My daughters are 6 & 8 and recently they were gifted Kingdomino from a friend, and they absolutely love it. So I'm now on the hunt for more unique board games that don't have a severe learning curve, but also aren't your everyday ones you'd see on a Kmart shelf.
What Unique Kids Board Games Would You Recommend?
LKarl Pilkington on 09/02/2022 - 08:08
Comments
dixit
I think 6 & 8 are too young for this, you need to think about a lot of factors when choosing your word. And you need to know a lot of history or pop culture references to have subject matter to choose from with your word (something that is outside of the card itself but the card vaguely hints at). My friends' ten year old son who joins us occasionally for games can play it but is not very good. The words he chooses are usually too obvious (directly about the card rather than hinting at something that some people know and others don't) or don't have enough to do with the card, and he doesn't understand 90% of the references we use.
my 8 year old seems to be fine with it.
"unique board games"?? … just stick to the main ones like Sushi Go
They may like Dobble. Fast paced card shape matching game around a table.
https://www.amazon.com.au/Dobble-Esdevium-5-1-Editions/dp/B0…
My kiddos love Dobble (also called Spot It locally)
I just bought a copy of Genius Square and will gift it soon
I've played many games and find Labyrinth to be one of the toughest games out there. My mind just cannot understand how to be good at it.
- Regular card games like Gin. www.pagat.com is a great resource for a variety of games.
- Ticket to Ride USA (junior edition is limited in replay value, get the regular one). The Europe and Switzerland maps are even better.
- Rummikub (no need to get tiles, you can play by just mixing two packs of cards)
- Monopoly Deal (card game, not the boring board one). Very quick and portable
- Hive.
Look up www.boardgamegeek.com and filter by audience.
Try Sushi Go.
Was going to recommend this as well :)
Compact card based game, and easy for kids to understand, but also can get complex enough for adults to enjoy
Make sure to get Sushi Go party so that the game can scale.
I ended up grabbing this one, but the party version. Appreciate it!
My kids, same age, love UNO (obviously not Unique, but good all ages game)
More unique, they quite enjoy Catan Junior and Spot It.
Spot It is a great game..
Jaipur
Enchanted Forest
and… the classic… Chess.
A challenging but fun game is Set. It is a set of cards with either diamonds, ovals or squiggles, the cards are either green red or purple, they are either filled in, open, or shaded, and there's either 1, 2 or 3 of the shapes on the card. You have to try to find "sets" where all the symbols are the same or different, all are the same colour or all different, all the same number or different, and the shading is all the same or different. You deal out a bunch of cards (I think 9) on the table and everyone has to try to find sets at the same time. If you see one you say Set! then take it, other players verify you are correct and more cards are dealt out in their place. Winner is the person with the most sets when the cards run out.
Eg one solid green squiggle, two half shaded red squiggles, three open purple squiggles are a set. But one solid green squiggle, two solid red squiggles, three open purple squiggles are not as the shading is not all the same or all different.
The website for the game has a daily puzzle you can try: https://www.setgame.com/set/puzzle
Set is brain bending enough for adults!
Gereat game, but I get a headache after about 20 minutes and have to stop at 30.Far too hard for a 6 year old. (certainly too hard for mine anyway)
You would be surprised - kids' brains are more adaptable than ours, and it requires no world knowledge (plus no turn taking so no worry about younger kids getting impatient waiting for their turn at a game). I used to bring my copy to youth bridge camps and the younger ones were usually quicker to get good at it than older ones.
You can also make it easier by removing all the shaded and open cards so one less category to look at
You can also make it easier by removing all the shaded and open cards so one less category to look at
cool idea
If you want ones that are not easy to find go into Vinnes or Salvo's and check them out as I have gotten some good games for my son at different shops and most are not made any more. But be aware that you may end up with some that have missing parts, so anticipate that say 75% will have all of the bits and another say 10% will have missing bits that don't affect the game play and unfortunately 15% will have parts that affect the game and as such you may have to make some parts or print out parts.
Takenoko is a unique and fun board game for the family.
If your kiddos can play Kingdomino, they're probably ready for other tile laying games like Carcassonne. There are junior versions of these games like My First Carcassonne or Monster Factory if you want to ease them in to it.
i bought this for the gf's kids (6, 8 & 11)
https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/the-gamesmen-klask-board-game-p…i also bought them a nintendo mini that their mum won't let them play with :)
Everyone should have a Risk set in their house. Get one that has actual little men and canons instead of cardboard tokens. It's not unique, but it's easy to learn and if they have never seen it then it's new to them.
Have a look at Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza. Absolute blast of a game for all ages.
I think a bit too advanced for a 6yo…
But pretty close
Quik Chess
While not a board game, our two enjoy sleeping queens.
I have tried a couple of other games but they are little bit too young to really get them.
I know my slightly older nieces and nephews enjoy Sushi Go and King of Tokyo too.
Found a shop called Plato's in Salamanca Square, Hobart - all sorts of amazing stuff. Fourteen pages on their website of games, free delivery over $150.
https://platoswcd.com.au/collections/all-games
If we lived down there, I would have loved it when our kids were younger.
The Train Game (more a card game than a board game)