Simple rules, quick games, games accessible to everyone: discover our selection of games to set the mood during your end-of-year celebrations.
To accompany petit fours, between foie gras and turkey, or while enjoying the log, there's nothing like little games that are simple to understand, accessible, and above all funny, to set the mood.
With family or friends, the games in our selection are sure to hit the mark. No question of long games to explain or headaches. Here, it’s the fun that takes precedence!
Happy reading, good games, and above all happy holidays!
2 Apples 3 Breads
2 Apples 3 Breads This is THE game in this selection that will turn your brain. And yet, the principle is as stupid as anything. Each in turn, you draw a card to place it on one of the three piles in the center of the table. Then, you have a few seconds to announce how many apples and how many loaves are visible. If you don't succeed or you make a mistake, you collect all the cards.
Easy ? Yes, if it weren't for those damn cards with pine cones, which counts as 1 apple… and 2 loaves. And if it's still too simple for you, you can gradually introduce special cards: stale bread, milk bread, French toast, applesauce, candy apple, etc. We let you imagine their effects.
We don't come out unscathed from a game of 2 Apples 3 Breads. It's hard, it's intense, and of course the others have no mercy and don't let anything go. You quickly feel completely lost, but fortunately, the games are quick… before restarting one, barely enough time to let your brain cool down.
Bomb Busters
Here's one of our favorite games of 2024. Bomb Busters is a cooperative game, in which you all try to defuse a bomb. Each player has numbered threads in front of him, and the goal is to find the same numbers among his partners, to cut the threads two by two.
As the games progress, new rules are added: yellow threads which are inserted between the other numbers, red threads which must not be cut, and above all small boxes which are opened as we progress through the levels. .
A game of deduction in which communication is limited, and the atmosphere is rather studious as everyone develops their theories in their heads. But where the atmosphere very quickly takes over, at the slightest mistake, or at the end of the game when we debrief together.
A tense, ultra-engaging game that you always want to play to progress through the levels and discover what's hidden in the little mystery boxes.
Chick Chick Boom
In Chick Chick Boomtwo teams compete to have the most chicks on their cards at the end of each round. To do this, each member, in turn, turns over the first card in the pile to place it on another card, whose value is just above or just below. Obviously, we try to lay down the cards with few chicks on the opponents' side, and those with a lot of chicks on our side.
All this would be very plan-plan and not very funny if the teams did not play simultaneously and especially if the game was not timed: it only lasts 60 seconds in total. And be careful to stop playing before the countdown ends, otherwise the team is eliminated.
Chick Chick Boom is the totally idiotic game of our selection, nervous as can be, and which obviously sets off a crazy atmosphere around the table. If you are a fan of the indestructible Ligrettohere is a proposal that should please you.
Fireworks
You know Kites ? Fireworks it's its sequel, similar, but better in every way. This time, you have to put on the best fireworks show.
To do this, each turn, you play a card from your hand, representing two colors, and you turn over the two corresponding hourglasses. The goal is to prevent the hourglasses from emptying. If unfortunately this happens three times, the show ends miserably and you lose the game. To top it all off, each hourglass has a different duration (30, 40, or even 50 seconds). The box offers around thirty challenges with additional rules and increasing difficulty. And believe us, it is increasing very quickly.
The atmosphere of a game of Fireworks is crazy, dynamic, even hysterical. We come out exhausted, both physically and mentally. They shout, they get angry, they do whatever… but what fun are we having! If you liked Kiteshis big brother, or more recently Sync or SwimSO Fireworks is made for you.
Order Overload Cafe
Did you think you had a good memory? Maybe, but that was before playing Order Overload Cafe !
You play as waiters in a café. At the start of each round, customers place an order: a mocha, an iced latte, an iced coffee, etc. It's up to you to remember the different commands, each making a suggestion in turn. If you make a mistake, you are eliminated for that round. At the next one, new orders are added, and the goal is to get as far as possible.
Gray matter coming out of your ears and drool flowing out of your mouth? Don't worry, this is the normal state of most people after a few rounds ofOrder Overload Cafe. In the way of That’s not a hat, this game is hell that will push you to your limits and make you believe that you are the lowest fool. But it's so funny, so clever, all in a little box with typically Japanese minimalism.
The Gang
The Gangor when the Poker Texas Hold’em encounter The Mind. You don't know the rules of Pokeror even, you don't like playing it? Don't worry: in reality, The Gang only uses the combinations and the principle of the community cards in the center of the table (the river).
Without showing your cards, or even without having the right to talk about them, you must, all together, manage to classify your different combinations, from the weakest to the strongest. To do this, you use valuable tokens over several rounds. And it's only the very last round that determines whether you succeeded or not.
You still have the right to discuss, but the communication mainly takes place in the way you take the token to determine the power of your cards. If you go for the strongest, if you always take the same one, if you wait to see what the others do, if you take that of another player, etc.
Here is THE event game of this end of year, the one that the entire gaming sphere is highlighting. And it's no coincidence. The atmosphere of the parties The Gang is very particular, even though communication is restricted. A game in which you play one after the other, notably by introducing special cards, and increasing the level of difficulty. Barely released, it has already become a classic.
Time Bomb Undercover
Time Bomb Undercover uses exactly the same principle as its elder, Time Bomb first of the name. Two teams face off: the reds want to detonate the bomb, while the blues try to defuse it.
What follows is a game full of bluffing, lies, deduction… and above all big jokes, in which you try to guess, depending on your side, which thread to cut from another player. If you come across the bomb… boom!
New opus of one of our favorite party games of all time, Time Bomb Undercover offers the same ingredients as its predecessor, adding small elements to make it even tastier: a new role, a particular effect at the start of the round and infiltrated agents.
Whatever the version, you need a box of Time Bomb in your game library.
