Favorite Games for Teens

The boys may be growing up at warp speed, but that doesn’t mean we don’t find time for our game nights! At least one night a week we eat quickly, clear off the dinner table and pull out a game. It’s one of my favorite ways to spend time together!

Telestrations

Telestrations is a fun, interactive party game that we love to play with more than just immediate family. After all, not everyone loves brain games. Telestrations After Dark levels up the game for adults :-)

Each player starts with their own erasable sketch book, marker and word card. A roll of the die determines each player’s secret word. The timer gets turned and everyone draws their word. After 60 seconds, everyone passes their book to the player on their left. Then each player takes a few seconds to guess in words(s) what they see, and passes again. The timer is turned and everyone draws the guess. This continues until everyone’s sketch book passes by every player and returns back to its original owner, where it’s time for The Big Reveal. Everyone shares their book and the hilarious miscommunication is revealed. Just like the game of “telephone,” the outcomes are unpredictable and the laughter is contagious!

Clue Master Detective

We’ve favored the Clue Master Detective game over the original since I was a kid living at home! We dusted it off over Christmas break and played non-stop. It has more of everything, making the game more challenging and also able to enjoy with more players.

Uno Variations

I found the Uno party pack at WalMart for something ridiculous like $7. (showing online for $35 today) We’ve always loved original Uno and have enjoyed mixing it up a bit.

Cards Against Humanity Family Edition

We have had SO much fun with Cards Against Humanity Family Edition. It’s got its fair share of potty humor but literally had the lot of us in stitches. A great game for teens, fun grandparents and parents that have the sense of humor of a teen.

Cards Against Humanity: Family Edition is a new fill-in-the-blank comedy game that’s just like Cards Against Humanity, but it’s made for kids and adults to play together

Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman

Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman is simple, easy to learn, funny, great for all ages, and fast paced. Santa Cookie Elf Candy Snowman is the Christmas themed edition of the wildly popular card game Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza!

Sequence

We gave the boys Sequence a few years ago and its one we keep reaching for! It’s a great game for teens as there is some strategy involved. It’s also a fun option for a larger group as you can play in teams or as individuals.

It’s fun, it’s challenging, it’s exciting, it’s SEQUENCE! Play a card from your hand, and place a chip on a corresponding space on the game board. When you have five in a row, it’s a SEQUENCE. Learn to block your opponents or remove their chips, and watch out for the Jacks – they’re wild! With a little strategy and luck, you’ll be a winner. 

Ticket to Ride

We’ve been playing Ticket to Ride for years and it ranks as our #1 board game ever! It is easy to play and I’ve been professing my love for it since 2014. The price tag is steep as far as games go, but we’ve made our money back a hundred times over in the hours of entertainment. We also have and play the Ticket to Ride app frequently, but especially on road trips.

With elegantly simple gameplay, Ticket to Ride can be learned in under 15 minutes. Players collect cards of various types of train cars they then use to claim railway routes in North America. The longer the routes, the more points they earn. Additional points come to those who fulfill Destination Tickets – goal cards that connect distant cities; and to the player who builds the longest continuous route.

Catan

Catan comes in right after Ticket to Ride for us. We’ve played this one at least monthly since 2017 so it also has longevity. It is easy to learn and a ton of fun. I love the interactive trading in this one as well. We got it out while John was home at the holidays and played daily for a month.

Your adventurous settlers seek to tame the remote but rich isle of Catan. Start by revealing Catan’s many harbors and regions: pastures, fields, mountains, hills, forests, and desert. The random mix creates a different board virtually every game. Skills – Clever trading, strategy, tactical skill, luck.

Otrio

Otrio is a NEW “shelter at home” game for us and we’ve been LOVING it! Think of it as a multi-player tic-tac-toe. It is fast paced and our little “outside of the box thinker” (WHIT!) has been the King of Otrio. I love that the game is pretty enough to just keep out and it has found a home on our puzzle table the past week. While the other games are immensely more fun with more players, Otrio is entertaining with 2, 3 or 4.

