Catan has been a popular and award-winning board game since it was first introduced in 1995. Catan is a mystical island that players can discover and settle by collecting resources, building settlements and roads, and eventually upgrading into cities. With each roll of the dice, players collect resources such as bricks, lumber, wool, ore, and more. Players roll the dice, continue to gather resources, build, trade, carve out roads, and develop land to earn victory points. The first player to get ten victory points wins the game.

Catan is played on a hexagonal board constructed from individual card tiles. Each game begins by a reveal of the mountains, forests, and hills of Catan in a random mix that changes with each game so Catan can be played over and over again and look different each time. Players must use their wits to strategize the best use of their collected resources for building and trading. However, no matter how well you plan, a few bad rolls of the dice can take your luck in the wrong direction. Players must also beware of the robber who tries to steal the hard-earned gains of others. You must also compete against other players who can buy or build in an area that destroys the road you are trying to build or may create a monopoly of an area or resources.

Catan typically takes about 15 minutes to learn to play, so the game can begin right away. 3 to 4 players can enjoy the game at a time. A typical game is played in one to two hours.

The Catan game contains 19 hexagonal tiles to create the game board in a unique format for each game. It also includes six coastal frame pieces, nine harbor pieces, 20 wooden settlements, 16 wooden cities, 60 wooden roads, 95 resource cards, game cards, a robber pawn, 18 tokens, a pair of dice, and rule book and almanac.

Catan is one of the best family board games that echoes life, as players try to succeed with a combination of skill, strategy, and luck!

One of the best family board games to combine family fun with learning is Trekking the National Parks by Underdog Games. This fast-paced board game encourages appreciation of the beautiful National Parks of North America while family members compete to earn points and collect colorful trail stones.

Trekking the National Parks is a game that can inspire families to share memories of park visits, or to plan future trips to beautiful National Parks across the entire US. Players compete by racing across the board to occupy as many parks with their tent-shaped game piece and collect trail stones as they go. Each game card features a beautiful photograph of a National Park and includes fun facts about the park to be read aloud and shared.

Enjoy “traveling” down to the waving sawgrass of the Florida Everglades, or to the Blue Ridge Mountains of Shenandoah National Park, or west to the stunning landscapes of The Grand Canyon, and Yosemite. Players will become more and more intrigued by the magnificent national wonders in the preserved parklands across North America as they play.

Trekking the National Parks is ideal for families with children age ten and up. It includes instructions for setup and a complete rule book. The rules are fairly straightforward and easy to understand. Videos are also available to help players to learn how the game works.

This family-friendly educational board game includes a beautiful game board with a map, game cards with interesting park information, colorful trail “stones,” game pieces including hikers, tents, and bear, the rule book, and an attractive game box for storage.

This is one of the best family board games to play with the whole family. Put away the screens, pop some popcorn, and prepare to enjoy Trekking the National Parks!

Trivial Pursuit has long been considered one of the best family board games to rely not on luck, but instead on general knowledge of trivia. With Trivial Pursuit Family Edition, the playing field is leveled between kids and parents so they can enjoy the game together. Trivial Pursuit Family Edition is divided into yellow cards for children and blue cards for adults, with cards of both skill levels divided into six categories. The cards are ideally balanced to provide a fair game for both children and adults so that either age level has an equal chance of winning or losing.

Players may play individually or in teams. With a total of 1,200 questions from six categories, families can enjoy many games without encountering the same question twice. Categories include geography, history, sports and leisure, entertainment, arts and literature, and science and nature.

The game includes a showdown challenge where two players may compete for a game wedge at the same time. Players win by being the first player or team to earn one of each of the six wedges and then correctly answer a final question.

Hasbro’s Trivial Pursuit Family Edition includes a gameboard, two card holders, 100 blue cards for adults, 100 yellow cards for kids, six tokens, 36 wedges, dice, and instructions.

This is one of the best family board games for players age eight and up. Quicker paced than the original version, the family edition game typically lasts about 60 minutes. Families will enjoy learning interesting facts as they play.

One of the best family board games of all time is Monopoly. Since its introduction in 1935, Monopoly has been arguably the most popular and well-known game in the world, keeping families entertained around a table for generations.

The Monopoly Nostalgia Board Game by Winning Solutions features a retro, vintage-style game that brings back the look and style of the 1936 design. It also features a decorative retro tin, so the game can be stored and protected with no worries about tattered old cardboard boxes and lost pieces. The storage tin includes built-in storage for the game pieces to keep them safe and secure between games.

