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TabletopBoard Games

What are the best board games for kids?

5

Options
Considered

10

User
Recs.

Oct 14, 2021

Last
Updated

5 Options Considered

Best board games for kids	Price	# Players	Play Time
-- Ice Cool	$34.84	2 to 4	20 Minutes
-- The Enchanted Tower	$26.29	2 to 4	15 - 25 Minutes
-- The Magic Labyrinth	$38.95	2 to 4	15 Minutes
-- Race to the Treasure	$13.99	1 to 4	20 Minutes
-- My First Stone Age	$34.50	2 to 4	15 Minutes

Ice Cool

Top Pro

Often leads to memorable moments

The game can lead to some awesome moments because of the little penguins. Depending on where you hit the penguin, it will move differently. For example, if you flick the head of it, it will make the penguin jump. This can lead to some crazy trick-shots where someone manages to jump over walls. You can also flick them on the side, which will make the penguin spin. By doing this you could spin through multiple rooms and gather a lot of points or catch several penguins on the same turn. See More

Top Con

Has a learning curve

Ice Cool is quite skill-based and requires practice on flicking the penguin pawns to get them to go where you want to. The rulebook has some tips, but the techniques can only be learned by playing the game. A new player won’t do well against a player who has already played a bit. See More

Specs

# Players:2 to 4

Play Time:20 Minutes

Top Pro

Easy to set up

The gameboard of Ice Cool is big, but it’s quite simple to set up. The playing surface consists of five boxes that all fit in the game’s box. You connect them in the correct places, all of which are marked with colored dots on the edges of the boxes. After that you take the little beige colored fish tokens and place them in the marked spots to keep the gameboard in place, and you’re good to go. See More

Top Con

Luck-based scoring

Catching penguins and gathering fish to get victory points in Ice Cool requires skill, but the values on the fish cards you get range from 1 to 3, which means that even if you’re good at the game, you can lose because of pure chance. Someone could potentially score the same amount out of one card as you with three cards. See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn

Ice Cool is very straightforward, it all revolves around flicking little penguin pawns. Doorways will have fish pegs attached to them, when you flick a penguin through it, then you’ll receive the fish and get to draw a fish card that gives you victory points. Each round one player will be the hall monitor who will try to catch other penguins and gather their student ID’s by hitting them instead of gathering fish. The round ends either when the hall monitor has gathered all ID’s or when someone has gathered all three fish tokens. The game ends when everyone has been the hall monitor. The player with the most points on their fish cards wins. See More

Top Con

Only one layout

The gameboard can only be arranged in one way, so the game can get quite repetitive in this aspect. See More

Top Pro

Beautiful design

Aesthetically Ice Cool looks very impressive. The playing surface is a 3D school consisting of five different rooms that feature many little details all over the walls – maps, fish, basketball hoops, etc. Everything has a blue, cold-looking color scheme, which kind of mimics an igloo. The cards also have some great artwork on them. The ID’s are two-sided for boys and girls. Each colored penguin has a different look and style. The fish cards depict, you guessed it, fish. The bigger the point value, the bigger the meal. See More

Top Pro

High quality components

The components of Ice Cool are very interesting and well-made. The game’s playing surface is made of five 3D boxes that all fit in the game’s box. The player tokens are four penguins made of hard plastic that are weighted in the base so that they keep wobbling when hit. Throughout the game players gather fish tokens, which are nice and small wooden pieces similar to pegs. There are also some cards in the game – ID cards and fish cards, which are all made of durable cardstock. See More

The Enchanted Tower

Top Con

The helpless princess is rescued by the male hero? Yawn

Top Pro

Wonderful components

The components of The Enchanted Tower are top-notch in terms of quality, creativity, and uniqueness. Moreover, the art looks magnificent – it’s colorful and highly detailed. The game is played on many levels on the game’s box - under the colorful gameboard there is not only storage for the components, but also sixteen slots in which the sorcerer hides the key that unlocks the enchanted tower. There’s also a little circular section that must be placed on the corner of the box with eight extra steps on which the wizard must start the game. The tower itself is an actual tower in the corner of the gameboard that has the princess figure placed in the middle. The player pieces (the wizard and Robin) are minimalistic figures that have magnets on the bottom, which are used to grab the key when you step over the correct tile. After you’ve received the key, you can place it in one of the six locks on the enchanted tower to see if the lock triggers the spring-loaded mechanism in the tower that causes the princess to jump out. See More

