Get your game face on! Toy Insider Mom Laurie Schacht stopped by WGN in Chicago to talk about great new games the whole family can play together. 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.
- A two to eight player family-friendly game that’s great for parties and family game night. Verti-Go is a balance and strategy game featuring 32 cards with die-cut slits on each side that players use to build towers.
- Players take turns building ingenious designs off of a base that’s shaped like a soda can, careful to balance their addition so the structure doesn’t fall. As players take turns building their highest tower, they are working to make it more difficult for their competitors to keep the structure in balance. The first player to get rid of their cards wins.
- The base doubles as a carrying case for the cards.
- Age: 8+
- MSRP: $14.99
- Available: Amazon
- Poopyhead, the game where No. 2 always wins.
- 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 is out of cards or cannot make a move, he or she grabs the Whoopee Cushion.
- 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 their head loses!
- Designed for two to four players.
- Age: 6+
- MSRP: $24.95
- Available: Amazon, Target, Walmart, Toys “R” Us
- BONK is a two to four player fast-rolling ricochet game.
- The aim of the game is to roll steel balls down your chute to knock the wooden ball into your opponent’s goal.
- Bonk demands a good eye, timing, and teamwork. It penalizes both fumbling and trigger-happy play.
- Age: 8+
- MSRP: $59.99
- Available: Target
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
- Boom Blast Stix is the only explosive high stakes stacking game featuring sensitive, interlocking springs that when stacked together can go-off at any time, testing players’ mental and physical skills and ultimately, their nerves. It is a suspense-filled game that the whole family can enjoy.
- Each player takes a turn by locking their Stix piece, and carefully setting it down, one-by-one, to build a stack. The player that places their Stix piece down, and causes the stack to explode, loses.
- Requires no batteries and is completely free of electronic elements. It is a game that truly relies on the player’s tactical skill (and a little bit of luck).
- Set includes one container with lid, 32 springs, and one instruction manual.
- Age: 6+
- MSRP: $14.99
- Available: Amazon, 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
- Available: Target
- Players shouldn’t let their balloon bot pop in Balloon Bot Battle.
- Two players go head-to-head trying to pop the other player’s balloon before theirs is popped.
- When the balloons are outfitted with the punching arms, kids can move the levers back and forth to punch their opponent’s balloon.
- When one balloon pops, the game is over.
- Age: 8+
- MSRP: $19.99
- Available: Toys “R” Us
