Top 10 Party Games Of All Time!

[music] >> Hey, I'm Grant with Grant's Game Rex. Every month on my channel, I do a top 10 board games video list. And they are really fun to do because I love talking about board games, but they are also very stressful to do because it is impossible to narrow things down to just 10. There's so many good games out there right now.

So, this video is on my top 10 party games of all time. And legitimately, I like put all the games I considered into a spreadsheet, was thinking about where, you know, things rank and all that stuff. And my my my short list, like the list of games that came to mind for me when I was thinking about like party games I love was like 40 games.

There are like 40 different party games that I love and would be happy to play at any point. Uh and so, these are, you know, this is it narrowed down to 10 of those. Um I will say, you know, I have been doing these top 10 videos every month and I'm trying not to include the the same games on multiple lists.

So, I've already done my top 10 pocket games uh of the of all time. And so, Flip Seven is not going to be in this party games list cuz it was on my top 10 pocket games list. And I did my top 10 cooperative games. And so, uh So Clover is not going to be on this party games list cuz it was on my top uh cooperative games.

And also, The Mind was in my top um pocket games. No, my top cooperative games. I'm sure I'm I I I can't keep track of them. But, The Mind was on one of those. And so, that's not going to be on this even though So Clover and The Mind are party games that I love. Uh and, you know, along that line, Just One was a co- is a cooperative party game I love that I talked about in my top 10 cooperative games.

So, it's not here. So, these are all games that I haven't included on my uh 10 top 10 other videos. But, even though Soap Lover and Just One and The Mind and stuff are all games that I really love, I still highly recommend those games. That's not on my top 10 party games. Uh so, yeah, let's talk about these wonderful games.

I feel like this would not be a Great Game Rex top 10 unless I threw an 11th thing on there. It's kind of a bit at this point. It's so hard to narrow down to 10. So, my 11th party game of all time is the game My Favorite Things. This is a trick-taking card game, but it's really a ranking party game.

So, each player will uh pat will come up with a category. And that category could be something that's just sort of generic or something that's very personal. I have done this uh I've done categories like your favorite birds uh versus or the best cereal versus like uh ranking your So, then you pass that category to another player who actually writes down on cards their ranking of things in that category.

They'll they will write a one through five and then a uh sixth thing that is something they don't like in that. So, you know, if they're ranking cereals, I'm writing Lucky Charms number one. I'm probably going Fruit Loops number two. I'm going Oh's number three, you know? And uh what's a cereal I don't really like?

Cookie Crisp. It's too much. I don't need cookies in my cereal. Uh and so, you know, and then you're passing those cards back to the other player, and they are playing a trick-taking game where they are trying to win tricks to get cards, but you're playing cards without actually knowing what the number is.

Like, I'm playing Lucky Charms and I'm like, I hope this is the number one, but what if it's the number three? I could win this trick if I play the number one right now cuz the the lower the card, the better it is for winning a trick. Uh but it's, you know, it's mostly about the memorable moments of just like how is somebody rank stuff.

The the unexpected moments there where you're like, what? You think that's number one? Like, you know, a good party game to me is a game that creates stories and that creates memorable moments. That's why I want to play a party game for the social aspect of it. The the bonding, the the friendship of a party game.

And so, that's what My Favorite Things does. It's my number 11 partly cuz it's a little bit hard to get here in North America. Um it was done by um an Asian company. I can't remember from where. Uh but it was done by an Asian company and then somebody brought it over here, but didn't print that many and I think it's hard to get like it's it sold out and I don't know that you can get it that easily.

But if you can, you should check it out. My Favorite Things. Number 10 on the list is the newest game on this list, I think, and that is the game Hot Streak. Uh Hot Streak is a really silly, fun mascot racing game. You will be adding cards to a race deck and that's where the strategy comes in of who you want what like which cards you're adding into the shared deck.

And then also, you're betting on the mascots. You're betting on which ones will finish uh first. You're betting on other things like will two mascots fall over? You're betting on various different things. Once you've added your cards to the shared deck, once you've claimed your bets, essentially the strategy is done.

