Get your game face on! Toy Insider Senior Editor Marissa DiBartolo stopped by Better Connecticut in New Haven to talk about the coolest games for family game night. 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.
- It’s the showering, shaking doggy bathing 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 is the winner.
- Ages: 4+
- MSRP: $19.99
- Available: Amazon, Target, Toys “R” Us, Walmart
- Operation: Escape is a new interactive game that taps into the escape-room trend by combining skill, strategy and teamwork to search, solve and escape the room before time runs out!.
- Players must complete three tasks in order to set the captured player free of the master belt before time runs out.
- Players set the timer on the belt using the rotating dials. The game includes a series of three challenges, a Skill Challenge, Strategy Challenge and Luck Challenge.
- The Skill Challenge: wiggle a key out from the bottom of a cage using sticks.
- The Strategy Challenge: Enter card number into the device, solve problem and then enter the answer into same device. If correct, a third of the key will come out. Players must solve three problems in a row in order to retrieve key. If the answer is incorrect, the key will pop back into the device.
- Luck Challenge: three chances to find the key in the device. If unable to find the key, reset the spinner and start over.
- If the tasks are not solved before the time runs out, everyone loses.
- Ages: 6+
- MSRP: $29.99
- Available: Target
- Klask is the Magnetic Game of Skill.
- A popular pub game in Denmark, Klask is similar to a fast-paced table-top version of Air Hockey, only it uses multiple magnets and a small round ball.
- Players must use the magnetic handles under the board to control their playing pieces on top of the board.
- The object of the game is to hit the ball into the opponent’s goal without attracting the white mini magnets or landing the playing piece in your own hole.
- Ages: 8+
- MSRP: $55
- Available: Target, Toys “R” Us
- Verti-Go is a balance and strategy game featuring 32 cards with die-cut slits on each side that players use to build towers.
- A family-friendly party game for 2-8 players.
- Players take turns building designs off a base that’s shaped like a soda can. Players must be 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.
- Ages: 8+
- MSRP: $14.99
- Available: Amazon
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.
- Ages: 12+
- MSRP: $24.99
- Available: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Toys “R” Us
WHO’S THE DUDE? (IDENTITY GAMES USA)
- Players can play charades with “The Dude,” a life size inflatable man-doll, while the other players try to guess within the time limit what you and the Dude are doing.
- Using the charade cards, player act out scenes from a movie, a sport, or a profession.
- The game includes 440 charade cards, 50 score sheets and different ways to play.
- Ages: 16+
- MSRP: $24.99
- Available: Target
