This is starting up a new series of articles. Yes, when I get to the end of June I’ll talk about June’s new games. But let’s talk about maybe less common games. These games aren’t going to be so esoteric that you need to know the meaning of the word esoteric to find them. But they are going to be the less common ones that people talk about when it comes to games. So as I’m talking about Party Games this time, it’s not just going to be some that are my favorite. It’s going to be games that work as Party Games that you are less likely to know about.

5 Party Games You Should Try

This list is in no particular order. And it’s some games that you’d consider to be more classic party games. Other games on the list might feel a little bit different, but they all work well with larger groups and are easy to learn and play. The other qualifier that I have for party games is that they have to have fun moments in them. If it’s all serious, then it’s not on the list. That’s why I have trouble putting Codenames as a party game.

5. Medium

First, let’s start off with Medium. This is and the next one are the reason for the party games list. Medium feels like a party game with a twist on it. You both play out words, it could be something like bread and taco. Then you need to connect those two words with a word, that you both say at the same time. If you get it right, you get points. If not, you get two more tries, but you always connect your new words. Of course, bread and taco might be relatively close to start. But they don’t need to be.

What makes this such a good party game is watching people struggle to come up with a word. Now that seems mean, but everyone does it. So when you’re watching someone else match-up, you immediately know the connecting word. When it’s your turn you only know one syllable words, if you’re lucky. And that juxtaposition makes for fun times. And when you get two words that aren’t at all connected and you get it, it feels amazing.

4. Blank Slate

The most classic of the party games on the list, Blank Slate is the write something sort of game. And you get points for matching with people but you don’t want to match with too many people. If your word matches one other person, you both get three points. More than one other, everyone gets one point in that group. And if you match with no one, no points.

So the word you are writing is either a word that would go before or after a word. Basically fill in a blank. If the word is [blank] weight, for example, you could put in something like heavy, free, light, welter, or many more options.

This game is on the list just because it plays up to 8, it plays fast, and there are lots of fun moments of saying to someone, you should get what I’m putting down, or I can’t believe you didn’t write that. It also has the Medium thing where sometimes you just blank (all puns intended) on what word to put down.

3. Ice Cool

Now let’s talk about something completely different. But this is an eight player game, if you have Ice Cool 1 and 2. And they aren’t that expensive, so I recommend getting both. This is just a silly game of flicking your penguins around a board to try and collect fish and avoid getting caught by the hall monitor, other penguin players.

So it works because you’re invested in other peoples shots. And when someone has a great shot, everyone thinks it was amazing, which in all fairness it was. So you’re excited when other people do well and others are excited when you do well. The game is fast too, and it gets people up and moving.

2. Doodle Dash

Doodle Dash is my drawing game on the list. Drawing is another common thing when it comes to party games. I like Doodle Dash because being good at drawing can be a major advantage in a lot of games. In Doodle Dash, the faster you can draw, and if you do it just well enough, that’s what matter.

It’s one of those games where the person who is it is going to try and guess what has been drawn. But everyone draws at once, hidden. And then the first person to be done grabs a totem. The second person to finish starts rolling a die. And when that die lands on stop, everyone else stops.

Why does all that matter. If you are first and get that totem, the person guessing guesses based off of your image only. If they don’t get it, then off of the second image, and finally off of the remaining ones. And more points for you and the guesser if you are earlier.

The moment that this party game leads to is that moment when the first person, and often the second, flips over their image. Sometimes it’s amazing and everyone wonders, how did you do so well so fast. And sometimes it’s horrible, but the question is, is it good enough. And when it is, that’s great.

1. Tacta

Finally we have Tacta. Tacta is a super different sort of game when it comes to party games. This one needs a big area, but only a big area on the table. Each player has a color of cards with dots and some shapes on it. You play out cards to the table and you need to overlap another card. That overlap needs to match one of the shapes on your card. So if I have a square, that square needs to overlap another square. The twist is that you can only overlap one other card. So as the table gets full, how can you find some clever plays.

So what is a clever play? A clever play is when you can overlap your points and cover up someone else’s. Because you can only ever overlap a single card, that means when you overlap points you lock them in. But it’s more than that, how can you protect your other points on a card as well.

And the moments in this game that make it work as a party game is when people find that great spot. But more than that, it’s when people just want a spot to work. So it gets tried again and again but it always is going to overlap that second card. But if it didn’t, it’d be perfect, so maybe the standard sized card that hasn’t worked 10 times before will happen to work this time. Spoiler, it never does.

Final Thoughts

There are so many party games out there that are good and bad. And while I think these are fun ones, there are a lot of other ones out there you could try as well. I want you, as you look at games, to consider what games might not always been on Target shelves, or don’t have the standard Apples to Apples/Cards Against Humanity look to them. Because those games are a dime a dozen and you don’t need 20 different games like that as you’ll find that you only play your favorites.

What are some overlooked party games that you really like?

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