If you didn’t grow up with a set of Jenga tiles, did you really play party games as a kid? Seriously, though, Jenga Classic is aptly named because it is a standard fixture in playrooms and family rooms everywhere. It’s not uncommon to find a set tucked away in daycare centers, classrooms, and even libraries.

Jenga is a good party game, but it’s also excellent for solo play. Children and adults can practice balancing and stacking blocks, honing a strategy, and hand-eye coordination skills while they’re at it. You can even combine two or more Jenga Classic sets to make your own set of stacking blocks for varied creative projects.

While it’s often seen as a way for entire families to enjoy and participate in a wholesome activity together, Jenga is also easily ramped up for adult fun. When the children aren’t around, you can transform Jenga into a drinking game by adding house rules: a shot for using more than one hand, everyone drinks when the tower topples, and more. Just be sure to play somewhere with good lighting, so you don’t end up losing a wooden block or two in the process.

Jenga’s portability makes it ideal for family vacations and trips with your friends, too. Store the blocks in an airtight plastic container if you’re planning to bring them out somewhere humid, such as the beach. After all, all you need to play Jenga is a flat surface! You can take it anywhere and be the life of the party.

For many tabletop game enthusiasts around the world, the original Settlers of Catan was the gateway Eurogame that got them into the hobby.

Eurogames, also known as German- or Euro-style games, are tabletop recreational activities that feature indirect player interaction and one or more abstract components. In comparison, most popular American tabletop games are luck-based and focus on conflict and drama.

The renamed Catan — simplified to denote that it is the franchise’s core game — is still the same, more than 20 years after it was first released: an addictive and competitive civilization-building exercise. Trade and compete for resources, build roads and harbors, establish settlements and cities, and deal with random theft.

Immersive but intuitive after the first few rounds, Catan will dominate your game nights as soon as you bring the box out. At first, games will seem to drag on forever because everyone’s still learning the ropes. But once all players are familiar with the instructions, you will find it difficult to put Catan away.

If you really get into it, you might consider adding one or more official expansion packs — like Seafarers or Cities & Knights — to add more players to each game. The expansions add unique gameplay elements that fit into and work with the core mechanics of Catan.

Pro tip: Play Catan indoors and on a large flat surface. There are many pieces in this game and it’s easier than you might expect to lose one or two even if you’re being very careful. Watch out for grabby little fingers and curious furry noses, too — the tokens can be choking hazards for small children and pets.

Your first impression of this game is probably going to involve what it looks like, more than the gameplay mechanics. It’s just so cute! From the name Sushi Go, you can probably discern what the visual theme is: Japanese food.

Prepare to get sushi and sashimi cravings even before you start distributing the cards to your players. You might have to consider making your group’s game night an actual Japanese food night, too. Order in and play a few rounds before eating the real deal.

As a pick and pass game, Sushi Go is a great introduction to card drafting — a mechanism that’s often used in more complex tabletop and party games. Because of the cute visuals and the relatively easy goal of collecting sets of dishes, even young children will find it easy to learn how to draft cards for maximum points. This is good news for gamer parents! You’ll be able to play more complicated games with your kids once they master drafting cards.

Perhaps the best thing about Sushi Go is its simplicity. The rules take only a few minutes to go through and understand, so you can open the box and complete a whole round of play in less than 20 minutes. It’s a good thing, too — because you’ll want to play it over and over again. If collecting all the maki rolls didn’t result in a win for you, you may want to adjust your strategy and go for nigiri paired with wasabi next time. Don’t forget dessert, either. Pudding is a surprisingly essential part of Sushi Go’s gameplay.

What is it about food-themed party games that make them so darned cute and playable? For one thing, food is probably an interest that everyone shares. In general, it’s safe to say that everyone likes to eat. It might not be easy to get people at a party to play a board game with more than 100 pieces, but a game that looks like pizza is a hit in the making.

