It’s difficult to find games that can be fun for the whole family. Board games can often lead to threats of violence. Quiz games might seem like an option until your quiet cousin spoils all the fun with their hidden trivia knowledge. And similarly, choosing the elusive crowd-pleasing video games for families is a secret science. You can’t have anything too abstract, but you still need it to be mechanically fun, as well as easy to pick up and put down.
Far not though, as your friendly Green Man Gaming team is here to help! Ahead of this year’s Thanksgiving celebrations, we’ve put together a list of our favourite family-friendly games that you can get everyone involved with – from geriatric grandparents to terrifying toddlers. Your results may vary, but there will be something in this list for all ages to enjoy.
Overcooked! All You Can Eat
Let’s kick things off with the ultimate bonding activity – trying to run the most stressful kitchen on planet earth. Overcooked! All You Can Eat is a bonkers, co-op multiplayer series about cooking food in specific ways and serving it on time. Soon enough, you and four other players will leave the regular kitchens behind and start making scran on trap-filled pirate ships and poolside parties. As you do. And as you might expect, chaos quickly ensues, as games for families often do.
Overcooked! All You Can Eat only has a few inputs to offer, but still demands communication and grace to get the food out on time. It can be deeply challenging but never too serious that it hurts its inherent silliness, making it perfect for the whole family. Kids will love the silly chef designs too.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
A stone-cold classic of the family-friendly party game genre, Mario Kart is almost synonymous with the act of getting everyone together in front of a TV for some gaming. Nintendo’s speedy series has spanned many console generations and delighted scores of families with its controller-breaking, blue-shell brilliance, but it’s best outing yet may be on the Nintendo Switch. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has all the best tracks, characters and customisation options to keep families busy for ages – so much so that you might get lost in the shouting and forget to actually catch up…
The Jackbox Party Pack 6
You might want to keep the youngest kids away from this one, but if you’re getting together with adult family members, the Jackbox Party Pack series can be an absolute delight. Played on mobile phones and tablets instead of controllers, pretty much anyone can join the fun once it’s booted up onto a big tv.
The Jackbox Party Pack 6 in particular contains a great variety of games, from the daft comedy mash-ups of Joke Boat to the Among Us-style impostor mode, Push the Button. Its ace in the hole is the fact that you just need to head to a webpage on your phone, which makes it easy to play in between conversations, with few inputs to explain for the less tech-savvy.
Just Dance 2022
Ubisoft’s dancing series is a stalwart party game favourite. As games for families go, it’s a great choice if you’re looking to stay active at the family shindig (but maybe not after all of that Thanksgiving food…). With a wide variety of crowd-pleasing tunes – from Taylor Swift to Iann Dior, Daði Freyr to Major Lazer – it’s going to cause as much disruption as a Spotify playlist and absolutely summon some laughs when the eldest have run out of energy but the youngsters are still full of it.
Which games are you planning on playing over Thanksgiving? Let us know over at our Community Forum.
