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Comment by noelwelsh | Hacker News Reader

Any recs for cooperative games suitable for kids? Have just started playing Forbidden Island with the kids, and they love it, but Burgle Bros is a bit too complicated for them.

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How about Hanabi? Quite easy to learn, but tricky to be good at.

https://www.boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/98778/hanabi

Forbidden Desert has similar game mechanics but is sufficiently different from Forbidden Island to be worth getting as well.

My family has found that Forbidden Island is far more fun than Forbidden Desert. (Obv, ymmv). We just don't feel the need to have both of them, so one has been relocated to the grandparents house.

I found the opposite to be true.

I have both, I liked Forbidden Island more, and my GF and her son both like Forbidden Desert more. I think the main difference is Desert involves a lot more luck, you can't really plan ahead much because the game could change considerably on one play. So Island would appeal to people that like to plan ahead, and Desert would appeal more to people who like chaos and drama.

Castle Panic is pretty fun for a kids cooperative game.

All of you are defending the castle from an onslaught of baddies coming in from the forest. Everyone gets cards each round to spend/trade that can damage/kill/repair with various restrictions. As with a lot of cooperative games, it starts easyish, and then things get harder.

And for a non-cooperative game, Munchkin. It's all fun and games till someone tries to win, and then everyone gangs up on them. The monsters are really silly, some of them are internet jokes, e.g. the one of the monsters is a Dread Gazebo.

Mysterium is great for a family with 8+ year olds. Varying the difficulty or length I bet you could enjoy it with 5-7 year olds too.

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/181304/mysterium

Have a look at Stuffed Fables [1] being released really soon (February 1st, I think).

[1]: https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/233312/stuffed-fables

really depends on age, my 5/8 year olds love 5 minute dungeon, very simple and quite fun. hanabi is a bit too tricky for them. codenames pictures 2 players is cooperative cause you play against "the computer" and is quite fun.

What's this codenames variant you mention? The two player mode described in the booklet?

We recently picked up Codenames Duet - which has some small but effective mechanic changes for two people. There is also a 'campaign' mode for repeatability.

That said, to play with kids - we found Codenames Pictures to be much more acceasible. Kids didn't have the vocabulary to play the word-based version without slowing down/needing help regularly. The pictures versions solved that.

Thanks for the Codenames Duet tip, that looks great for two people! I do prefer Pictures myself too, as I think it lets you be more imaginative.

I second the Castle Panic recommendation.

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