And then you just shuffle up the deck and start revealing cards and racing mascots. And then it becomes a big cheer fest. You know, you're going to break some hearts. You're going to make some people happy as the mascots race across the the board. And you know, this one again comes with you know, PEOPLE ARE LIKE, "YEAH!" Like you you can see some people get really into it.

And other people ARE LIKE, "NO, COME ON HOT DOG. Come on hot [laughter] dog." And I think it's really funny for that reason. One of the reasons also it makes the top 10 here is just the production value is really awesome. It looks so good on the table that it brings people in. This is a game I could play with people that don't play board games that much and it looks so cool that they'll get invested right from the beginning because it's like, "Oh, wow.

What's going on here?" And it's you know, it leans into the silliness for sure. Mascots are going to be running in the wrong direction or knocking other mascots over and stuff. So, kind of fits the world of mascot racing for sure. Number nine on my list is the game Phantom Ink. If I want a clever a thinky party game, I'm going Phantom Ink.

And I'll tell you a game that's not on this list right here is the game Decrypto, which again Decrypto is on my short list. I really like Decrypto, but if I'm having if I had to pick one sort of clever quiet clue giving game, Phantom Ink is probably just slightly ahead of Decrypto for me. You will split into two teams and you will be trying to get your teammates, one player on each team is going to be giving clues trying to get their teammates to guess a word.

And you can do it by you have these questions and you basically answer a question with your clue. So, So, clue is both trying to answer a question and also help people guess a hidden word. You write your clues one letter at a time, and your teammates will tell you to stop at some point. So, you might write t i, and then they say, "Stop." And then the funny thing here is like they might know the right clue, but they might have stopped it too early where you aren't saying like this clue is is tire, but they think it's time because all they saw was t i, and then the other team is giving clues as well for the same word.

You're both trying to race to get your teammates to guess the same word. And just that idea of stopping words halfway through, but still trying to give context to your teammates is really interesting and cool and and memorable for sure. Probably my number one sort of clever party game though is number eight on my list, and that is wavelength.

Uh wavelength is another clue-giving game, but it also has a very fun physical element to it. There's this big contraption, so people uh think it looks cool on the table. People want to play it. And you are giving clues for a spectrum, and you're trying to uh get your teammates to guess where the needle is on the spectrum.

And so, you know, if if the spectrum is hot to cold, if the needle's over here, you know, on the on the cold side, if it's super far on the cold side, I might say Antarctica. Uh if it's way over here, I might say the sun. But what if it's right here? It's like coffee. Like that's on the hot side, but it's not crazy hot or, you know, it's So, you have to think and come up with clever clues in order to get your teammates to be on the same wavelength as you.

Uh I'll tell you one game that's not on this uh top 10 party game list, but I still recommend a lot is That Escalated Quickly. That Escalated Quickly to me is like Social Wavelength. It is like Wavelength, but for storytelling. Instead of coming up with a you know, clever clue, you're coming up with a funny clue or a or a descriptive clue uh to get somebody to guess a number between 1 and 10 based on a scenario.

And uh you know, it really I considered it for this list for sure, and I I went with Wavelength instead partly because the physical element of Wavelength is so great and so fun to do this little screen that slides and stuff like that. But, if you want a more creative version, a story-telly version, a funny version, then check out That Escalated Quickly as well.

Number seven on my list is the game Skull. I love lying and bluffing and stuff like that. I love that in party games. I love that in regular games. I don't do it a lot in my life, which is why I think I like it the most in games. Uh and Skull to me is one of the best bluffing lying games. If I wanted a game to play like in a brewery, if I want a pub game, something like that, Skull is one of the top ones on my list for that setting, for that occasion.

On your turn, you are deciding one of two things. You're either putting a coaster down and adding to a stack of coasters, or you're bidding the number of skulls you think you can flip over without flipping over a skull. You know, everybody starts with three flowers and one skull, and so it's a lot of mind games about where you're putting your skull down, what you're bidding, where you're flipping over stuff.

And you know, this is a game I feel like when when the pandemic started, me and my roommates were playing Skull every single day. We played this so much during that time and it just is it's full of mind games and it's a lot of fun and the production value is great, too. Number six on my list is Bang the Dice Game.

This is a hidden role game that just plays quickly and is really fun. And and I will say it's Bang the Dice Game, not Bang the regular game. Bang the regular game is fine, it's fun, but it maybe has a few too many rules for what it is. Like it's a card game that gets a little bit more complicated than it needs to be.

