New Games :: Classic Games :: Handheld Games 

I Never Forget a Face Memory Game (eeboo) Ages 3+ $14.95
This is the classic game of memory with beautiful illustrations on thick cardboard.  The memory game is a great game to play with kids as it's fun for adults too.  "It's amazing how bad my memory is these days," commented the mother of our 4-year-old tester, "my daughter was much better than me!" On the bottom of the box you'll find a guide to the children's countries of origin.  

Candy Dominoes (eeboo) Ages 3+ $12.95
These beautiful hard backed, glossy dominoes are illustrated with classic candies.  They make a great gift and a great way to introduce your grandchild to the classic game of dominoes.  

TV Mini Golf (Hasbro) Ages 6+, $49.99
I took this on vacation over the summer to test out with the kids. We weren't sure what the weather would be like and thought it would be a good rainy-day activity. Well, it was a good rainy-day, sunny-day, breezy-day, any-day activity. The kids couldn't get enough of it. They played it and played it. It was one of the few games that they played for hours and didn't need reminding about sharing or taking turns. They cheered each other on and were completely non-competitive. They were up and moving and having a blast, laughing and swinging. Even my 4-year-old got the hang of it. I have since given the set to my niece, who told me all her friends have played it and requested to play it again and again when they come to her house for play dates. It's a pricey toy, but really worth every penny. Works with TV or VCR with AV input or RF adapter; requires 4 AA batteries. 

Candyland DVD (Hasbro)  Ages 4-7, $29.99  
If you've ever played Candyland the first thing you'll discover is this game is very different.  First it's played on a path of 24 8" square play mats with pictures of candy and characters.  Secondly the characters appear on the DVD in animation where the child is guided through any of three different games.  Our testers who played this said, "it's a lot of fun."  They liked the Mister Mint came which is like Simon Says, the Musical Moves game which is like Musical chairs and Gumball Challenge where the kids have to find on the right play mat.  Our testers mothers liked the fact that their kids were up and moving, not just sitting around.  It's not quite a game for family game night, but it is a great game for rainy days, sleepovers and playdates.

THE GAME OF LIFE in Bikini Bottom SpongeBob SquarePants Edition  (Hasbro)  Ages 7 & up, $19.99 
Our testers ages 7, 8 and 9 had a blast playing this game.  First, they are SpongeBob fans which makes it all the more fun, then you play the regular game of life with Bikini Bottom twists.  For example SpongeBob style, you can become a Fry Cook at the Krusty Krab, or get stung by a jellyfish!  When reach Shady Shoal’s Rest Home you count up your SpongeBob money and the player with the most wins!

TRIVIAL PURSUIT For Kids Game Nickelodeon Edition (Hasbro)  Ages 8 & up
Our testers aged 7 and 9 had a great time playing this game one of which was my daughter.  As a parent I wasn't sure that I wanted my daughter to know too much trivia about TV shows yet, but I figured she was reading and having fun so it was okay.  This game features 1200 fun multiple-choice questions with Nick trivia. Features questions from favorite Nick shows and movies including SpongeBob, Dora, Rugrats, and Jimmy Neutron.  Just like the classic Trivial Pursuit the person who collects all 6 wedges and makes it to the center and answers the question correctly wins.

Cranium - The Family Fun Game (Cranium)  Ages 8+, $19.99
This game is a great way to get all ages into the Cranium mix where everyone can play together. There are four Cranium characters Creative Cat, Data Head, Star Performer, and Word Worm with challenges of all ages.  There are sculpture challenges using their signature purple clay, flipping frogs, stacking cubes and sketching challenges.  The game is shorter so if you have a family member with a short attention span you're not going to lose them with this game!  "It's a great family night game" report our testers, "even the adults had fun with this one!" 

GridWorks (ThinkFun) Ages 8 - up, $12.99  
Grid works the fun game of logical deduction.  Our tester thought it was "a cool game because it had a great basis and it was hard. What I mean by hard is that you don’t sit down start and are over in 15 min. This game gives your brain a workout and is a great thing to keep kids busy in the car."  Our mom-tester was thrilled with her son's report.

Star Wars Saga Edition Mission Lightsaber Battle Game (Hasbro) Age 8 and up, $49.99
Our tester thought that this was just the best game ever. The game which is an interactive plug and play technology uses an included lightsaber to interface with the TV. There's a 6 part fight again the Dark Side. Our 8-year-old tester told his dad, "this is just awesome, I love it! It's the coolest game ever!" According to his father, he had a lot of fun playing it as  well. His parents really liked the fact that it was a game that got him up and moving, that it wasn't a "sit on your butt and push buttons game." He also reports, "my son really worked up a sweat as he got better at this game!"  His son said, "it's challenging as you have to master the moves and as it becomes more difficult you find that you actually are improving."  They rated it a 10 out of 10 for fun! 

