Card games are a brilliant way to enjoy spending time together, handy to have in your bag if you go out & about or while waiting for food to arrive in a restaurant. They are also great for teaching children lots of skills without them realising – from maths to strategy to winning and losing!
There are some great local toy shops that offer a great range of toys & games for your family in Wharfedale & Craven. Please do all you can to support our local shops.
Here is our round-up of some really fun card games, why not give a new card game a go?
Dobble is a quick-thinking card game that comes in a handy tin. Each card features eight different symbols and any two cards have exactly one symbol in common. There are five variations of the game you can play.
There are also themed versions available including Harry Potter and a waterproof version – handy for the beach!
🧒Age range: 6+
⏰ Length of game: 5 – 15 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-8
💷Price: From £9.75
This is a (much!) quicker and more portable version of Monopoly, where you can play the game in just 20 minutes. You need to collect three property sets to win the game, but you also get to steal from your opponents. You can charge rent, swap cards, demand money for your birthday and much more.
A fun, fast-paced card game, perfect for Monopoly lovers.
🧒 Age range: 8+
⏰ Length of game: 20 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-5
💷 Price: From £8.99
In this crazy cat-themed card game you get to swap cat cards. There are 25 hilarious cat celebrity cards included in each set. It’s easy to play and learn as all you need to do is collect sets of four identical cards.
Not only is it simple to pick up and learn, but it’s also difficult to put down as it’s such fun.
🧒 Age range: 8+
⏰ Length of game: 5-20 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-8
💷 Price: From £7.99
The object of this very funny strategic card game is to become Lord of the Goats. To achieve this mighty title, you need to have the biggest herd of goats by the end of the game. Different goats have different point values and you’ll need to fight your opponents for the highest value goats.
There are plenty of action cards to help you along the way including Magical Flower Goatees, Atomic Goats and Escape Goats!
🧒 Age range: 7+
⏰ Length of game: 30 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-6
💷 Price: From £16.99
Very much like a version of Uno but with a pack of playing cards. Each play is dealt seven cards and the remainder become the draw pile and the top card is turned face up becoming the discard pile. Each play adds to the discard pile by playing one card that matches the top car by suit or rank. The first player to discard all their cards wins!
View the full version of the rules here.
🧒 Age range: 5+
⏰ Length of game: 10-30 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-4
💷 Price: From £2.99
Another fun card game, great for younger children. After you’ve dealt the cards one player asks another player if they have a certain rank of card, eg any eights. If they do they must hand them all over. If they don’t they say ‘go fish’ and take any card from the pool. Once you have all four suits of the same rank of card, you place them in front of you. The game is over when one player runs out of cards and the winner is whoever has the most sets in front of them.
There are plenty of variations of this game and all you need is a pack of playing cards!
🧒 Age range: 4+
⏰ Length of game: 10 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-6
💷 Price: From £2.99
This is a challenging game where you need to work together to launch a firework display. However, you can’t see your own cards but all the other players can. They must provide important information and remember everything they are told. By helping each other play the right cards and the right time means you’ll have a great display and avoid being booed by the audience.
Hanabi is the Japanese word for fireworks by the way!
🧒 Age range: 8+
⏰ Length of game: 25 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-5
💷 Price: From £12.99
This fun game involves cards and dice. Each player starts with six dice of one colour and three target cards laid face up on the table. Players take it in turns to roll all of their dice not already on cards and then place any dice that match the targets on the corresponding cards.
The first player to get forty or more points wins!
🧒 Age range: 8+
⏰ Length of game: 30 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-4
💷 Price: From £17.95
To win this game you need to get the lowest score. You need to remember the numbers on other players cards. You need to keep a poker face when you look at your cards, the notice if another player looks pleased.
A great game to sharpen your memory!
🧒 Age range: 6+
⏰ Length of game: 10 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-6
💷 Price: From £11.49
You need to help Sherlock to seek out the culprits and use clues to find the accomplice of Moriarty. In each turn, you get to observe six suspects and use your deductive skills to expose the culprit and win the round.
It’s a face-paced game where everyone is suspect until proven innocent!
🧒 Age range: 7+
⏰ Length of game: 10 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 3-10
💷 Price: From £12.47
In this game, you take on the role of a dwarf! They are miners hunting for gold which you need to try and find. After three rounds, the player with the most gold is the winner.
You might be a miner or saboteur. The roles are kept secret and are only revealed at the end of the round!
🧒 Age range: 8+
⏰Length of game: 30 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-6
💷 Price: From £13.99
This fast-paced card game is like eating at a sushi restaurant and trying to grab the best combination of sushi dishes. You get different points based on what you collect and if you dip it into some wasabi you’ll triple its value.
You also need to collect pudding cards as they add extra points right at the end of the game.
🧒 Age range: 7+
⏰ Length of game: 15 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-5
💷 Price: From £12.99
This game is brilliant for developing memory, strategy and maths skills. The Pancake Queen, Ladybug Queen and ten of the friends have fallen under a sleeping spell and you need to wake them up. Play a knight to steal a queen or use a juggling jester.
The player who wakes the most queens wins!
🧒 Age range: 8+
⏰ Length of game: 20 minutes
👨👩👧👦 Number of players: 2-5
💷 Price: From £11.09
🃏💜🃏We hope you enjoy playing some of these games together as a family. Let us know in the comments if you have any recommendations we can add to our list. 🃏💜🃏