New York Slice from Bézier Games gives you the full East Coast Pizzeria experience, from the different types of pizza to the restaurant receipt-reminiscent score sheets. The packaging even looks like a hinged white pizza box. The game also “penalizes” people who like anchovies, because the little fishies on the cardboard pizza slices actually lessen your score. On the other hand, points mostly depend on how much pepperoni you get. Sounds true-to-life enough, right?

Some game critics may point out that gameplay will eventually get boring and repetitive. After all, it’s all about slicing pizzas and taking turns picking up pieces to “eat” or “keep.” How hard can that be? There’s nothing complex or in need of clever counting or planning.

This is where the 14 “Today’s Specials” cards come in. They provide bonuses to certain players, which can potentially break everyone else’s strategy for winning.

Trust us, you’re going to want to actually order a few pizzas by the time you finish one round of play — so prepare beforehand and make game night a pizza party, as well.

Everyone probably has a dusty old Monopoly board hidden in their childhood home somewhere. The property collecting and trading came is the definitive board game for most people. Even non-gamers are at least familiar with how to play Monopoly.

That being said, everyone will likely agree that the classic game has many faults. Rounds of play can drag on for hours, especially when you’re playing with young children. Generations of house rules have muddied gameplay way past the point of no return. For example: Did you know that taxes don’t go in the middle to be given to the first person that lands on Free Parking? In reality, Free Parking doesn’t do anything.

Monopoly Deal takes all the faults of the original board game and throws them away. It’s a funny way to put things, but it might as well be true! The instructions are easier to understand, the conditions for winning are easier to achiever, and — best of all — putting away the game after playing is much easier because you only have cards. You don’t have to worry about losing Monopoly money or player tokens.

You might hear a few sighs and protestations when you whip out Monopoly Deal at a party, but it probably has more to do with people’s experiences with the board game. The card game version is not only still family-friendly but also fast-paced and quite addictive once players fully understand the game mechanics. Like many card games, Monopoly Deal is also easily transformed into an adult drinking game for when kids aren’t around and grownups want to add an edge to it.

If Exploding Kittens sounds too violent for you, despite its relatively child-friendly game mechanics, you’ll be happy to find out that their makers have come up with another party game with a much different theme.

Throw Throw Burrito’s concept is simple enough to understand. Cross dodgeball with a simple card game, throw in a cute visual detail or two, and you get one of the most popular party games to come out in the last few years.

At the heart of this game, you’re racing to collect and match sets of cards before other players can ruin your strategy. However, you need to do this while avoiding cute and squishy flying burritos thrown by your opponents. Warm up that pitching arm, as well. You’re not just going to be dodging burritos throughout the game. Every Throw Throw Burrito player will eventually have to try to hit another person to steal points.

It’s harder than it sounds! And while it’s wholesome on the surface, throwing things at each other is bound to cause some hurt feelings down the line — especially with younger players. Make sure to play referee once in a while if you notice an escalation in rough play.

As a final tip: Choose a room to play in without expensive and breakable antiques. If anyone is wearing eyeglasses, consider house rules that dictate burritos be thrown below the neck and above the belt only. The toy burritos are made from foam, but they are solid enough to knock things over and irritate sensitive spots like the eye area.

The concept of Qwirkle is so easy to understand. Build lines of tiles with matching shapes or colors, taking care to not use duplicates. Elevate your strategy and multiply your scores by completing multiple sets at once. When you match place the sixth tile in a line of attributes, you create a Qwirkle — a feat similar to a royal flush in poker or using all seven tiles for a single play in Scrabble.

It’s one of those games that would be as welcome on a coffee table near a fireplace as it would be in a children’s play area. MindWare says that more than three million copies of Qwirkle have been sold worldwide! The popularity is likely due to the accolades it’s accumulated over the years, such as the Mensa Select Award, Parents' Choice Gold Award, and more.

Qwirkle isn’t just for kids, though. High-quality wooden tiles and elegant painted shapes make for an all-ages look and style that won’t have adults feeling like they’ve gone back to kindergarten. Strategizing can also get pretty fierce if your group has competitive players.

