Our staff reviews games to help your family find new games to play that are worth your time and money! Please see our review policy for more information.
Who doesn’t like shooting stars – and laid-back puzzley gameplay? That’s the premise behind The Stars Align from Breaking Games.
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In Junk Orbit, players take on the role of salvage ship captains scouring the galaxy for space junk and delivering it to any city that will take it. Eject unwanted junk from airlocks to propel yourself around the cosmos. Simple astrophysics for profit!
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We have loved Tiny Towns since the moment we laid eyes on it. The simple mechanics of the game left us to wonder how it was possible a game like this hadn’t already existed. Place wooden cubes in configurations to collapse into a building – so simple, our 4-year-old can play, but a surprising amount of depth and strategy as well.
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An alien ship has crash-landed in the forest outside of town. Agents have been tracking the craft and rush to the scene, hoping to dissect the Visitor and seize its craft. But a local Kid has also ridden her bike out to the wreck to save the Visitor. Who will make it through the ship’s force field first?
If you’re up for an unusual deduction game with asymmetric roles that accommodate many skill levels, we highly recommend Visitor in Blackwood Grove.
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It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… a skyscraper! Build the tallest and best buildings in Supertall, a micro game designed by Nat Levan and published by Button Shy Games.
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In ShutterBug from Mike Elliott and Calliope Games, play the role of a freelance photographer, traveling the country to find mythical creatures and snap pictures of them. Pursue tips and hope you can get high quality pictures – complete your assignment and some side jobs and become a world-renowned photographer!
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In Professor Treasure’s Secret Sky Castle, players compete over three rounds to earn the most points by collecting stolen treasures from the Professor’s Castle. It’s a puzzle-y game where you’ll need to outwit your opponent by sending adventures out with unique abilities to collect these priceless treasures. Be wary as the other team will seek to thwart you every step of way.
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Duel to the death with a cast of unlikely-looking ninjas in Tiny Ninjas, a portable game of cards and dice by Ryan Leininger.
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Playing Castle Panic (a fantastic game) with my 4-year-old felt more like giving instructions to an unwilling robot. He wasn’t enjoying himself, and I wasn’t enjoying him not enjoying himself. Would My First Castle Panic be different?
My First Castle Panic is a cooperative tower (castle) defense game for 1-4 players ages 4+ that plays in just 20 minutes. Team up and protect the castle from monsters coming to knock it down! Throw the monsters in jail and save the castle!
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Fluff, from Bananagrams, is actually the two-hundred-year-old game Liar’s Dice, with adorable but shady looking critters and clever dice cups. Claire tells you why we like it.
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Hanamikoji is a beautiful compact game for two players from Deep Water Games. Win the favor of geisha by playing their favored items, but choose carefully! You’ll also have to give cards away to your opponent.
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In Shikoku, you learn that coming in first isn’t always the best. We try to tackle this game with rules that are easy to learn, but hard to explain, in about 8 minutes of audio.
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Palm Island is a 17-card game designed and illustrated by Jon Mietling, published by Portal Dragon Games. It needs no flat surface at all; the entire game is played in one hand.
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You’re the most capable heroes in the land. Squash terrifying creatures, disintegrate their wills, and splinter their ranks. But how do you do it? With words, of course. Words like Bravery! Like Righteous! Like… Hamster? Spell Smashers, from Renegade Game Studios, supports 1-5 players, ages 12+, for 60 minutes of word-building (and world-building) fun.
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Get the MacGuffin from Looney Labs is a fast-playing game of player elimination. It’s silly and incredibly quick, even at the maximum of 11 players. Can we find the MacGuffin or were we disappointed?
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We’d recommend Poetry Slam to any hep cat. It’s fun for strategy gamers as well as fans of more casual word games.
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Bad Doctor from Mayday games gets our prescription for a fast and fun tile-laying game with easy-to-learn rules. The humor is slightly coarse, so you might want to stick with the recommended 10+ age.
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The constant push and pull to acquire the right resources and rooms to ratchet up your victory point and gold total is a fascinating puzzle for me. If you enjoy the careful balance of tight resource management games you will enjoy Cave vs Cave.
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Be a pretty princess and save yourself with sweet spells in Sparkle Kitty, a silly word game from Breaking Games. Hear our thoughts in 5 minutes with this audio review.
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