a maze into each handcuff.
- Includes three maze colors; each represents a different level of difficulty, making each round unpredictable.
- Using a pick lock, players have to pick the lock as quickly as possible.
- Each game comes with tokens that correspond with the different colored mazes and has points on the back.
- Each player will receive a token after each round in the order they released themselves from the handcuffs.
- The player with the most points at the end of three rounds wins the game.
- Age: 6+
- MSRP: $19.99
- Canadian MSRP: $25.00
- Available: Target
POOPYHEAD (Identity Games)
- Poopyhead, the game where No. 2 always wins. Kids have to try to beat their opponents in this card game by keeping the right order in mind.
- All must play their cards on a pile, keeping in mind that they play the right order: Toilet – Poo – Paper – Wash your hands.
- Once a player cannot play a card, he or she immediately pushes the whoopie cushion.
- Now, whoever has the most cards left, will need to place a poo on his or her head.
- After five rounds, the player with the most poo on his or her head loses.
- 2-4 players.
- Age: 6+
- MSRP: $16.95
- Available: Amazon, Kmart, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
- Get ready for some laughs. Farty Franny is an interactive game that’s silly and suspenseful. The game comes with a Franny the cow figurine that sits in the center of the spinner.
- Each player takes turns spinning the spinner and following the command on which they land. If they land on the tail icon, the player must lift Franny’s tail – she might just moo, but she might fart, too! If she farts, the player takes a fly. The player with the least number of flies at the end wins.
- Age: 4+
- MSRP: $19.99
- Available: Toys “R” Us
- It’s the showering, shaking doggy bathing board game.
- Players race around the board washing Soggy Doggy, but watch out – if he shakes, a player gets a little wet then they go back to the start. The first to make it around the board to the doggy basket wins.
- Easy to clean.
- Age: 4+
- MSRP: $19.99
- Available: Amazon, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
HOUSE OF BOING (UNIVERSITY GAMES)
- House of Boing is the game that mixes speed, dexterity, and fast thinking. The first player to empty his or her room of balls wins.
- House of Boing features 10 games, including House of Boing, Top Boing, Team Boing, Long Boing, and more.
- With its elegant design, House of Boing may be enjoyed as a work of art or played as a challenging addition to any game room.
- Age: 12+
- MSRP: $24.99
- Available: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Toys “R” Us
- Inspired by the online viral whisper challenge sensation, the Hearing Things game is all about the challenge of reading lips while laughing hysterically.
- To begin, players are divided into two teams. One player places the speech-cancelling headphones over their ears and does their best to guess the phrase on the cards by reading their teammate’s lips. Once the player guesses the phrase correctly, the teammate draws another card and keeps going until the timer runs out.
- The active team tries to earn as many cards as possible, but if a player passes on a card, the opposing team automatically earns that card – the team with the most cards at the end of the game wins!
- Includes one set of game headphones with built-in sounds and timer, 150 cards, and instructions. Batteries not included.
- Age: 12+
- MSRP: $19.99
- Available: Amazon, HasbroToyShop.com, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
- This fast-paced, word-based guessing game for 3 or more players is a great party game for older kids, teens, and even adults. It’s charades, but with words!
- In Word Slam, two teams each have a storyteller. The two storytellers are given the same answer term. Playing at the same time, they must give clues to their teams so the teams can correctly guess the answer. And they must do this quickly, because they are racing the timer and each other. But it’s not that easy. Speaking and acting is absolutely forbidden for the storytellers! They must tell their stories using only 105 cards, each with one word on it: a noun, verb, adjective, or preposition. The storyteller must be creative in using this limited vocabulary to tell the story. And the team members must think quickly and nimbly to interpret the story cards. The team that correctly guesses the answer first gets a point, and the team with the most points at the end of the game wins. It’s like charades, but instead of acting, you can only communicate with word cards!
- Age: 12+
- MSRP: $29.95
- Available: Amazon, Barnes & Noble
