The Best Board games to Beat Lockdown Boredom

This post may contain affiliate links. If you buy using one of these links, I get a little kickback (yay!) but that will never influence my use of them. I’m a good egg.

I love board games

I feel that in the past few years (potentially thanks to games like Cards Against Humanity and others that style) board games have become cool again, and I for one, am here for it. I remember one Christmas asking for board games and I was so happy to find that Santa had brought me some – what wasn’t great is that no one really wanted to play games with (very competitive) 7 year old me, so I had to learn how to play them by myself (tiny violin), including Monopoly – and let me confess that I still stole money from the bank, even when I was only playing against myself… 

Anywho. In these weird, lockdown days, I feel like board games are finally having their day, and as such, I wanted to share with you some of my favorites. 

The best modern board games

Beat That*

I actually met the creators of this game at BlogOn last year and they are such a lovely couple, it’s easy to see how they came up with such a fun game. This is perfect to play with the whole family, with friends at a BBQ when we can finally meet up again, or even as a booze-filled date night when the kids are in bed. There are a whole bunch of challenges using cups, balls and chopsticks that you don’t even know if you’re good at until you try. This is one of those games where you will laugh and yell and find yourself getting far too into! 

Dobble

Dobble has such a simple concept but is so addictive and a fantastic game to play as a family – perfect if your little ones can’t yet read or answer general knowledge questions but love to get involved. Each card has a load of images on them – each card has one image that is the same as the other cards (does that make sense?!). There are themed packs including Harry Potter, Disney Princess, Finding Dory, and Animals. 

Obama Llama

I bloody love this game and Steven… kinda sucks at it, so he refuses to play with me! The easiest way to describe this is as rhyming charades, and once you’ve got the hang of it you’ll be flying through. I really think this is a love it or hate it game and I am firmly in the former camp. 

Scrawl

This is not a child-friendly game but holy cow is it fun! Like Chinese Whispers with a board pen and in the same way as CAH, the winner is the one with the funniest panel. Some of the prompts are a little NSFW but not too crude, and just a whole lot of silly fun. 

Some amazing classic board games

Guess Who?

This is SUCH a classic and still holds up even as a (sort of) grown-up. I won’t lie, I kinda hate the new modern characters so if you’ve got an old version hiding in your loft, I would recommend sticking with that. I won’t lie, playing this game with a child who doesn’t quite understand it is SO frustrating because you get to the end and then they tell you that no, their person isn’t David, even though you’ve done everything right, but once the kids start to get it, it will become a family favourite. 

Operation

Another childhood classic, flex those fine motor skills while you remove various “ailments” from Cavity Sam (Did you know he had a name?! Me either!). This is a great game to have in because you can play it on your own or against others. 

I could go on about the best board games forever. But these are a few I would highly recommend. Let me know in the comments what your favorite board games are!