Disclaimer – we were sent all of these games for the purpose of this review, all opinions are our own.
We love games in this house. I have lost count of the number of games we have collected over the years but I love the fact that I can look into the games cupboard at any time and find something suitable for every occasion. Whether it is something for a quick game with my ten year old daughter, something more taxing to play with my teenage son or something for the whole family, we have it all covered.
Having a family games night is something we enjoy, it is a rare chance to get together and do something as a family, which is difficult when you have kids of different ages. And family game nights shouldn’t just be at Christmas time either, we try to have at least one every month and in the summer, it is lovely to sit out in the garden and play in the evenings.
Spin Master have an amazing selection of games (some of which are already in our games cupboard) and they sent us four new games to try out, a perfect selection for a family games night.
HedBanz
SRP: from £13.99 Ages: 7+
I can’t believe we have never played Hedbanz before, it is a brilliant game. It is so quick and easy to set up and play and is a ‘Who Am I?’ game which will give you endless hours of family fun.
Inside the box, you get 6 plastic headbands, 69 picture cards with a wide variety of different things on, 24 scoring chips, 3 sample question cards, a timer and of course, the instructions.
Setting up is very simple, clip together your headband and you are ready to play. The idea is that you each take one of the picture cards without looking at it and you place it in your headband facing your opponents. Turn over the timer and you have to ask questions within the minute to try and work out what you are. The sample question cards are really useful, especially for younger players as they give you ideas of the right sort of questions to ask. If you get your picture within the time, you are awarded a scoring chip that you clip onto your headband.
It is great fun and because of the timer, it is really fast paced too. You could play without the timer if you wanted to, especially with younger players, but I loved the way it was such a fast-paced game with the timer and this makes it a lot more fun. Hedbanz is a definite winner with us and I know it is a game that we will play a lot.
Hedbanz is available from Amazon.
Otrio
SRP: £19.99 Ages: 6+
As a complet contrast, Otrio is a game of strategy. It is not a game that I had seen before andI have to admit that I really liked the look of it when it arrived. When we played it for the first time, my daughter decided that it was a bit like playing noughts and crosses and when you play it, I think you will agree.
Inside the Otrio box you will find the Otrio board and four sets of different coloured rings (9 of each colour). The aim of the game is to either get three circular pieces of your colour in a row in either ascending or descending order, the same sized pieces in a row, or three concentric pieces in the same space to become the winner. With so many different ways to win the game, you need to keep your wits about you and that is where the strategy comes in as not only do you have to think about how to win, you have to keep an eye on your opponents and stop them from winning at the same time.
We loved Otrio, it is a brilliant game. After many years of playing noughts and crosses, it is fantastic to have a game that is based on the same idea but different and it was interesting to see how competitive the teenagers became when we started playing as they assumed that it was easy and that they would win. Not always!
Otrio is suitable for two to four players. If there are only two of you playing, you can have two colours each which makes it even more interesting. It is available from Amazon.
Baby Shark Fishing Game
SRP: £14.99 Ages: 6+
The Baby Shark Fishing Game took me right back to similar games that we had when the children were small. But even now, my ten year old daughter and I have loved playing it as it is such a simple but fun game to play.
Inside the box you will find a very colourful game board which is designed to look like a pond and inside little holes are little fish all waiting to be caught by the shark fishing rods. There are an odd number of fish in three different colours and the game includes four different coloured shark fishing rods so the game can be played by up to four players.
This game does require batteries (2 x AA) but for a good reason. Once you start to play, you turn on the game and it spins around allowing the fish to open and close their mouths at different times and it plays the Baby Shark song. This is a brilliant game for younger children but as I have seen this week, the older ones quite enjoy it too. It is so easy to play and you can’t help but smile either because of the music, it is a great addition to the game. We love it and it can get very frantic towards the end but that makes it even more entertaining.
Jumanji – The Next Level
SRP: £19.99 Ages: 8+
If you are fans of the recent Jumanji films, you will like this game. Based on the most recent film: Jumanji – The Next Level, this game is definitely suitable to play with older children.
Inside the box you will find a 2-tier game board, 4 character trackers, 1 falcon jewel, 1 plastic spinner, 50 cards, 40 tokens, 4 dice and the instructions. This is a more complicated game to play, so I would definitely recommend reading through the instructions first before you start playing.
This is a dice game and the aim of the game is to choose one of the main characters and then as that character, you use their special abilities to race through the jungle. To win you need to collect tokens to fill your character tracker. But as this is Jumanji, you also have to battle the evil forces and encounter windfalls but you do have to play with caution as with the films, it can all change at any moment.
Once you get the hang of how to play, this is a fun game but I think the instructions could have been a little clearer. A definite must for fans of the film.
Jumanji – The Next Level is suitable for two to four players and is available to buy here.
