Exciting and new board games for kids and adults: 2018 edit

By Holly O'Mahony on 7/12/2018

If you can’t face another round Scrabble or Charades this Christmas, and feel bored just thinking about dusting off the Monopoly board, perhaps it’s time to invest in a new board game? The good news is there’s a host of fun, innovative and quirky games to get stuck into with the family – and don’t worry, we’re not talking about wince-worthy Cards Against Humanity.
From cracking codes to catapulting pucks, shouting rhymes to showing off your music trivia, we round up the board games you’ll actually want to play this Christmas.

The finger-flicking one: Pucket

How you play: Grab your opponent, line up your pucks, and shout GO! Pucket involves racing to be the first to clear your pucks (eight wooden discs), by catapulting them through a small hole leading to the other side of the board. Any pucks that arrive on your side must be sent back before you win.

Why choose it: Great for those with a competitive streak and those who enjoy a boisterous game (jeering and shouting is encouraged), Pucket is sure to raise you out of a post-Christmas dinner slump. Each hand-crafted board is made in India from sheesham wood, and ET Games offers an engraving service, ideal for those buying a Pucket board as a present for someone.

Price: £41

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The linguists' one: Codenames

How to play: Published in 2015 by Czech Games, Codenames involves guessing which of the 25 words laid out in a 5x5 grid relate to a 'hint word' given by your team’s spymaster. Players are split into two teams – red and blue – with one player from each team taking on the role of spymaster. Both spymasters have access to a card which reveals the code of the grid (aka which words represent red agents, which blue agents and which one word represents the assassin). The game ends when all of one team's agents are identified (winning the game for that team), or when one team accidentally reveals the assassin (losing the game).

Why choose it: Codenames proved instantly popular following its release; it won the Spiel des Jahres award for the best board game of the year in 2016. Ideal for logofiles, Codenames is a game where the process of linking the words on the grid is just as fun as the winning.

Price: £16.99

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The majority vs the minority one: The Resistance

How to play: Promises, accusations and backstabbing are all rife in The Resistance. Set in the near future, the game pits a small group of resistance fighters against a powerful and corrupt government. Players must attempt to deduce one another's identity in order to reveal who's telling the truth.

Why choose it: Fans of party games such as Mafia and Werewolf will love The Resistance. It’s essentially a more complex version, played on a board rather than with a deck of cards, designed to avoid the frequent player elimination of similar games. Good for larger groups, the game is played with five to ten players and rounds take upwards of half an hour.

Price: £16.99

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The celebrity rhyming one: Obama Llama

How to play: In this light-hearted game from Big Potato Games, players will come across Cara Delevingne on a washing machine, George Clooney doing a moony and of course Barack Obama riding a llama. The task? To describe or act a celebrity-based rhyme to your team, seeing how many they can guess in a 30-second turn.

Why choose it: Fun, light-hearted and easy to grasp, Obama Llama is a great game to whip out over the Christmas period when you want to heighten spirits and make the party... er, hearty?

Price: £21.99

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The shouty one: Linkee

How to play: Linkee is about as simple a board game as it gets. Players simply answer four questions, work out the common link between their answers and shout ‘Linkee!’ once they have it. Of course, you’ll need to find the answer before your fellow players solve it to win the round.

Why choose it: Linkee is a straightforward, shouty-outy quiz game. Come armed with your best nuggets of general knowledge, then learn the ropes as you play.

Price: £19.99

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The one to make your brain hurt: Wasgij

How to play: Wasgij is jigsaw backwards and the game’s classic range of puzzles is essentially that too: puzzlers must put themselves in the position of a particular character in the picture on the game’s box, then create in puzzle form the image they imagine said character is seeing. There are several variations on the classic game; one requires puzzlers to imagine a historical scene in modern day, another involves doing the opposite, and another requires piecing together what will happen minutes on from the scene on the box.

Why choose it: Jigsaw puzzle extraordinaires looking for something a little more challenging will love Wasgij. These brain teaser puzzles require a lot of imagination, but the satisfaction of completing one makes it all the more worth it. There’s also a whole Christmas series following the Wasgij Original concept, ideal for getting stuck into over the festive period.

Price: £12.99

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The music buff’s one: Now That’s What I Call Music! board game

How to play: A fun-packed music trivia board game for the whole family; the aim of the game is to answer music-based questions from either the 80s, 90s or 00s, and pip your opponents to the centre of the board.

Why choose it: The summer of 2018 saw the release of the 100th edition of the 'Now That’s What I Call Music!' compilations. Those who know the albums inside out – and who can trace their 35-year history back over CDs, tape and even vinyls – will enjoy this music trivia board game.

Price: £24.99

Click here to buy it