Family Game Night!

I posted a giveaway a while ago asking you all what your parents did to bond with you. And there were some really touching responses.

And that got me thinking about my own memories of spending time with my family. I looooved board games. Couldn't get enough. My favourite was always Monopoly, because of the strategy, but I'm the kind of guy who would play until three in the morning, just because I wanted to win.

(Side note: true story, I was playing with a friend once and I ended up beating her, but for the sake of emphasising how bad I crushed her fair play I let her borrow from the bank. she ended up owing the bank about $20,000 before deciding it wasn't worth it.)

But the economy, as terrible as it is, gives us another reason to play board games. You can spend a moderate amount of money, and get hundreds or thousands of hours of enjoyment and family bonding. Just consider how much you can spend going to see a bad movie with your family for two hours! The gas alone might warrant taking another mortgage out on your house.

The good people at Hasbro have you covered this back to school season. With new classics and updated takes on old favourites, you'll find something you and your family will love! Check out the following:


Scrabble Slam
(Approximate Retail Price: $6.99; Recommended Age: 8 and up; Players: 2 to 4)
Scrabble Slam is a fast, word building game where players create four-letter words using lettered cards.

Bop-it!
(Approximate Retail Price: $19.99; Recommended Age: 8 and up; Players: 1 or more)
Bop-It! is the think fast game that calls all the shots. Twist, Pull, Bop and Shout your way to victory.

Jenga Max
(Approximate Retail Price: $19.99; Recommended Age: 8 and up; Players: 1 or more)
In Jenga Max, players connect plastic pieces to a ring suspended above the game base and try to prevent it from maxing out and toppling over.

Trivial Pursuit Team
(Approximate Retail Price: $34.99; Recommended Age: 12 and up; Players: 2 Teams)
For the first time ever, Trivial Pursuit has been redesigned to encourage team play, moving beyond traditional Q&A trivia to create an inclusive game play experience.

Connect 4x4
(Approximate Retail Price: $19.99; Recommended Age: 8 and up; Players: 2 to 4)
Connect 4x4 is the world’s first double grid, four-player game of Connect 4.

Guesstures
(Approximate Retail Price: $24.99; Recommended Age: 8 and up; Players: 4 to 6)
Guesstures is a high-speed game of charades. Players act out easy to hard words while their team tries to guess the word before time runs out.

Pictureka!
(Approximate Retail Price: $22.99; Recommended Age: 6 and up; Players: 2 or more)
Find it fast! Find it first! Pictureka! is the exciting game of visual hide & seek. Collect the most mission cards to win.

So, bring back family game night. Get one of these games...bond with your family, save some money.

Just don't stay up till three forcing people to play Monopoly with you.