Addicted to brainy challenges? Then fire up your competitive side with Otrio, the head-to-head strategy game! To win, get three pieces of your color in a row based upon similar size; lined up in ascending or descending order; or within the same space as three concentric pieces. The rules are simple but the game is complex! Depending on the wit of your opponent, you may need to sharpen your strategic skills and exercise critical thinking!

Monopoly Chance

Monopoly Chance is one Mother and Daddy-O keep at their home and the boys begged me to get at ours, too! This one is fast paced and involves a lot of luck.

Risk it all with the flip of a card! The Monopoly Chance game is the high-stakes, card-flipping version of the Monopoly game—and it only takes about 20 minutes to play! Instead of moving a token around the board, each player receives a token deck with Cash cards (no paper money!) Bankrupt cards, and strategic cards that lend an edge. Roll the die and flip over up to that many cards. Play it safe and flip over just enough cards to “cash out”—or risk it all for the big bucks. But careful, one too many flipped cards could reveal a Bankrupt card! Players compete to buy properties around the board by putting Cash cards on property spaces—and sometimes over other players’ Cash. But only those with the top card at the end of the round will own that property and get to add one of its buildings to their skyline. At the end of the game, the player with the longest skyline wins! 

Monopoly Deal

We’ve played Monopoly Deal hundreds of times over the years! It is fast paced enough to play after dinner in just a few minutes and we do so all the time. Since we’ve been home, I keep the cards out in a dish on the counter! We have a second deck we use when we have more family or friends – just combine the two!

Get a handy way to play the classic property-trading game! Be the first collect 3 full property sets of different colors, and you’ll win the Monopoly Deal Card Game. You’ll pick up cards when it’s your turn and play Action cards to charge players rent, steal their cards or demand money for your birthday. Build up property sets, gather piles of money and keep wheeling and dealing until you’re the Monopoly Deal winner!

Dominoes

Mexican Train Dominoes is another stand-by for us. Honey and I purchased our set before we had kids. We all enjoy playing and keep it outside in a jar on the porch for year-round entertainment. When the kids were too small to play the actual game, we used the dominoes for MANY things – from counting to matching to colors to building.

Family game night goes retro with this Mexican Train Domino game by Cardinal. Enhance kids’ simple math skills with a fun-filled round of Dominoes. Train enthusiasts will love the colorful little trains used as game pieces. Mexican Train is a modern version of Domiones, played with 91 Double-12 Dominoes. Because of its simplicity and interaction, it can be played by nearly anyone, anywhere. Depending on the type of game you play, it can last from a single 20-minute game to a 12-round game lasting hours. It can also be played using double 6 or double 9 tiles for shorter games.

Rummikub

Rummikub another game we’ve had for as long as we’ve been married. It’s quick and easy and never gets old. I played this as a tween growing up and continue to enjoy it with my kids today.

It’s really no surprise that Rummikub is so popular – it has all the elements that make a great game: it’s easy to learn and fast moving, it’s different every time it’s played, it combines luck and strategy, and it changes quickly so every player has a chance to win until the very end. Players take turns placing numbered tiles in runs and groups, rummy style. The ‘board’ continually changes as players adjust the tiles on the table. Be the first player to play every tile on your rack to win.

Yhatzee

I’ll wrap up with one final game that everyone probably already has in their game closet – Yhatzee! Like dominoes, we keep Yhatzee outside in a jar on the porch for spontaneous play. We recently rediscovered it with the change in the weather (have been out there a lot) and the boys are loving it. Again, fast and easy with a little strategy and a lot of luck so any one of us can win!

Roll it to the limit for the ultimate win with the Yahtzee Classic game. With a sleek shaker and 5 dice, you’re ready to roll! Take turns rolling dice to try to score combos. You get a total of 13 turns and may roll up to three times on a turn. At the end of each turn, you must fill in one empty box in your column on the score card. The player with the highest grand total at the end of all 13 rounds wins. It’s up to the player whether they hustle for a full house or risk it all for a Yahtzee roll. Show it off, and let the dice fall where they may. 

If your family has a game to add to the list, I’m all ears!

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