Specs

# Players:2 to 4

Play Time:15 - 25 Minutes

Top Con

Team gameplay can be fiddly

In a game where there are more than two players, everyone other than the wizard player takes turns controlling Robin, which could lead to quarterbacking, downtime, and younger children losing interest. See More

Top Pro

Can be played in teams

If you have more than two people wanting to play, then you can split up in two teams where one player is the wizard and the others play Robin. This is especially good if you’re playing with younger players and want to team up to help them learn the game. See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn

The basics of The Enchanted Tower can be understood very quickly even by the youngest players. One player takes on the role of the sorcerer who hides the key to the princess’ tower under one of the 16 spaces on the gameboard. The other player is Robin who must try to find the key. Players take turns rolling dice, one die indicates who moves first, whereas the other one shows how many steps can be taken. Once the key has been found, the player who found it can try to place it in one of the six locks on the princess’ tower. If it works, then the princess will pop out and the player who did it wins. If the tower doesn’t unlock, then the game is reset, and the sorcerer hides the key again. See More

Top Pro

Immersive

The game can be very engaging, and it also has a light roleplay element. Gameplay-wise there are some intense moments, for example, when the wizard sees Robin near the location of the key, or when the Robin player sees the wizard catching up. The game has a nice little story in the official rulebook, which can help with the immersion. Also, sometimes playing the wizard leads to people changing their voice and doing evil laughs, which can be great fun for everyone around. See More

The Magic Labyrinth

Top Pro

Easy to play

The game is extremely straightforward and can be explained to absolutely anyone – you choose a pawn, roll a die. and try to reach the cardboard token on the gameboard before your opponent does. It’s not as easy as it seems though, there’s an invisible maze under the playing space, so you must use your memory to remember the paths. If the magnetic ball following your pawn under the gameboard hits a wall, then you return to the start and try again on your next turn. The first player to gather five tokens wins. See More

Top Con

Token spawn is luck-based

The tokens that are required to win the game are placed one at a time and they’re drawn from the cloth bag. The token can be closer and easier to reach to one player as opposed to someone else. A player could even get lucky and have a token spawn on the space they’re on, which leads to them instantly getting it. This issue is especially prevalent in games with more players. See More

Specs

# Players:2 to 4

Play Time:15 Minutes

Top Pro

Variable play time

Though The Magic Labyrinth is already quite a quick game that takes 20 minutes at most, if you want to play an even shorter game, then you can reduce the win condition to a smaller amount of required tokens by removing some from the cloth bag. See More

Top Con

No simple way to move past other players

There can be a situation where a player must move past another player by going through their space. Unfortunately, this can be a difficult task because of the thickness of the pawns and the magnets underneath. Shimmying past someone could make a player accidentally reveal whether the space next to them is a wall or not. See More

Top Pro

Variable difficulty

You can manipulate the maze under the gameboard and remove as many wooden pieces as you see fit to adjust the game’s difficulty level. The game comes with 24 walls, but the number you use in your maze is up to you, the only rule being that all spaces on the gameboard must be accessible from at least one side. See More

Top Con

Can get samey after a while

The Magic Labyrinth can lose its replay value after a few plays because it’s very straightforward and doesn’t introduce any new variables. See More

Top Pro

Great component quality

The Magic Labyrinth’s components are very well-made. The game consists of a multilayered board that has a grid on the bottom and an overlay on the top. The grid on the bottom side of the gameboard is filled with little wooden pieces that make up the maze. The game is played with magnets – the pawns on the top of the gameboard are magnetically attached to a small ball under the gameboard. The magnets are powerful, and the pieces don’t accidentally come apart. The wooden pawns feel great to the touch and are easy to slide around. Additionally, the game has a nice cloth bag with all the magic item tokens. The tokens are made of thick cardboard. See More

Top Con

Tedious to set up

The game requires a maze to be built underneath the gameboard by placing wooden pieces in the grid before you begin, which can be annoying because it takes a while and the player who set it up could have a small advantage even if the gameboard is spun a few times before placing the overlay. There is one rule – each token must be reachable. Setting up the maze could also be difficult for children. See More

