Everybody loves a good party game!

Okay, maybe not everybody but party games can be an essential part of every game shelf. 

Maybe you’re needing a way to pass the time with family at a family gathering where not everyone is a well versed gamer. Or maybe you’re hosting an evening with friends and want something unique to spice things up. Whatever the occasion, party games serve as a great way to get lots of people involved and can often be the highlight of the gathering itself. 

One great party game to play is Codenames! Codenames has been a game that has really broken through the hobby wall and found its way onto many game shelves all throughout the country.

We brought it to a family Christmas about three years ago and it was such a hit, we have been requested (required?) to bring it to nearly every gathering since!  

But much like any game, after multiple plays over the years you may be feeling like you want to add another fun group game into the rotation. If you’re looking to give yourself a little break from Codenames, we’ve got 6 great games to look into as your next hit!

Word games

At its core, Codenames is a fun word game all about making connections between seemingly unconnected words. If word games are you jam, here are a few to check out and add to your game night rotation

Banned Words: 

Whenever you buy a game, you’re always hoping it’ll be a hit. But sometimes, a game is such a hit that it takes you by surprise. This has been Banned Words for us this year. 

In Banned Words, two teams go head to head over three rounds. At the start of each round, each team gets a card showing five words or phrases that the other team will have to guess. They then have to quickly write down up to sixteen words they think someone might use while trying to get their teammates to guess the words. 

So imagine that you know the Codename cards the other player has to get their team to guess. You’ll have to think up what words you think they might use to get them to guess those words and write them down.

Those 16 words are now the secret “banned words” and if the clue giver says any of those words while they are giving clues to their teammates you and your team will score points! If the clue giver successfully gets their team to guess the word or phrase then they score points! 

Each team goes once each round, points are tallied, and then another round starts with a different clue giver for each team. Play continues for three rounds (or more depending on what your group wants to do) and the team with the most points at the end wins! 

But everyone has so much fun playing this there aren’t really any losers. We love how it takes a known classic like Taboo, and puts you in charge of the hidden element. Instead of the game telling you what you cannot say, you get to decide. Trying to think of what the clue giver might say when giving their clues and then writing those words down so they cannot say them personalizes the game and makes it a blast. Banned Words puts you in charge of having your own fun and we love it!

There’s no way you’ll stop playing after three rounds.

The Chameleon:

When a Chameleon doesn’t want to be seen, it changes its color to best blend in to its surroundings. In The Chameleon, that is exactly what one person will try to do so that no one else can figure out who they are. 

In this game you have one of two goals. If you are the Chameleon, you want to keep your identity secret while attempting to figure out the secret word. If you are not the Chameleon, you want to figure out who is without tipping them off to the secret word.

At the start of the round, a card with multiple words on it is placed in the center of the table. Players are then dealt cards that let them know if they are or are not the Chameleon. If you are, your card will simply say, You are the Chameleon. If you are not, your card will have on it a coded grid that will direct you to the one secret word on the card.

Players will then all quickly come up with one word that they will say out loud that relates to the secret word (if they know it) or what they think the secret word could be (if they’re the Chameleon). Then players will try to figure out who the Chameleon is before the Chameleon can figure out what the secret word is.

We have played many many rounds of this game and each game ends with everyone in stitches as people say the most ridiculous things! It’s not rare for those who know the secret word to come off as the Chameleon as their fellow in the know players laugh incredulously and accuse them. We rarely play this with points or scores of any kind. It’s just a fun time with friends and that is enough for us!

Concept:

Okay, so this isn’t exactly a word game, but it is a game about building connections to a word or Concept through the clever use of the game board’s iconography!

Two players will work together, choosing a word or phrase that the rest of the players need to guess. The game board is filled with a bunch of different icons that serve as tools these players can put pieces or tokens on to indicate importance and connection.

The cards have word/phrase options broken down by difficulty. The top options are easier, featuring simple concepts like types of food, animals, or objects, the middle are a bit harder, specific but well known names or places, and the bottom options offer tough challenges that will truly test both the clue givers abilities to utilize the board icons wisely and the guessers’ abilities to interpret the clues and guess the concept.

