Games and puzzles

Fun family pastimes by NIGEL SUMMERLEY

Nigel Summerley’s family pastimes

Scrabble, Monopoly and other old favourites enjoyed a popular revival in lockdown. Apart from occasional fallings-out, they brought family and friends together in a much more sociable way than computer games or gorging on Netflix. So here’s a selection of new and less well-known games, guaranteed to liven up any Christmas party.

Feeling feline?

Tempting as it might be to suggest a quick game of Russian Roulette with some of your relatives, it’s probably better to stick to a less messy alternative: Exploding Kittens. Draw the wrong card and you’re as good as dead – unless you have some game-changing cards up your sleeve, thanks to the pig-a-corns or bear-odactyls. Yes, it’s all very silly, but fun.

www.waterstones.com.£ 19.99; age 7+; 2-5 players.

Bluff justice

The essence of a good card game is that it’s simple yet addictive; so you can play it over and over. Skull fits the bill because everything hangs on the difference between a skull card and a rose card – but it’s also wickedly dependent on the art of the bluff. www.gameslore.com £15.99; 10+; 3-6 players.

Viral attraction

The board game Pandemic hasn’t just been rushed out – it was created in 2008 – but its time has definitely arrived. You may not need it to be explained that, when the world is hit by disease, the priority is to find a cure. The great thing about this game is that players work together (not quite mirroring reality as we know it); so it shouldn’t trigger too many tantrums. www.

board-game.co.uk. £27.99; 8+; 2-4 players.

Animal magic

Root, on the other hand, is hugely competitive: it may involve groups of furry woodland creatures but it’s definitely a jungle out there. In short, it’s a real war game that will require patience to learn all the rules – and a ruthless streak to help your animals gain control of the wild land. www.kidult.co.uk. £40.99; 10+; 2-4 players.

Shark attack

Old movies don’t die; they just become new board games. With

Jaws, you get two bites at the action, thanks to a double-sided board. Part one is played out around stricken Amity Island, and part two around the even more stricken boat, Orca. You can be a hunter or the great white shark itself. www.johnlewis.com. £24.99; 12+; 2-4 players.

Balancing act

Stacking games are unpredictable but it’s certain that at some point everything comes crashing down. The coloured, wooden pieces of Animal Upon Animal are primarily designed for children, who will find it fun to balance penguins, snakes, monkeys and sheep on top of a crocodile. But the roll of the die brings enough elements of chance and tactical choices to challenge oldies, too.

www.amazon.co.uk. £23.87, 4+; 2-4 pl.

Hide and seek

Jigsaws? You probably love ’em or hate ’em. But the Where’s Wally? 1,000-piece jigsaws offer fiendishly difficult puzzles, plus the even more fiendishly difficult challenge of trying to answer that eternal (and infernal) question. www.alljigsawpuzzles.co.uk. 19in x 27in, £14.99; 4+.

Any questions?

For some revelatory light relief, try The Game of Things, a card game that requires everyone to give written replies to questions such as, ‘What should you never do when naked?’, and then identify who gave which answer. Shocks and surprises are more or less guaranteed. www.squizzas.co.uk. £19.99; 5+; 3-8 players.

Short cut to Fleet Street

And finally… my personal all-time favourite is Scoop, a much underrated Waddingtons game that was always more fun than Monopoly or Risk! (which both tend to lead to quarrels or sulks). It recreates the thrills, challenges and back-stabbings of Fleet Street, with not only front-page layouts to fill, photographers and reporters to organise, and lots of money to spend, but also an amazing telephone that puts you through to the editor for his verdict on your stories. Out of print but still available at specialist sites; pricey but priceless. www.vintage-playtime.com. £69.95; 10+; 2-6 players.