5 Games from Your Childhood Worth a Replay

Ready for a trip down memory lane? Grab some snacks and round up the kids for a family game night featuring one or more of these classics.

• Candy Land (Ages 3+) – There’s a reason this brightly colored confection is often used to introduce kids to the world of board games. Token movement is controlled through cards with colored squares, meaning young players can enjoy this game even before they are able to count reliably. The possibility of a last minute change-up through the drawing of a special card keeps things interesting until the game’s end. While repeated trips through Candy Land may prove a little tedious for adults, it’s still fun to check out the ways the game and its characters have changed over the years. In my 2010 edition, Plumpy and Mr. Mint are out, Queen Frostine has been downgraded to a princess, and there’s a new guy in town called the Duke of Swirl. You can get a peek at the current game board at Hasbro.com.

• Pay Day (Ages 8+) – If you have fond memories of Sunday afternoons spent collecting “DEAL!” cards, you’ll be happy to know this old favorite is still available from Winning Moves Games. Pay Day allows players to proceed through a calendar-shaped game board featuring opportunities to make money from investments and windfalls. Of course, as in real life, there are also bills to be paid for groceries, auto repair and more. This game teaches some of the same money-handling skills as Monopoly in a less overwhelming fashion, because players can easily plan for the game to end after a certain number of months. While Pay Day is a great family game, the excitement of wheeling-and-dealing gems like “Dipsydoodle Noodles” and “Fly-By-Nite Airlines” makes this one an equally solid choice for adults to play after the kids are in bed.

• Don’t Break the Ice (Ages 3+) – What’s not to like about a game that involves pounding on plastic ice with a hammer? I’m pleased to report that the current version of Don’t Break the Ice produced by Milton Bradley feels very similar to the one I remember from my childhood. In this game, players take turns knocking ice cubes out of a square frame while trying to avoid knocking loose a larger cube occupied by an ice skating polar bear. An adult or older sibling will need to complete the somewhat tricky task of positioning the ice cubes in their frame. However, the actual game play here is simple enough for even very young children to grasp.

• Mad Libs (Ages 8+) and Mad Libs Junior (Ages 5-8) – If you’re looking for a pink, angry night of game-playing fun with your anteaters, look no further than Mad Libs! As you probably remember from middle school sleepovers, this pencil-and-paper word game invites players to supply various parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives and more) to create zany stories. The Junior version simplifies the game by providing a list of suggested words for each story. With dozens of Mad Libs books in print featuring titles like Gobble, Gobble Mad Libs, Mad About Animals Mad Libs and Mad Libs from Outer Space, your family should be all set for your next noisy road trip to the circus.

• Mouse Trap (Ages 6+) – Yes, this classic game comes with complicated instructions about cheese collecting and trying to capture your opponents’ mice, but let’s be honest—it’s really all about building the mouse trap! Putting this complicated device together requires a delicate 23-step process involving a boot that swings from a lamppost, a stop sign controlled by a rubber band and a diver that lands in a washtub. Kids and adults will love watching the crazy components work together to capture the colorful mice that serve as game tokens. To avoid unnecessary delays, parents should punch out the plastic/cardboard game components and take a preliminary scan through the trap-building instructions well in advance of family game night.

Sources: BarnesAndNoble.com, Winning-Moves.com, Hasbro.com

Michelle Shirk is an attorney, freelance writer and proud mother of one. She writes about family, travel and seasonal events for parenting publications across the United States.