Bang the Dice Game came afterwards and really just simplified the game. And this is like a beer and pretzels type of game and so you want it to be simple. You want it to be something where everybody can jump in really quickly. I started in board games before I was making content by hosting game nights for other comedians in Los Angeles.

I would go to game nights that my buddy hosted and then he moved out of town and then I took over and started hosting them myself. And I can tell you Bang the Dice Game was a game that got played on every single game night we ever did for years, right? So it's definitely one of my most played games of all time.

You are rolling dice, you are shooting other people at the table and you're trying to get your team to win. You have a hidden role. You are either on team sheriff if you are the sheriff or if you're the deputies, you're on team sheriff and you're trying to kill the outlaws and the renegade. If you are on the outlaw team, you are trying to kill the sheriff and if you are the renegade, you are trying to be the last person standing.

And so it's just real you're just rolling dice and shooting people and it's very fun and social. It is a game that has player elimination, but the game goes so quickly that I don't really care. Like this is a social game enough that like if you get eliminated, that's when you get up and you go grab another beer or you go grab a snack or something like that and the game takes 20 minutes.

So you're going to be back in pretty quickly. So if you like a hidden roll game or if you just want to shoot at your friends, then check out Bang the Dice Game. Number five on my list of top 10 party games of all time is Telestrations. There are a lot of great drawing games out there. There's a bunch other ones I can recommend as well.

Doodle Dash I love. Caution Signs is fun. Monstrosity is one of my favorite games, but Telestrations is the first one I played and probably always the one that I will come back to. Uh you know, Telestrations is that type of party game where there are points and I could not tell you how you score the game.

I haven't played with points in Telestrations in so long, right? There is a way to do points for them, but I don't remember what that is. This is essentially the game telephone where you're whispering a secret into someone's ear and it's going around the table and then it comes back to you and but this is that version with drawing.

So one person is going to you know, write a phrase or write something like that and then the next person is going to draw that and then the next person is going to guess what they drew and then the next person's going to draw what they guess and then the next person's going to guess what they draw. And so this is a game that I want to play with more people.

Like I would never play Telestrations with four players and I honestly would hesitate at six players. This is a game I want to play with you know, eight players, 10 players, 12 players all of the time. Uh and it just, you know, it's it's that it's those funny funny moments when people are revealing their drawings and you're like, "What?

How did you get there?" You know, how did we go from there to there? It's I've had so many memorable games of Telestrations and so many laughs playing Telestrations just seeing what people drew. And it's like, sometimes people go, "I'm not I'm not a good drawer." And I'm like, "Good. This game is funnier when you're a bad drawer.

I don't want artists in my game. I want a bunch of regular people that suck at drawing and then it's going to be hilarious cuz I am definitely somebody that is bad at drawing and it's so much fun. So, yeah, if you're looking for a drawing game, Telestrations. Number four on my list is probably the game that got me into the modern hobby more so than almost any other game and that game is Codenames.

In Codenames, you are giving clues trying to associate various different words together trying to get your teammate or teammates to guess all of your cards before the other team guesses all of their cards. And, you know, one of the things that I love about Codenames and that I still love about Codenames is I feel like it's one of the few games that adapts itself to the group that is playing it.

I have had games of Codenames that are wild and funny and hilarious and laugh filled. And I've had games of Codenames that are quiet and thinky and clever and serious, you know? And it it really is based on the people that are playing the game. And I don't know that many other games that can feel so different based on the people that are playing it and that's one of the reasons that I love it.

If you want a word association clue gave giving game, Codenames is still one of the best ones out there. Number three on my list is the game Camel Up. Talking about memorable moments, I've had so many memorable moments with Camel Up where some you bet on this one camel and then the camel running in the opposite direction picked it up and took it with him AND EVERYBODY'S LIKE, "NO, this is crazy." In the game Camel Up, you are rolling some dice, moving camels forward, and betting on which camels you think were going to win each round and win the race overall.

There are literally camels, crazy camels that run run in the wrong direction. And you know of any game on this list, it is probably the most strategic. And I'm not saying that like it's still a party game. Camel Up is still a party game. But there's a little bit more going on than some of these other games.

