Ravensburger Games partnered with Tryazon and sent us a set of games that make for a perfect family game night. They're small boxes, easy rules, little kids love them and adults aren't bored by them, and you can chat while you play. Everyone was happy at the end of all of these games, including myself although I was so incredibly bad at the game involving short term memory. I had fun playing it though!
The games were That's Not a Hat, Level 8, and Piñata Blast. A perfect social game, family card game, and speed game that I thought was just okay but was a huge hit with every preschooler.
That's Not a Hat is a game of "gift giving" where all you have to do is remember the face down card in front of you. Sounds easy, right? Not for me! The cards are being passed around and around, your short term memory gets taxed, and you don't remember anything after the first round or two! But it's a lot of fun, easy to play, and it is a social game that is not at all language dependent so kids don't have to read or write in order to play it successfully. Our friends that we played it with have family visiting from Spain and it's a game they can all play together and not worry about language barriers. Truly fantastic.
Level 8 is basically a stripped down version of Phase 10. We played Phase 10 a lot as a kid, I'm not sure how we managed it because it took so much time and someone always cried because they were so far behind and had so many points and there was no way they were going to win. This removes the points part of the game, just get through Phase 8 first. And if you go down and are first to run out of cards, you get to skip a level, which is a very exciting and fun incentive. I loved this as a family card game, it's a rummy type game that moves fast and in most of our games it was really close at the end and there weren't any runaway games where one person won by a landslide.
Piñata Blast is a speed game and I know it says ages 7+ on the box, but it really shines for preschoolers. You get to roll dice, there is a candy theme, and it's a speed game but it's really forgiving and there are easy adjustments for younger kids so they can be successful as they play. My 5 year old has been playing this on repeat and her friend is asking to borrow it for when grandparents are visiting, which should work really well regardless of how much the grandparents play games because the rules are really simple.
We loved these games! They are light and fun and the type of games that will get played a lot because they are so easy to learn and geared for the whole family!