Eco-Rangers: Animal Kingdom DVD Learning Game (SnapTV Games) Ages 6-9, $24.99 
Our testers just loved playing this DVD.  It's a great way to discover facts about the creatures on our planet.  Our 7-year-old tester had a blast taking the challenges and learned quite a lot.  According to her mother she played this quite a bit and encouraged her friends to join in.  She had a fun earning the "gems" to complete each challenge.  The game has information on over 250 animals and 5 missions.  Works on a standard DVD and TV.

Scooby-Doo Where are You? Game (Briarpatch) Ages 7 years and up, $9.99
Our testers, aged 7 and 9 had a great time playing this game which involves simple adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. It's a simple game, with recognizable characters and the kid don't even realize that they are learning!

Battle B-Daman Tournament Set (Hasbro) Age 8 and up, $19.99
Our testers, brothers ages 9 and 12, played this almost every day for weeks and still haven't gotten tired of it. Interestingly, they don't even watch the TV cartoon that the toy is based on! In the toy version, B-Damans are small plastic robots -- you get to assemble them -- that shoot marbles. With practice, you can knock down obstacles or hit a triangular puck across a playing surface. The tournament set provides a four-foot-long game-playing area and instructions for 10 games that use
different arrangements of targets, gates, and barriers. The tournament set comes with one B-Daman figure; you can play some of the games solo, but for real fun, you'll want one or more extra figures in different models (sold separately starting at $8.99). Our testers had three additional figures, which let them play most of the games and also enabled them to mix and match pieces to build more interesting and competitive robots. A few of the games also require accessories that are sold separately, but that didn't stop our kids from having fun. One caveat: The toys, like most of this type, are not made to last a lifetime; our kids realized later they would have been happier not bothering with the sticker decorations, which tended to fall off.

Oxford Dilemma (Rumba Games), Ages 12 and up, $29.99 
This board game for up to six people plays a lot like Monopoly, but you earn money by correctly spelling challenge words from cards (rather like Trivial Pursuit) and by arranging letter cards to form words (as in Scrabble). Our tester family, which likes all three of those classic games, tried this one with three generations - the grandparents each paired up with a grandchild, and the parents played on their own. One grandchild (an expert speller) had a ball, but the other found too many of the vocabulary words unfamiliar. The adults enjoyed both the game and the conversations about the obscure terms and names that came up as challenge words. We found it worked best to make some compromises in the rules to suit the different knowledge levels of the players. Beware: Like Monopoly, this can go on a very long time! Labeled for ages 12 and up, but it would be best for avid game-playing families with all players at least high-school level in word knowledge. 

Mad Gab (Mattel) Ages 10 and up, $19.99 
This fun game is a bit like verbal charades.  You can play with any number of people from 2 to 12.  It's simple - you read simple words aloud and try to figure out the answer.  It's a race against time that has everyone working to figure out the three puzzles.  If you get it right you get the card.  If you miss it, your opponents can get it.  It's a fun ice-breaker game that will have everyone laughing! 

Handheld Games - Great for Travel

Suduko (Techno Source) Ages 8 years and up, $19.99
Prepare to be obsessed!  Suduko a great game that has migrated from Japan and is based on a pretty simple principle of single digit numbers.  You need to fill boxes and lines with the numbers 1 to 10, however you can't duplicate any of the numbers in the line or in each box.  If you've played Suduko on paper you know the hassle of constantly erasing errors, well this great handheld means you don't have to erase.  It's designed like a  Palm Pilot with a stylus, has over 100,000 games and four levels of difficulty.    It's great fun and addictive.  A great game for kids and adults.  

Electronic Yahtzee (Milton Bradley)  Ages 8 years and up, $10.99
If you've ever played Yahtzee you'll understand why an electronic version can be so much fun.  In the electronic version you press the buttons to roll the dice, you then select if you want three off a kind, straights, or if you get five of a kind you get Yahtzee! You earn bonus points with Aces and Sixes.  It keeps score, has sound effects and automatic shut-off.  My daughter currently holds the high score of 463 at our house, and let me tell you it's impossible to beat!  It's so addictive my husband plays it every night to unwind.  Requires 1 "AA" alkaline battery (included).