Like there's a little bit more components, a little bit more parts. And so, you know, know that going in. But I've had I again, if party games are about creating memorable moments, Camel Up always leave leads to some wild raucous moments of heartbreak and cheering and fun. And it's always super silly.

Like, you know, camels are literally stacking up on top of each other. How could that not be silly? Number two on my list. And I will admit when coming up with these top 10 lists, there is certainly a nostalgia factor in coming up with these lists because, you know, I mean, games connect with us emotionally.

And you know, so much of a game is is the moments that you played it and the things that you remember when you played it. And so number two for me is the game Sheriff of Nottingham, which is another game that was one of the ones that got me into games. This is a game I played a ton before I started making content, before I started doing stuff in the board game world.

Sheriff of Nottingham, and again I mentioned I love like lying and bluffing and things like that. Sheriff of Nottingham is one of the best bluffing games out there. Each round, you are loading a bag full of goods, and those could be legal goods, or those could be contraband goods, and then you are trying to get your bag past the Sheriff of Nottingham.

Uh and sometimes you want the Sheriff of Nottingham to check your bag because you have been truthful about everything in there, and then they owe you money. Sometimes you do not want them to check your bag. Sometimes you want them to check other people's bags. I have literally made deals with the Sheriff where I'm like, "I will pay you to open their bag over there." And so, you can kind of make any deals you want, and so there's there's this really fun social negotiation aspect of the game.

You definitely want to play Sheriff of Nottingham with people who want to be social, who want to bluff and lie and stuff. But, I will tell you one of the the my favorite games of Sheriff of Nottingham I've ever had was my dad won the game, and he never lied once. He just kept drawing all the perfect cards for him, and he never had to lie, and I was like, "This can't be happening.

You cannot win this game without lying." And he was like, "I can I'm I'm I'm I'm about to. I'm about to. I'm about to win this game without lying." And so, that can happen in the game, too, and it's just it's a lot of fun and very social. And my number one party game of all time is the game Green Team Wins.

I have a whole comedy show built around Green Team Wins that I do live uh at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. I love this game. It is social, it is fun. It is a game that I often times run with huge groups. The box of Green Team Wins plays 12 players, which is nice, and it's fun to play with 12 players, but I have components, and I've played a 200 version of Green Team Wins.

And all you have to do to get points is be in the majority. And there are different types of questions in the game. There are this or that questions. There are multiple choice questions. There are fill in the blank questions. And it's always so funny to see what the what different people write for stuff, you know?

Jennifer blank, are you writing Jennifer Aniston? Are you writing Jennifer Lopez? Are you writing Jennifer Garner? I've had people write Jennifer's body. They put an apostrophe on there. I had one time I had somebody in a show that I did write Jennifer's a hoe. Just really wanted people to know that they did not like a very specific Jennifer.

They weren't going to get any points, but they got it. They got people to know. They told people. They told the whole room that Jennifer was a hoe, okay? And so, I just think it's really funny. It's it's funny to like group think. It's funny to to like question yourself where you're like, I think this is the right answer, but I think this answer is going to give me points.

What what This is a moral dilemma. Do I go with my heart or do I go with what gets me points? And yeah, so come see Green Team wins live sometime. There it's just a it's a really fun social big group game. It's a game I brought to holidays and stuff like that. You know, I brought around my extended family at Thanksgiving last year.

And these are people that don't play any games at all. And they asked me to bring a game and I play and I brought this one and led, you know, our whole 15 person group in this game and everybody loved it and everybody was talking about it afterwards and stuff like that. So, it's just really fun for those types of moments.

And you know, one I didn't include on here, but it's still available is my party game, which is called I'm kind of a big deal. It's a fun game of exaggeration. So, I designed a party game that's out there. I didn't want to put it in my top 10 cuz that's a weird thing to do, but it is a fun game and I do believe in it and that one is available as well.

So, I hope you like all these party games. I hope you like this list. Thanks so much for being here. There are so many different games that I could have included here. I would love to know some of your favorite party games. Put them in the comments. You know, it's fun to celebrate all the different types of games out there and the different things that we all love.

So, thank you so much everybody. I'm Grant with Grant's Game Rex.