We really enjoy playing Concept whether its a large group or even just the two of us. It’s not a loud party game. It’s a fun mental challenge that we honestly rarely play as a “game.” We sometimes just get this out when we want to work together and play something where there are no winners or losers. You can easily just take turns back and forth giving and receiving clues until you’re done for the night. Its an enjoyable experience trying to get your partners thinking to line up with the concept you’ve chosen. 
If playing with younger players we highly recommend Concept Kids: Animals.

Spy/deduction games

If you dig the Spy theme and deducing the answer through clues and strategic guesses, then you’re in luck! There are a bunch of amazing games in this category it’s almost hard to narrow it down, but we did our best!

Unusual Suspects

In Unusual Suspects, one player plays as the witness who knows the identity of a shifty thief that has evaded capture for months. The other players play as the Investigation Team and will try to correctly guess the identity of the thief by listening to clues given by the Witness. 

On the table will be grid of 12 suspects, where only one is the thief known to the Witness. The Witness will be asked a series of questions such as: “Does the thief have any unpaid parking tickets?” or “Is the thief religious?” or “”Do they get along with their neighbors?” And will have to answer either yes or no based on their interpretation of what the thief looks like. 

The Investigation Team will then take that information and attempt to narrow down who the thief is by eliminating suspects who they believe do not fit the description given by the witness. The faster they are able to figure out who the suspect is, the better the scores! 

Basically you’re profiling people, but if you can get over that the game is actually a bunch of fun and always leads to a lot of laughs as everyone’s perception of others is just a bit different or, even funnier, exactly the same. There isn’t anything too raunchy or inappropriate in the questions and they are easily self editable. Don’t like a question? Don’t read it and flip a new card! 

Insider

How easily are you influenced? Can your line of thought be easily manipulated? You’ll find out in Insider. A game that deals with players attempting to discover an unknown word, while the Insider attempts to manipulate the discussion to the word without getting caught. 

Players are assigned roles at random. One player will be the “master” who will secretly select a random word from a deck of cards. The “Insider” will then secretly view the word so they know where the discussion needs to end. The other players, unsure of who the insider is, along with the Insider will then all attempt to deduce the word by asking the “master” yes or no questions. The group has a total of five minutes to arrive at the word, and the Insider, must successfully guide the discussion to this word while remaining undetected.

If the group fails to guess the word, everybody loses. However, if the word is correctly guessed in the time allotted, the “master” then flips the sand timer and the group must figure out the identity of the Insider before the sand runs out. If they are successful, they win. If they are not, the Insider wins.

One of the things we love most about this game is that its not about deceiving your friends. Look, we LOVE deception games (see next game) but also know that they aren’t for everybody. Sometimes having to be duplicitous is stressful and makes players feel uncomfortable. That’s okay! In this game, you aren’t trying to lie to your friends, you’re just trying to help them without them realizing it. We’ve played some deception games that have gotten pretty heated, but that wont be an issue in Insider. 

This game is wonderfully simple and completely addicting. You will not be disappointed.

Deception: Murder in Hong Kong

Though quite a bit different from Codenames, Deception: Murder in Hong Kong is a wildly fun large group game that will have you and your friends testing your social deduction, deception, and quick thinking abilities. 

In this game, you’ll all be playing the role of investigators trying to solve a murder case, except there’s just one problem…the killer is one of the investigators! Roles are randomly assigned to players at the start of the game. While investigators attempt to deduce the truth, the murderer and his/her team attempt to mislead the investigators without getting caught! The investigators will be helped along by the Forensic Scientist, a player who knows the solution but can only give clues to the investigators by using special scene tiles that help show investigators what is or is not important. 

The meat of this game comes from the interaction between players thats required to play. You’ll be interacting and reacting to each other and trying to deduce the truth or misdirect your friends as accusations start flying and players are put in the hot seat. 

This game plays up to 12 players and it is definitely one you’ll want to play with a big group! I feel like I must warn you though, some of the cards are a bit graphic, so it may not be suitable for kids under the PG-13 zone.

Just like how you must in Codenames find ways to connect seemingly unconnected words, the theme that ties all of these games together is the need and ability to create connections. Inside all of these games, players will have to use their wits and cleverness to build connections that either deflect their opponents or guide their team to victory. 

We see party games such as these as wonderful tools to build connections between family and friends. 

No matter what above game you choose to add to your collection, you can rest assured that you are in for many more fun evenings connecting through time shared around the table.

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