Family game nights don't have to stop at board games and card games. Many of today's video games give families a reason to gather in the same room, whether that's working through a challenge together, competing in a race, or laughing through a party game.

Kids want more of that shared time, too. About 58% of children said they want to play more video games with their parents to feel more connected.

The best family game console games turn gaming into something everyone can take part in. Some focus on teamwork, while others create friendly competition, creative play, or active movement around the room.

This guide covers the best family game console games for different ages, play styles, and group sizes. You'll find co-op adventures, party games, creative building games, and more for your next family game night.

Key takeaways:

• Family game console games include everything from co-op adventures and sports titles to creative building games. 
• Face-to-face games encourage more interaction than gaming on separate screens.
• The best family game depends on your group's age range, preferred play style, and whether you enjoy competition, teamwork, or creative play.
• Some platforms are built around shared, in-room play. Board, for example, pairs a touchscreen with physical pieces so everyone games face-to-face at the same table, not looking up at a screen.

Best family game console games: Quick review

We evaluated each game based on the factors families often consider when choosing a game for family game night, including:

• Age range
• Local multiplayer options
• Learning curve
• Typical session length
• Competitive, cooperative, creative, or active gameplay

The list includes party games, co-op adventures, sports games, building games, and multiplayer experiences across Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and Board.

Best family game console games

Family game console games come in many forms, from racing and sports titles to cooperative adventures, creative building games, and digital board games. The games below support different play styles, age groups, and group sizes, making it easier to find an option that fits your next family game night.

1. Space Rocks: Best for fast-paced arcade competition

Pilot your spaceship, blast asteroids, and scoop up minerals in this fast-paced arcade showdown. Rounds are short and easy to learn, so players of different ages can jump straight in and compete head-to-head. It’s a quick, high-energy pick for warming up game night or settling a friendly rivalry. 

Platform: Board

Price: Included with the Board

Blast asteroids with Space Rocks

2. Chop Chop: Best for cooperative cooking chaos

Tie on your apron, grab your knives, spoons, spice grinder, and sponge, and hit the line. It’s co-op chaos, culinary strategy, and party-night energy without the messy clean-up. The whole family cooks on one team against the clock, so it rewards communication and quick thinking over who’s the strongest player. Orders speed up as you go, keeping everyone locked in. 

Platform: Board

Price: Included with the Board 

Tie on your apron and hit the line with Chop Chop

3. The Heist: Best for strategic puzzle-solving

Guide your burglars past the lasers to grab priceless treasures, then slip back out before security catches on. Place mirrors to bend the beams, use splitters to send one laser in several directions, and chain them into intricate paths that spoof the system and disarm the traps between you and the prize. 

Grabbing the treasure is only half the job: The moment it’s in hand, red lasers snap on and you have to rework your network to find a safe route out. Each level adds new layouts and obstacles that reward creative thinking and careful planning. Play solo or team up to pull off each heist together.

Platform: Board

Price: $34.95

Plan the perfect heist

4. Save the Bloogs: Best for quick thinking

The Bloogs need a hero. Use cannons, stairs, a shapeshifter ring, and blocks to guide adorable Bloogs across tricky terrain, collecting crystals and exploring new worlds. It scales from a relaxed solo puzzle to a high-energy group effort, with levels that ramp up to keep older kids and adults challenged. Easy to learn, hard to put down. 

Platform: Board

Price: $34.95

Be the hero the Bloogs need

5. Board Arcade: Best for party game nights

Open Board Arcade when the room shouts game night. Grab the space ships and robots, pick teams, and jump between four reimagined arcade classics. It’s built for a crowd, with an unlimited number of players competing across rounds, so no one sits out and the energy stays up even with a big group. It’s a go-to for when the whole family—and a few guests—want in.

Platform: Board

Price: $34.95

Pick your team and jump into Board Arcade

6. Omakase: Best for head-to-head strategy 

Omakase turns dinner into a duel. Rotate the chopsticks, select the sushi you want, and collect sets for maximum points. It’s clean, fast, and deliciously competitive—a two-player contest of reading your opponent and timing your picks. It’s quick to learn, with enough depth to keep a rivalry going across rematches. 

Platform: Board

Price: $34.95

Turn dinner into a duel with Omakase

7. Jackbox Party Pack: Best for trivia and party games

Jackbox Party Pack is a collection of party games developed by Jackbox Games. Each pack includes multiple games built around trivia, drawing, wordplay, surveys, debates, and other social challenges that encourage players to interact with each other. The games use smartphones, tablets, or web browsers as controllers so players can join without traditional gaming equipment.

