Best Board Games and Puzzles

by Fran Black

The holidays are over but what games and puzzles hold the attention of players and capture all generations?

1. Scrabble
Everyone starts out with 7 tiles. The object of the game is to score as many points as you can by forming words from the letters on the tiles. Carefully decide where you want to place your words. Bonus squares on the board will give you double or triple the value for a particular letter in your word. Some let you earn double or triple values for the entire word! Use all 7 tiles in your hand and score 50 bonus points. Great fun for the whole family!

2. CLUE
Find out the where, when and how in this classic game of Whodunit, a favorite with sleuths of all ages for more than 50 years! Was it Colonel Mustard in the conservatory with the revolver? Or perhaps the culprit was Miss Scarlet, or one of the other four suspicious-looking guests! See if you can find out! A correct accusation wins the game, but an incorrect guess sends the player out of the game and leaves the crime up to the remaining detectives.

3. Scategories
Scattergories is a fast-paced word game that's a real crowd pleaser. Each player takes a category list with 12 categories--such as vegetable, state, president, things you throw away--and must write down the name of one item that fits into each category. Sounds easy enough, but each item has to begin with a specific letter that is determined when the 20-sided die is rolled. Right off the top of your head name a restaurant, fruit, toy, Halloween costume, and weapon--and make sure your answers all begin with the same initial letter. There's 144 different categories to challenge your mind.

4. Monopoly
Classic board game that shows American Capitalism at it's best. Move around the board buying and selling properties and learn how to hone negotiation skills, in this classic board game.

5. Jigsaw Puzzles
An endearing favorite a jjigsaw puzzle is a tiling puzzle that requires the assembly of numerous small, often oddly-shaped, interlocking pieces. Each piece has a small part of a picture on it; when complete, a jigsaw puzzle produces a complete picture.

6. Cranium
Spell a word backwards, hum a tune, answer a multiple-choice question, draw with your eyes closed, and more when you play Cranium. Unlike games that focus on only a few skills, Cranium offers 14 talent-tapping activities designed to bring out the best in you and your friends.

7. Yahtzee
It's America's all-time number one dice game! In this seductive game of luck and strategy, players have three tries each turn to roll dice in hopes of obtaining the elusive Yahtzeeor racking up points in one of the 12 other scoring categories.

8. LIFE
In this classic game of fortune, your goal is to dodge bad luck and make a buck. Along the way, you'll also earn valuable Life Tiles by doing good deeds, helping your community, or just taking a break from the rat race! Retire with the biggest fortune, and you'll win! Each space is a different adventure, so you'll get a whole new Life every time you play. What does Life have in store for you? Take a spin and find out!

9. Boggle
You can't beat a classic like Boggle. A small container holds 16 cubes, each cube marked with a different letter on each of its six sides. Give the container a good shake, and the cubes land within little pockets. Find as many words (of three-or-more letters) as you can--in three minutes. Points are tallied by word length.

10. Trivial Pursuit
Test your trivial knowledge in 4,800 new general knowledge questions in 6 categories: People/Places, Arts/Entertainment, History, Science/Nature, Sports/Leisure and Wild Card. Answer questions correctly to collect all the wedges in your pie, then race to the center of the gameboard to win!

About the Author:

Francesca Black works in marketing at the Puzzle Place http://www.puzzle-place.net and Chess Strategies http://www.chess-strategies.net leading puzzle and strategy portals.