Cranium Family Edition
The original highly successful Cranium game is a great way for adults and older children to face off in entertaining challenges. Later games using a similar model were greatly simplified and geared more toward younger players. But with this new family model, everyone can play together. It still employs the same four basic Cranium categories: Creative Cat, Data Head, Star Performer, and Word Worm but within those groupings there are numerous new challenges for players of all ages. Like the traditional game, there is squishable clay for sculpture challenges but now there are also stacking cubes and a set of plastic frogs that players are occasionally called upon to flip. The game board is scaled back a bit, offering a short length of the game. We found the questions and pacing to be brisk and while younger players (age 8 and over, kids younger than that would be fine playing with an older teammate) would be able to have fun, it’s one of those rare family games that adults can actually enjoy playing.--Charlie Williams