Complexity: Low to medium

Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, Apple TV, and iPad

8. Super Mario Odyssey: Best for globe-trotting adventures

Super Mario Odyssey is an action-adventure platforming game developed by Nintendo. Players follow Mario and his companion Cappy as they travel across different kingdoms to stop Bowser's wedding plans and collect Power Moons to power the Odyssey airship.

Complexity: Medium

Platform: Nintendo Switch

9. Overcooked: Best for cooperative cooking challenges

Overcooked! is a cooking game collection developed by Ghost Town Games and Team17. The game combines Overcooked! and Overcooked! 2, along with additional content, into a single package where players work together to prepare, cook, and serve meals across a variety of kitchen environments.

Complexity: Medium

Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC

10. Mario Party: Best for digital board game nights

Mario Party is a party game developed by Nintendo that brings traditional board game mechanics into a digital format. Players roll dice, move across themed boards, collect coins and stars, use special items, and compete in a variety of minigames throughout the match.

Complexity: Low

Platform: Nintendo Switch

11. Just Dance: Best for music and movement

Just Dance is a rhythm game series developed by Ubisoft where players follow on-screen dance routines set to popular songs. Players dance along to the choreography while a smartphone tracks their movements and scores their performance. The game supports up to six local players and includes a mix of music genres, dance styles, and difficulty levels.

Complexity: Low to medium (varies by song and difficulty level)

Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series

12. It Takes Two: Best for two-player co-op adventures

It Takes Two is a co-op action-adventure game developed by Hazelight Studios. The story follows Cody and May, a married couple who are transformed into dolls and drawn into a series of fantasy worlds as they try to find a way back home.

Complexity: Medium

Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC

13. Unravel 2: Best for puzzle-solving

Unravel Two is a puzzle-platforming game developed by Coldwood Interactive. Players control two characters made of yarn who travel through forests, industrial areas, and other environments while connected by a shared thread. The thread plays a central role throughout the game. Players swing across gaps, climb obstacles, and solve environmental puzzles by working together and using the connection between the two characters. 

Complexity: Medium

Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, and PC

14. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Best for kart-racing competition

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a kart racing game developed by Nintendo. Players choose from a large roster of Mario characters and race across dozens of tracks while using items such as shells, bananas, and mushrooms to gain an advantage or disrupt opponents.

Complexity: Low

Platform: Nintendo Switch

15. Minecraft: Best for world-building

Minecraft is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios where players explore block-based worlds, gather resources, build structures, and interact with the environment. Each world generates its own landscapes, caves, forests, villages, and biomes, giving players different places to explore and build. Players can construct anything from small houses and farms to large cities and complex machines. 

Complexity: Medium

Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and mobile devices

16. LEGO Fortnite: Best for LEGO world buildin

LEGO Fortnite is an open-world adventure game developed by Epic Games that combines LEGO building with exploration, crafting, and survival mechanics. Players gather resources, construct buildings, create tools, and explore large environments filled with different landscapes, creatures, and challenges. Players can build homesteads, recruit villagers, tame animals, and create their own structures using LEGO-inspired building systems.

Complexity: Medium

Platform: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC, and mobile devices

17. Nintendo Switch Sports: Best for virtual sports competitions

Nintendo Switch Sports is a sports game collection developed by Nintendo. Players use Joy-Con motion controls to compete in activities such as bowling, tennis, golf, soccer, volleyball, badminton, basketball, and chambara.

Complexity: Low

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Coming soon: More fun for family game night

Board adds new games and free expansions every month, so the library keeps growing after you bring it home. Here are a few titles coming to Board in 2026, each with its own custom piece set. Preview the full 2026 lineup: https://board.fun/pages/coming-soon

1. Board Sports: Best for virtual sports competitions

Play Golf, Pool, and Bowling in a three-game sports series only possible on Board. Like Wii Sports for the tabletop, it turns the screen and pieces into a quick, active competition the whole family can rally around. Great for friendly tournaments and players who would rather move than sit still. Coming Fall 2026.

Platform: Board

2. Thrasos: Best for territory capture

Choose one of the gods of Olympus in a head-to-head strategy duel to conquer your opponent’s city-state. It’s a deeper, territory-capture style of play, think Risk distilled into sharp, tactical rounds, aimed at teens and adults who want a real strategic challenge. Coming July 2026.

Platform: Board

3. The Magic Shop: Best for cooperative team play

Master potions and spells and run your own shop in this synchronous cooperative game. Up to eight players work the counter at once, so it scales from a small family to a full party, everyone brewing, selling, and scrambling together in real time. If Chop Chop is a hit at your table, this is the next one to watch. Coming 2026.