This classic monopoly game features die-cast token game pieces and real wooden houses and hotels. The game cards are printed in the original retro style. The original-style retro game board easily folds to fit in the collectible tin.

Families can enjoy true Monopoly played the way the game was meant to be played, with up to eight players ages eight and up. One person is the designated banker who collects all rents, taxes, fines, loans, and interest payments, as well as paying out money owed or earned. All of the players seek to become the wealthiest player by monopolizing the money and resources through buying properties, setting up homes and hotels, and collecting rents. Players roll the dice and then move their token the corresponding number of spaces. Depending on the space they land upon, they may choose to buy the property, or they may have to pay rent, pay taxes, draw a chance or community chest card, or go to jail. More rules apply, but the winner is the person who remains after every other player goes broke.

Monopoly is hands down one of the best family board games of all time, and this is the classic game in beautiful storage tin that will last through many years of family game nights.

One of the best family board games for cooperative play and teamwork is Pandemic by Z-Man Games. Unlike most board games, with Pandemic, players don’t compete against each other, but instead must coordinate, strategize, and share skills, resources, and abilities in order to save the world from four pandemic outbreaks.

In Pandemic, four diseases threaten humanity and players must form a team of specialists to find a cure for each outbreak. Players begin in Atlanta at the CDC and are given a random character role. The gameboard represents a network of 48 cities on a map of the world. When the game begins, infection cards are drawn at random to begin infections. Players collect sets of city cards to complete research. Research stations must be built around the globe and event cards used for special one-time effects.

The game is won if the players discover the cure for all four diseases and treat them in time. The game is lost by having eight pandemic outbreaks or by not having enough disease cubes to place, or not having enough remaining cards when a player needs to draw. The game can only be won if the players coordinate in collecting and sharing the right cards to discover cures and prevent outbreaks.

This game can be played over and over, and each time it’s played, it’s different. Difficulty level can be raised by adding more cards.

Playing Pandemic can become addictive because, after all, what’s better than saving the world!

One of the best family board games takes the game off of the board and encourages raucous fun around the family table as players move quickly to match cards while simultaneously dodging flying burritos. Throw Throw Burrito is a hilarious and fast-moving game that will have your family or party guests playing and laughing while they rack up points by quickly passing cards and holding a hand of five cards at a time until a player scores points by having three matching cards.

This fast-paced game for players aged seven and up becomes trickier when any player collects a hand of three burritos, sparking what could be either a burrito duel between two players, or burrito brawl, or an all-out burrito war. The card game becomes a dodgeball-type game as players hurl the soft, squishy foam burritos at each other and steal points with direct hits.

The Throw Throw Burrito game includes cards with funny pictures for matching, such as Meow Cow, Barky Sharky, Logger Dogger, Goth Sloth, and more. It also comes with two squishy foam toy burritos with smiling faces for hurling. Instructions, tokens, and game pieces are included.

This game should be played in a room that’s big enough to allow players to back up ten paces for burrito duels, and spacious enough for burrito brawls. It’s not recommended that you play in a room filled with breakables or valuable antiques. Be prepared to run around a table dodging flying burritos.

While some users have described this game as silly and immature, obviously this game is not meant for them. Instead, it is meant to be played by people who enjoy a challenging, fast-paced game that will have your family laughing hilariously and throwing happy-face toy burritos at each other.

The best family board games are those that include loud, raucous family fun, and Spontuneous is at the top of the list. With Spontuneous: The Song Game, players don’t just sit quietly around a board moving pieces or rolling dice. Instead, players are encouraged to burst into song—no talent needed.

In Spontuneous, the object of the game is to try to stump the other players with a word trigger, hoping that they can’t think of a song which includes the word in its lyrics—but only if you yourself have a song ready to sing with the word in it. Players write down a list of trigger words and then the first tunesmith turns the timer and announces the trigger word. The first player to sing a line of song lyrics, including the trigger word and at least five other words of the song lyrics, scores. That player gets to roll the dice and advance on the gameboard. If the 15 second timer times out without a song, the tunesmith must sing a song containing the word. The first player to advance to the finish line wins the game. Landing on a Clef note means that the player draws a Spontuneous card and must complete a challenge.