If you’re looking for a party game to encourage family bonding between generations, Qwirkle could be the answer. Many simple party games still need reading comprehension, writing skills, or a basic understanding of math. With Qwirkle, all that’s needed is shape and color recognition. Your six-year-old may very well beat you or one of their grandparents in just one round of play! As party games go, this one will be a crowd-pleaser no matter what kind of audience you’re seeking to entertain.

Searching for a perfect icebreaker activity for an all-ages shindig? Inspiration Play’s Double Ditto is the party game for you.

As rules of play go, Double Ditto is not one to complicate things. Draw a category card, read it out loud, start the timer, and write down two things that come to mind. Compare answers and score accordingly. Matching responses between players get points. That’s it! Easy peasy.

Why is Double Ditto a great icebreaker? The scoring system rewards identical answers — a point mechanic that may take some getting used to, especially if you’re a seasoned Boggle player. Double Ditto forces players to get in the heads of their competition and consider their varied backgrounds and personalities. If you play without keeping your competitors in mind, you won’t rack up points in this game.

Unfortunately, what makes Double Ditto an excellent tool to get to know new acquaintances and strangers is also what can make it boring for old friends and family members. If you already know what your co-players are going to write down, there’s no rush or thrill in getting points for matching responses.

Some customers also have brought up the fact that several category cards contain sexist content, citing one in particular that reads “Ugly Girl Names.” Other examples that raised eyebrows include ones asking about countries that oppress women or things you shouldn’t say to your wife. While these category cards are comparatively mild — they’re not even close to something you’d see in Cards Against Humanity or What Do You Meme — the fact remains that the game is geared toward children.

Are the scoring system and questionable category cards dealbreakers? Only you and your party game group can decide.

What if sitting around a large table, rolling dice and moving tokens around isn’t your group’s idea of a fun party game? Beat That might scratch the itch for those looking forward to physical challenges and competitive high energy activities.

There is a stack of cards and a collection of varied materials included. At its core, though, Beat That is a betting game. Dexterity-based solo challenges, tricky teamwork, battle royales, and duels — anything can happen with Beat That.

Before you start, it’s important to set ground rules to protect players and the area of play. There will be things thrown around. Quick and unplanned movements may result in limbs hitting inanimate decorative objects or even the occasional opponent. Take care to not put someone’s eye out or step on someone’s toes while you’re performing physical feats for points.

It’s also important to be accepting of people’s physical limits. If someone doesn’t want to do a challenge, they shouldn’t be forced to do participate. Too many exceptions like this might affect the scoring system, but if your group is looking to have fun more than compete, it shouldn’t matter too much.

While there’s enough fun to go around when playing the straight and family-friendly way — no modifications, no straying from the rules — Beat That is also infinitely transformable. You can add more challenges to include odd items you have lying around. You can add house rules to supercharge the betting mechanic. And, as always, adults can turn this into a drinking game when the kids aren’t around.

What Do You Meme is the only adults-only party game on this list. For fans of raunchy or NSFW-themed games, What Do You Meme might be perfect.

However, many customers expressed discomfort at some offensive game content. It’s a good thing that the more vulgar caption cards are packaged separately in What Do You Meme’s custom box. You can choose to play your first game without them or screen the cards before adding them to the main stack.

This is a party game you might want to keep between you and your friends. Unless your parents and grandparents are as crass as they are cool, they might be shocked or appalled at some of the caption cards. There’s a big difference between irreverent stuff like “when your fart smells gourmet” and seriously messed up options like “when your STD test comes back positive.”

It’s important to note that What Do You Meme relies on people recognizing meme images from the internet. Although the knowledge is not technically necessary to match captions to photo cards, it does help create coherent punchlines that everyone will get. Keep this in mind when playing with people who aren’t online very often.

People who are the opposite — very much online all the time — may have to deal with another hurdle. What Do You Meme players must contend with the reality that the referenced memes in the cards will be dated eventually. Updating the content to match what’s currently popular is likely the reason why there are so many official expansion packs.

Overall, What Do You Meme can be enjoyable. But make sure the kids aren’t around! And when the cards grow stale, consider adding an expansion to your collection.