Board games are incredibly important to my family. Some of my favorite memories with them are playing board games on Saturday nights. My dad would make us strawberry smoothies and we’d sit down to play another game of Monopoly. CJ would go out first. Hannah and I would follow, usually battling for third place. Mom and Dad were always the last ones standing. It didn’t matter to me, though. What mattered most about playing board games was being there with my family. So, I’ve decided to share my five favorite board games from our collection of over 100 different games.

1. Harry Potter Clue.

One of my favorite board games is Clue. Like other games in our collection, we have five different variations of the game. My favorite variation that we have is Harry Potter-themed. Instead of being murdered, one of the six main characters has been cursed. Your job is to figure out who was cursed, by what, and where they were. However, that isn’t the only challenge in the game. You have the ability to collect allies, objects, and spells that protect your house points from Dark Arts cards. If you lose all your house points, you lose the game. My boyfriend, Casey, won his first game of Clue by collecting the cards to protect himself and outlasting the rest of us.

2. Bucket of Doom.

So, Bucket of Doom is a fairly new addition to our collection. I found it at Target for Hannah. The game is great for parties because it’s easy to play and fun. You have two decks of cards: one deck has strange scenarios on it and the other is items to help you survive the scenario. One by one, the group explains to the scenario-reader how they would use the specific items to escape their scenario. Then, the scenario-reader decides which explanation was their favorite. It’s very easy for this game to get out of hand and inappropriate, so make sure you’re playing with the right audience.

3. Disney Monopoly.

If you were to describe our collection of Monopoly games in one word, it would be eclectic. Among our storebought games, we also have two homemade Monopoly games – one is Harry Potter-themed that I made my mom for Christmas and the other is centered around my parents’ relationship that Mom made Dad for Valentine’s Day. It’s hard to pick one Monopoly game over all the others, but Disney Monopoly has to be the winner. All of the properties are classic Disney Movies, and there’s a special Tinker Bell piece that pays rent if you land on the same space it’s on. It’s perfect for avid Disney fans like us.

4. Mysterium.

This is a game that my family hasn’t had the chance to play yet, but we’ve played it several times for our game night at RSU. It’s a complicated game to learn, but interesting and enjoyable once you have it mastered. There are seven players altogether, with one playing as the ghost of someone who died in the house they’re staying at. The six other players try to make it through three rounds of guessing to learn what killed the ghost, where they were killed, and who did it. The ghost’s role in the game is to hand out clues and hope that the others understand the clues. Unfortunately, my friends and I agreed that the ghost must be the same player until their death is ultimately solved. When we get back to school, our fourth time might finally set my ‘soul’ free.

Do you have any board games that you love to play? Feel free to share them below!