Our Favorite Express Games

Smaller and Quicker Versions of Popular Games

Some of our favorite board games are the hardest ones to get to the table. With seven kids and a busy schedule, hour-plus games with long setups just don’t always fit into a weeknight.

That’s why we love it when our favorite games come out with express versions: smaller boxes, quicker play, and condensed rules that still keep the heart of the original.

What Makes an Express Game?

Pocket and express versions usually have a few things in common:

Shorter playtime. Most finish in under 30 minutes, so you can actually play them on a weeknight.
Simpler rules. Fewer exceptions and a faster teach make them easier to get to the table, especially with younger kids or new players.
Smaller boxes. Shelf space is always at a premium, and a small box is easy to take on the road.
Lower price. They’re a great way to try a game, especially if you’ve never played the original, before investing in the bigger version.

Our family loves playing these “express ” or “family” games and reviewed many of them. Here is a list of our current favorites.

Quick Picks

Best Overall Pick: Wingspan Pocket
Best Co-Op Pick: Mysterium Park
Best Roll-and-Write Pick: Long Shot the Dice Game
Best Version to replace the Original: 7 Wonders Architects
Best Thematic Game: Thunder Road: Ignition

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Our Top “Express” Games

Wingspan Pocket

Wingspan Pocket gives you everything we love about Wingspan in about 30 minutes. You still get that satisfying moment when your birds start working together, but with a smaller box, easy to understand icons for the powers, and a much faster setup. It’s easy to teach, easy to pack, and short enough to squeeze in after dinner on a school night. Our favorite way to play Wingspan.

Mysterium Park

Mysterium is a cooperative deduction game (everyone works together to solve a mystery) with beautiful illustrated cards, but the original was a little fiddly to set up and learn. Mysterium Park cleans that up so well that it’s now our preferred way to play.

We love the mystery of it. One player is a ghost who gives picture clues, and everyone else works together as psychics to crack the case. Think of it as a deduction game mixed with Dixit, a party game where you match artwork to clues. It leads to really clever plays and hilarious moments, and it’s a fun cooperative party game that plays in about 30 minutes.

Long Shot: The Dice Game

I almost left this one off the list because it has surpassed the original. I nearly forgot it was an express version! It’s an amazing roll-and-write (a style of game where you roll dice and mark your choices on a score sheet) about horse racing, where you bet on which horses will win. It plays great with up to eight people, but I also love playing it solo. If the theme interests you at all and you like rolling dice, this is a great pick.

7 Wonders Architects

7 Wonders is a great card-drafting game (drafting games feature players taking turns picking cards from a shared selection), and it has several quicker spin-offs: 7 Wonders Dice, a roll-and-write version and 7 Wonders Duel. But the one truest to the original is 7 Wonders Architects.

It streamlines the process of choosing cards and building your wonder so smoothly that we can easily play it with our 5-year-old in under 30 minutes. It’s our favorite way to play 7 Wonders, and it’s our go-to even when we have more time.

Thunder Road: Ignition

We love playing Thunder Road: Vendetta, a post-apocalyptic car combat game, but with my boys, it was a bit too complicated to remember all the different crash effects, like what happens when you slam into another car. It also had player elimination (getting knocked out of the game), which could take them out very early in what could be an hour plus long game.

Thunder Road: Ignition fixes all of that. You’re simply racing to the end of the map. All the explosions and chaos from the original are still there, but if your car gets wrecked, you just respawn at a previous checkpoint. Everyone’s in it until the very explosive end.

Monopoly Deal

Ask me to play Monopoly, and I’ll pass. Ask me to play Monopoly Deal, and I’m there. This card game plays so quickly. You still get all the fun of collecting and swapping properties, but it’s short enough that no one wants to rage quit by the end.

Pandemic Hot Zone

All the teamwork and tension of Pandemic in about 30 minutes. Smaller map, fewer diseases, same “we have to save the world together” fun. We even have a full review for Pandemic Hot Zone.
This is 100% the same game, just condensed in size and playtime.

Ticket to Ride New York

All the route-building fun of Ticket to Ride, squeezed into about 15 minutes. In Ticket to Ride: New York you trade your trains for taxis, claiming routes around Manhattan to hit famous spots. It’s easy to learn, quick to set up, and fits on almost any table, which makes it a perfect warm-up game or a fast after-dinner pick. We played this one a ton when our kids felt too big for Ticket to Ride First Journey, but not ready for the original.