This game is ideal for players age eight and up and can accommodate from 4 to 10 players. It can also be played in teams. No singing talent is required, just belt out the lyrics as best you can for family fun. It crosses all musical genres and age groups. Play with a mixed bag of friends and family of all ages, and you might hear some old songs from grandparents, and recent hits from teens.

This game includes a game board, game pieces, hourglass timer, pair of dice, clef note game cards, trigger word notepads, and pencils.

Spontuneous is one of the best family board games that can take the fun off the board and put it all right out in the air as players bust into spontaneous—or Spontuneous—song!

One of the best family board games for spooky fun is Betrayal at House on the Hill. No two games are ever the same in this fun family board game that can be played over and over with a unique experience each time.

Players draw tile cards depicting new rooms and uncovering the secrets found there. The tiles are laid out to form the haunted house game board, making each game unique. As one of 50 different game scenarios unfold, one player is revealed to be a traitor betraying the others who are now the heroes of the game. Each character card includes stats that change throughout the game. Corresponding game cards show an event, item, or omen for each room, moving the game forward. The play continues until either the heroes or the traitor fulfills the goal found in their haunt booklet, determining whether good or evil wins out in the end.

This fun, creepy game is perfect for entertaining the family during a dark stormy night at home or while camping out. It is intended for 3 to 6 players of age 12 and up, but not for the easily spooked! Players must work together to escape the haunted mansion alive—except for the player who is revealed to be the betrayer.

This game comes with tiles for the entrance hall, foyer, and grand staircase, as well as 44 room tiles, 80 cards for events, items, and omens, two haunt books, six character cards, six player figures, eight dice, 30 plastic clips, 149 tokens, and the rule book.

Betrayal at House on the Hill is one of the best family board games to replay over and over. No two games are ever the same, with an ever-changing game board layout and 50 game scenarios, this spooky, suspenseful game is a brand new experience every time you play.

One of the best family board games for families with very young children is Candyland, and Retro Series Candyland in the 1967 edition is the classic game at its very best.

Families with preschool-aged children have enjoyed Candyland for generations for its sweet simplicity. With no reading required, even very young children can play. In Candyland, players draw cards that feature one or two colored rectangles which direct children to move to the next space on the board in that color, or to skip one space and land on the second space ahead in that color. In that manner, players race across the board to the finish line in a game that’s sheer luck of the draw. Every player has an equal chance of winning with no strategy required.

Some surprises along the way in Candyland include drawing a candy card in which players must move to the square marked with that particular candy, which may send them ahead for an advantage or send them back for a disadvantage. Players may also land on a square with a black dot which means the player is stuck there until they draw a card with the corresponding color. The first player to reach the finish line at the candy house is the winner.

While Candyland is a simple race-to-the-finish game, it is beloved by children for its beautiful candy-themed graphics. The game pieces are gingerbread men, and this retro edition includes more detailed gingerbread men pieces with frosted faces and buttons. Players will move through sweet, candy-themed areas on the colorful board such as Peppermint Stick Forest, Gumdrop Mountains, Lollipop Woods, and Molasses Swamp.

This beautiful, vintage-style Candyland game goes back to the classic game design featuring candy-shaped squares and beautifully drawn treats such as iced cupcakes, candy message hearts, candy canes, sparkling gumdrops, ice cream floats, and glimmering lollipops. Children and adults alike will enjoy the sweet fantasy of a race through Candyland to reach the delicious, pink-frosted gingerbread house with chocolate-bar steps at the finish line.

One of the best family board games for households with preschoolers is Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes Game. In this cooperative game of luck and mild strategizing, all players win in the end since they must cooperate in order to retrieve all 14 missing cupcakes from Grumpy Toad.

In Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes Game, players spin the spinner and then move the number of spaces indicated. (Players must be able to count to 4) Depending on what spot they land on, players must perform the activity indicated on the spot, including singing a song, naming an animal, and making its sound and more. An alphabet spot requires that the player say a letter of the alphabet and name something that starts with that letter. When each task is completed, one cupcake can be returned to the cupcake tray. Landing on a Grumpy toad spot means he takes back one cupcake. Players win when all cupcakes are returned to the tray on the birthday party table.

Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes is one of the best family board games for young children as their first introduction to the fun of a family game. Because no one loses, there are no temper tantrums or whining to worry about, only the fun of the game. Pete the Cat and his friends are the winners when all of the cupcakes are returned and your little game-players are the heroes who returned the delicious cupcakes for the party.

Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes is not only fun, it also encourages teamwork and enhances important skills such as counting, word association, decision making, and social skills.