Two fearless ninjas must face each other in an epic contest to acquire 11 (or more if decided) Clawfuku Stones. “No Touchy” rules apply. Only for the most spirited of ninjas! Slide Quest also requires a surprising amount of communication between players, with everyone needing to occasionally stop what they’re doing and discuss who needs to do what next. All this collaboration makes for a very effective family bonding exercise and could do a lot to bring everyone together - if only for an hour or so. One day a wandering ninja—calling himself Master Meow—entered Phee Lion’s temple and challenged him to a game of Clawfuku. The loser of this contest would be cast into exile forever. Master Meow had developed a technique he called, “The Cobra Paw”. With this technique, Phee Lion was defeated —happiness and many good things returned to the land. Although countless opponents have challenged Master Meow throughout his life, none came close to defeating him. To this day, Cobra Paw tournaments are held to honor the legacy of Master Meow, and it is believed that if one can master the Cobra Paw technique, Master Meow will rise again… Build a precarious tower, and prove your constructive skill The spiritual successor to Jenga, Crazy Tower is a building game that pushes for skill and precision.

Stones may be snatched from the common pool or from other players. Snatching must be done with the fingers, not the whole paw. It is considered shameful to cover the stone with one’s paw. Publisher Plaid Hat Games is renowned for adventure board games about flights of fantasy, with Stuffed Fables being perhaps its most family-friendly example. Unlike the slightly denser and darker dungeon-crawler Mice and Mystics - which is still one of the best modern board games around - Stuffed Fables keeps the gameplay lighter and the tone far more whimsical. In Stuffed Fables players take control of a brave band of cute little stuffed animals as they attempt to rescue their owner from the clutches of a devious villain. But they’ll have to use every inch of bravery as they encounter menacing foes and any number of dangers in their quest to save the day. Colourbrain is a very kid-friendly game, but one that'll still give adults a run for their money. The actual nature of it couldn't be simpler - just a series of questions about colours, in which you'll have to spend cards to answer. What colour is Mr Bump? What shade is the lid on a Marmite jar? Are you sure? Think hard, the match might depend on it. A rather unconventional co-op board game for one to eight players, Magic Maze requires its participants to work together whilst avoiding being too loose with information, as everyone is only allowed to communicate for very short periods of time whilst playing. Each player has access to a single unique action whether that be moving in a certain direction, accessing a new area or using a particular square, but you aren’t limited to controlling a single character. This means that players are welcome to apply their individual action to any number of heroes - however, they’ll still need to be careful to collaborate as every character has a favorite shop to visit, and all heists need to be executed simultaneously if our heroes want to get out before the store guards take notice.Alternatively called Spot it! Dobble is perhaps one of the most popular card games in the known world and continues to be re-released in various forms including Star Wars and Frozen-themed versions. Its straightforward pattern-matching gameplay makes playing Dobble a universal experience that can be translated into any language and enjoyed by pretty much everyone, which makes it one of the best beginner board games to introduce to anyone.

Kids just love How to Train Your Dragon, don’t they? And what do those films have apart from dragons? Vikings. Which is why Valley of the Vikings is sure to be a hit with younger audiences. As for adults? Well, bowling seems to be a fairly popular activity regardless of your age and Valley of the Vikings has its fair share of rolling balls. Potion Explosion is all about unpredictability, and that's what makes it so replayable, getting completely different results each time you try and working to manifest it as something worth using. Just make sure you still have your eyebrows when it's all over. What could be more family-friendly than the fantastical adventures of the famous boy wizard? There are a lot of terrible licensed Harry Potter board games (*cough* the Harry Potter Miniatures Adventure Game *cough*) so you have to be careful about cynical cash-grabs, but Harry Potter: Hogwarts Battle is one of the best movie board games. This co-op board game for two to four players has you assuming the roles of classic characters from the film series including Hermoine Granger, Neville Longbottom, Ron Weasley and, of course, Harry Potter himself as they attempt to gain an education whilst thwarting the schemes of the evil wizard Voldemort. Remove one to five planks from the pool. When the dice roll one of these patterns, the first player to shout “Cobra Paw!” gets to take a stone from the pool.

This rich narrative translates into gameplay through players having to manage their different land plots eventually cultivating them enough to provide plenty of bamboo to feed the pandas, whilst still having a decent amount to present to the Emperor by the end of the game. Players can grow one of three types of bamboo - green, yellow and pink - by placing them on a tile of the same colour and gradually adding more pieces to their ever extending stalks. As the pandas move across each tile they consume some of the bamboo planted there, with players needing to replace any pieces eaten if they want to collect a good score once the game ends. The first combatant to obtain 6 Clawfuku Stones (or 8 stones for a two-player game) wins the battle! However, there is a limited number of tiles available and the game ends once a player has successfully created their grid, so everyone is going to have to be on the ball if they want to collect the most points possible. This is what makes Kingdomino a great family board game, as it involves a lot of player interaction and the desired amount of conversation to make for a really fun time for everyone involved.

Cobra Paw is a super simple, silly fun game. As such, there’s not a lot of depth to it and that’s perfectly okay. Not every game needs to be a heavy brain burner. What irritates me is when a game pretends to be something heavy and turns out to be pure fluff. Cobra Paw is exactly what it advertises itself to be. There’s no pretense here. Takenoko is a really accessible way to introduce a ton of classic board game mechanics to newer players such as tile-placement, route-building and set-collection. It also helps that the game’s art style is incredibly aesthetically pleasing and it’s fairly easy to get ahold of a copy as well. What makes Machi Koro such an accessible game beyond the simple dice-rolling mechanic is that it involves absolutely no score-monitoring or point-counting; once someone has successfully constructed every building and landmark in their city then they’ve won. This straightforward approach towards city-building makes Machi Koro a perfect family board game to play with people of every age. The Cobra Paw tournament derives from an ancient stone-snatching game called Clawfuku, believed to have been invented by a mysterious rogue known as Phee Lion. Phee Lion’s paws were so fast that when he snatched a stone, a terrible wind would rise up wreaking havoc and turmoil to all who stood in his way. He abused this power to take control of the land. Fear and hatred spread far and wide. It was a sad time.

What it’s like

Bunny Kingdom boasts a proud lineage, as it was created by none other than Magic: The Gathering Creator Richard Garfield. Don't worry though, this isn't anywhere near as complex as his magnum opus, and certainly not as expensive.

A beautiful game about caring for lovable pandas and growing them delicious bamboo Any game is better with pandas. Takenoko is no exception. Alright, fine - generally speaking, it's probably better that the school isn't invaded by hoardes of the living dead. I guess. Navigate the twisting jungle in the remake of the classic adventure game Dare you enter... the Temple of Vul-Kar?!

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The Catnippon Dice are bigger than usual D6 and have a really nice feel to them. They feel particularly sturdy and yet nice to hold and roll. The Clawfuku Stones are equally weighty with their pleasing little dimples and bold symbols. There's traps, twists and turns as you take actions with your cards to compensate for the new threats the game lays in your way, dodging danger and cutting through the jungle to the treasures beyond. Maybe Indy wouldn't have been so grumpy if all archeology had been this fun. The components are few, but they are absolutely lovely. The dominos are delightfully weighty and engraved with abstract symbols that match a pair of equally chunky dice that clunk along the table with a gleeful heft. Once the dice stop, everyone tries to snatch the matching domino – helped by the addition of a dimple in the middle of each piece. It's amazing how easy it is not to think about these things, but Colourbrain tests you on what you know, and it's the great leveller between friends and family of all ages. Not only that, but you can have up to twenty players in a single match, which means reunions of any size can be accounted for.