Though many popular board games have an online or app version, sometimes you just need the real thing. But when it comes to playing over zoom with friends or relatives, some games work better than others. Here are five zoom friendly game recommendations for different scenarios.
Kids Playing with Grandparents - Guess Who is great for this, and perfect for preschool aged kids. The game comes with two playing boards, one for each player. Play with your own individual game sets (make sure they are the same edition), or keep one of the boards and mail the grandparents the other one.
Cousins Playing Together – The fast stacking building block game Buildzi was a recent discovery (thank you Aunt LuLu). Not only is it a blast for the whole family to play together, it also works surprisingly well over zoom and makes a great cousin activity. Each household needs their own game set and up to four players can play per set.
Multi-Generation Family Game Night - As long as each individual family has their own game set, the classic category-based game Scattergories (a holiday tradition in my family) makes a great zoom option for extended families of all sizes. Make each household its own team. Designate one team to be in charge of the buzzer, one team to pick the category list for each round and another to roll the 24-sided alphabet die. At the end of each round, compare answers and tally up your points.
Couples Night – An important part of the word guessing game Taboo is having a member from the opposing team watch over your shoulder during your turn to ensure you don’t say anything from a list of restricted words. This makes it great for a couples zoom night. One member from each household is on Team A, the other on Team B.
Girls Night – The one online exception to this list is Codenames, the clue-giving game with opposing spymasters. For a night with friends, it’s worth checking out the smart and easy to navigate online version at www.horsepaste.com.