January 2026 Notable Toys — Family Games

This cooperative board game for 2–4 players invites you to explore a 3D game board where you’ll dodge fire spirits and navigate ladders and slides. Designed as a legacy game, it features evolving rules, hidden elements, and components that change permanently based on your choices, creating a fresh adventure every time you play. Each of the six chapters takes 20–40 minutes to complete, so you can play one or more sessions depending on your schedule and return later to continue. Developed by Matt Leacock and Rob Daviau with artwork by Cory Godbey, Ziggurat helps players ages 8 and up build problem-solving skills, teamwork, and strategic thinking. The game includes a board with six levels, 12 heroes, 4 hero cards, 12 fire spirit tokens, 38 starting cards, a storybook, a hidden lore package, and other surprises to discover.

In this cooperative board game from Peaceable Kingdom, players work together to keep a ghost from escaping a haunted manor after two kids and their dog accidentally wake it in the attic. The game is designed to encourage strategy, cooperation, and shared decision-making, all while providing a unique play experience in the dark with a glow-in-the-dark game board and a light-up ghost mover. It supports emotional development, creative problem-solving, and positive self-esteem in a relaxed, non-competitive setting. The set includes a game board, a light-up ghost, three explorer movers, four camera flash tokens, a spinner, and instructions, and it’s suitable for ages 5 and up.

This family game lets you show off your sports knowledge as you test your memory, featuring favorite teams from around the country. It includes cards with questions and answers for everyone to enjoy.

In this family strategy game, you can dive into a neighborhood, meet iconic Sims, and work toward fulfilling your life’s aspirations. Gather up to five players, each crafting their own unique story as you collect matching SIMbols along the way. Every game brings a fresh journey with unexpected surprises, so your life story can turn out differently each time you play. Fans will appreciate the nostalgic details, including iconic artwork, plumbob movers, interaction dice, and a needs tracker—making the game both fun to play and nice to display. It’s designed for 2 to 5 players ages 12 and up.

Explore the world of Awesome Animals with this engaging board game for kids ages 4 and up. It encourages creative play, teamwork, and memory skills as children interact with their favorite animal characters. Designed for two players, the game challenges kids to align their character cubes vertically, horizontally, or diagonally to make matches. You can earn extra points if the character on your cube matches one of the two cards you hold. This matching activity helps develop observation, critical thinking, and memory in a fun, interactive way. The set includes a game grid, 25 character cubes, 15 character cards, and instructions. Compact and easy to carry, this mini board game is great for travel, parks, classrooms, or parties, making it a versatile choice for families and educators. It’s also a game that both kids and adults can enjoy together, offering strategic challenges for family game nights or casual play. As a thoughtful gift for 4-year-olds and up, it supports cognitive development through playful learning and is equally appealing to boys and girls.

In Castles of Burgundy, players trade, build, and manage their realm through strategic decisions and careful planning. The game includes 164 six-sided tiles, 42 goods tiles, 20 silverlings used as currency, 30 worker tiles, 12 bonus tiles, 4 victory tiles, 8 playing pieces, 9 dice, a game board, and 16 player boards. Designed for 2 to 4 players, it works well for family or friend game nights. Recommended for ages 12 and up, it suits both teenagers and adults. A typical game lasts between 30 and 90 minutes and is geared toward an intermediate skill level, encouraging strategic thinking and planning throughout play.

In this strategic origami challenge, players compete to become the ultimate Origami Collecting Master by gathering the most pieces of a single design. Each turn, an arrow token determines which row or column you can take from, so every move matters—not just for what you collect, but for what you leave behind for other players. The game includes 48 beautifully colored wooden origami tokens and one arrow token, offering both tactile appeal and vibrant visuals. It’s fast-paced and family-friendly, easy to learn and quick to play, making it a great choice for game nights, travel, or family gatherings. Suitable for ages 8 and up, the game has enough depth to keep adults engaged. With its compact size and dynamic mechanics, COLORO is portable and replayable, perfect for casual fun or more strategic play sessions.

Lucha Lucha 345 is a fast-paced strategy game with a stack-based system that plays out in a compact arena, offering plenty of replay value. It's designed for players ages 6 and up, with straightforward rules and strategic depth that work well for family game nights, quick matches, or gatherings with friends. The game sets up quickly and plays in energetic rounds, making it a good fit for two players or larger groups. Built with durable components and a travel-ready format, it holds up well whether you're playing at home or on the go. As a thoughtful gift for birthdays or holidays, it appeals to fans of strategy games and casual play alike.

Patterns is a strategic board game with a mandala theme, where players swap tiles on a tea towel play mat to claim territory. You’ll compete to mark connected colored areas as your own while trying to disrupt your opponent’s patterns. Clever scoring comes into play as you place markers to make each move count toward victory. The game is quick to set up and can be explained in under five minutes, so you can start playing right away. With its unique tea towel design and engaging gameplay, Patterns offers plenty of replay value for hours of fun.

Explore the Great Plains in this two-player abstract puzzle game, where rival tribes compete for dominance with the help of spiritual animal guides. Players use clever tactics to navigate hills, cross lowlands, and advance into their opponent’s territory, aiming to claim the most land for their tribe. Each game offers a fresh challenge, as the tablets are shuffled and arranged randomly to create a unique board every time. Designed for ages 10 and up, this strategic game supports two players and typically takes about 20 minutes to play.