Top Con

Three-player mode has its disadvantages

When playing with three players, the player whose starting space is in the middle of the other two players has a handicap. This is because this player is further away from the empty corner. If a token spawns near that side, then the other two players are much closer to it by default. See More

Race to the Treasure

Top Pro

Teaches a good variety of concepts

Race to the Treasure introduces children to concepts such as making choices, prioritizing, and planning. Adults can guide kids to the best choices and explain them, which makes the game a good educational tool. There are many meaningful decisions to be made – where to place the tile, how to plan a route, picking between a key, an ogre snack, or the exit, etc. See More

Top Con

Luck-based

The tile deck contains 10 ogre tiles, if 7 of them are placed, then the players lose. Depending on where these tiles might be after the deck is shuffled, your game can often end with a quick loss or an easy win. See More

Specs

# Players:1 to 4

Play Time:20 Minutes

Top Pro

Very easy

Race to the Treasure is extremely simple and can be taught in a matter of minutes to anyone. The mechanic is elementary – you draw a tile and place it. The tile can be either a path or an ogre. If it’s a path, then you decide where to connect it to the road you’re building. If it’s an ogre, then it’s added to the ogre track. When you gather three keys and reach the exit, everyone wins. If the ogre reaches the exit first, you lose. See More

Top Con

Might require some house rules

There’s a gap in the rules for a situation where you draw a straight tile and the only space to place it goes off the board, which might require the introduction of a house rule to solve – re-drawing the tile, discarding it, adding an ogre tile, etc. See More

Top Pro

Quick to play

Race to the Treasure can take a maximum of 20 minutes, which is short enough for keeping the attention of younger players and not taking too much time for adults. See More

Top Pro

Fast to set up

Setting up the game is quick and easy. You place the board, shuffle the tiles, and then roll the two dice, one with a number and one with a letter, to determine where the keys and the ogre snacks are going to be placed on the 6x8 grid. This also helps younger children with numbers and letters, so the setup can also be educational. See More

My First Stone Age

Top Pro

Introduces many concepts

The complexity level of the game is great for younger children – it teaches them a lot more than just flipping tiles and moving, it also handles memory, resource management, and some risk. The forest tiles are upside down, and two of them get flipped every time someone reaches the hut space, so you must keep track of where the tile you want is. There’s quite a bit of trading and exchanging. When you land on the construction space, you trade in specific resources for a hut. The price of the hut is shown on the bottom of the hut tiles, it can either be three different resources or two resources of the same type. Also, when you reach the trading post tile, you can trade one resource for another. The game also has a dog “wildcard”, which can substitute any resource, but there’s a catch – there are only two dogs in the game, and if they’re all taken when someone walks on the dog tile, then they can steal it from one of the players, so it’s a risk to hang on to it too long. See More

Top Con

Might be outgrown quickly

The lifespan of My First Stone Age isn’t very long because the introduced concepts are quite basic and simple, so kids might find it repetitive, boring, and easy in a year or two. See More

Specs

# Players:2 to 4

Play Time:15 Minutes

Top Pro

Short play time

Kids and parents probably won’t get bored of the game so quickly because a full game takes only 15 to 20 minutes. See More

Top Pro

Aesthetically pleasing

Similarly to the actual Stone Age, the artwork and the components look great, albeit with a cartoony twist, which befits a children’s game. The gameboard and hut tiles have cute prehistoric artwork that include little cavemen doing all kinds of silly stuff – swimming down waterfalls, playing, eating, etc. The 3D villages look very cool, and there’s no mistaking what the resource tokens are supposed to be. See More

Top Pro

Durable components

My First Stone Age has high-quality components, so they should hold up very well. The meeples and the resource pieces are wooden, the cardboard huts and movement tokens are thick and rugged, the storage box is sturdy, and the cards are made of durable cardstock. See More

Top Pro

Simple to learn

My First Stone Age is easy to play, as a children’s game should be. Players take turns flipping tokens that tell them where to move. The tokens feature either icons with specific spots or dice, in which case you must move the according amount of spaces. When you reach the hut space, then you can use combinations of resources you’ve gathered to build a hut. The first player to build three of them wins the game. See More

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