New board games boost family fun

The family is all gathered together, but there's nothing to do. Now what?

Use that gift card you got to buy a great new board game. Round up everyone -- yes, even Uncle Bruce -- and get them to play a fun game the whole family can enjoy.

We opened some new games this holiday season and gave them a test run.

(Patch, $25)Who: Recommended for three or more players; age 12 to adult (younger if you edit the questions for ones kids wouldn't understand).

What: Each player gets a dry-erase board and pen. One player reads a statement, such as, "If I won a cruise and could take someone with me, I'd love it if it were _______; I would hate it if it were _______." Other players guess which answers the reader would say. You get a point for each correct answer.

Our take: If you know your opponents well enough, this game can be a blast.

Rating: ★★★ 1/2

What: This cute travel-size tin has circular cards with several images on them. The rules offer five mini-games, but the ultimate object in each is to match images on cards.

Our take: This game was fun for the whole family, and perhaps it even teaches matching skills to the young ones. But that hardly mattered; we were having too much fun shouting out "green splotches" and "weird ghost thing." The game moves quickly and doesn't take long.

Rating: ★★★ 1/2

(Parker Bros., $30)Who: Adults, four or more players.

What: One person reads a card with a statement on it (such as "Jobs I would never want to do"). Every other player writes an answer (it can be true, outrageous or even tricky), and then you go around trying to guess who wrote what.

Rating: ★★ 1/2

(Hasbro, $28)Who: Three to six players; ages 9 and up (although a 7-year-old actually won).

What: A welcome return to a more traditional Clue game (as opposed to last year's disastrous Secrets and Spies), this traditional game of whodunit swaps Col. Mustard for Harry Potter villains such as Lucius Malfoy and the candlestick for the stupefy spell.

Our take: We're big Harry Potter fans and big Clue fans, so this one was a big winner. Instead of cardboard circles, there should be more substantial game pieces for the characters.

Rating: ★★★ 1/2

What: You go around a board answering questions about a statement. You guess whether it is "true" or a "myth."

Our take: Most of the questions were so obscure that players just guess the answers, which really isn't all that much fun. You will learn, though, that the first toilet ever shown on TV was on "Leave It to Beaver."

Rating: ★ 1/2

(Hasbro, $15)Who: Two or more players; ages 8 and up

What: As in Cranium, you draw a card, and it gives you a task: Sculpt something, solve a word scramble, play charades and more. In this game, though, there is no board, just a timer. Each game is just a minute long.

Rating: ★★★

(Spin Master, $25)

Who: Three to six players; ages 12 and up.

What: You go around a board, landing on colors that indicate what kind of card you will draw. The categories are quite different: Quizzles (trivia), Roolz (rules cards that remain in play for the whole game), Stunts and Showbiz (singing, charades) and Scatterbrainz (where you go in a circle naming things in a particular category until someone is stumped).

Our take: We played this with another couple and had so much fun that we laughed until we cried. When one player had to act out a cowboy riding an ostrich spotting a beached whale, that sealed it for us. We also tested Quelf Junior with the kids. It was just as silly, and easy for them to understand.