Platform: Board

4. Board Tabletop: Best for tabletop RPG nights

Bring tabletop RPGs to Board. Play with a web-based virtual tabletop, or load your own maps and track pieces right on the screen using Board bases on your mini figures. Built for Dungeons and Dragons nights and any campaign that lives on a map, it gives your group one shared surface to gather around. Coming July 2026.

Platform: Board

What makes a video game or console family friendly? 

Family-friendly games should be easy to jump into and fun for players of all ages. The best ones keep everyone involved, rather than turning one person into the main player while everyone else watches.

Different consoles create different types of family game nights. Nintendo Switch is known for party games, local multiplayer, and simple controls. Games like Mario Kart and Nintendo Switch Sports are easy to pick up, even for younger kids or people who don’t play games often. PS5 and Xbox also have family games, especially co-op adventures, sports games, and creative sandbox titles. 

Still, the console itself is only part of it. A family-friendly game should make people talk, laugh, react, and play together at the same time. Research has found that intergenerational family gaming can support parent-child relationships and create positive shared experiences.

That’s part of what makes Board feel different from a traditional console setup. Instead of handing each player a controller and a separate view of the screen, Board puts everyone around one surface. Custom physical pieces sit directly on the touchscreen, so play stays tactile and social: you’re reaching across the table, reacting together, and talking the whole time. There’s no app store or browser either, since Board only runs games, which keeps game night focused on the people at the table rather than the device. Most titles are designed for ages 6+, but they’re easy enough that the youngest players can join in too.

How to choose the best family game console games

The best family game console games depend on who’s playing and what kind of experience you want. Some families want active party games they can play for 20 minutes, while others want longer co-op games that they can come back to every weekend.

Before choosing a game or console, think about:

• Age range: Check whether the game matches the ages of the people playing. Younger children may need simpler rules, while older players may enjoy more strategy or longer-term objectives.
• Local vs. online play: Decide whether you want everyone to play in the same room or to connect from different locations. Online play may require additional devices, accounts, or subscriptions.
• Competitive vs. co-op gameplay: Consider how your group likes to play. Head-to-head competition creates a different experience than working toward a shared goal.
• Session length: Look at how much time you typically have for game night. Some games fit into a 15-minute break, while others can fill an entire evening.
• Controller complexity: Choose a game with controls that match the experience level of the players involved.
• Subscription costs: Review any ongoing costs before choosing a platform. Online features and game libraries may require a monthly membership.
• Physical activity: Think about whether your group prefers motion-based games, seated gameplay, or a mix of both.
• Number of players: Confirm that the game supports the size of your group, especially if family game night regularly includes more than four people.

Discover the face-to-face magic of Board for your next family game night

Many families want game nights that keep everyone engaged in the same activity rather than splitting attention across multiple screens. Shared experiences often create more opportunities for conversation, teamwork, competition, and spontaneous moments that become part of the family's routine.

Board was built around that idea. It’s a new kind of game console that combines the best of video and board games, with seven games ready to play out of the box and a library you can grow à la carte, plus new games and free expansions every month and no subscription. From quick arcade rounds to deep strategy challenges, there’s a game for every age, every skill, and every group at your table. Gather round and see how game night feels when everyone’s playing the same thing, together, and try it with free returns and a 30-day risk-free trial.

Start a new family game night tradition with Board

Family game console games FAQs

What is the best family game console?

The best family game console depends on the type of experience your family enjoys. Some families prefer simple controls, local multiplayer, and games that players of different ages can join quickly. Others look for co-op adventures, sports games, creative experiences, or larger online worlds they can explore together.

Families can also choose game platforms that blend digital gameplay with physical pieces and shared table play. Platforms like Board bring players together around the same surface, combining interactive games with face-to-face conversation, teamwork, and competition.

What console has the most games?

PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC all offer large game libraries across different genres. The right option usually depends on the types of games your family enjoys most.

Nintendo Switch is known for party games and local multiplayer titles. Xbox and PlayStation offer larger libraries of sports, action, co-op, and online multiplayer games.

What are some good family video games?

Popular family video games include Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Party, Nintendo Switch Sports, Minecraft, Overcooked, Just Dance, LEGO Fortnite, and Jackbox Party Pack.

Some families also prefer games built around face-to-face interaction and group play. Games on Board, including Space Rocks, Chop Chop, and Omakase, focus on shared in-room experiences instead of separate screens or side-by-side play where everyone stares at a screen rather than engaging directly.