So today, at work, I met with a new kiddo who I haven’t seen in quite a long time. In order to break the ice and build a little rapport, I suggested that we choose a game from the game cupboard to play together.

In the game cupboard at work we have the usuals (Sorry, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders), and some quite odd games (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Talking/Feeling/ Thinking game, backgammon). Today we chose Chess, and I was able to actually win a slight majority of pieces over my child opponent before our time was up (yes, I am proud of that, and no I don’t let kids win…)

All of this gaming got me thinking, though, to what some of my favorite board games are. In the spirit of Make My List Monday, I thought I’d share my general opinion. For today’s purposes, I’ll break it into “favorites,” “will play if someone else wants to,” and “dreaded loathsome games.”

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Meri da Game Playa List:

Favorites:

• Scrabble– top choice, and dedicated to my Mama!
• Candyland (forever and ever)
• Twister (even though I’m now grown and sometimes pop a hip when I play)
• Yahtzee. Love love love love Yahtzee! The only numbers game on the favorites list, I bet
• Balderdash. Even if I hated this game, the sheer amount of silliness that went into this game during my childhood with my family would force me to still love it on some level.
• Catchphrase– suits my mild attention deficit issues
• Mad Gab- Especially while enjoying a tasty adult beverage.
• Taboo. Especially with a partner that “gets” you. Unstoppable.
• Chess. I’m not great at it, but I honestly love that you can get away with either chatting away while you play or being dead silent, and either way is acceptable depending on your playmate.
• Hi-Ho Cherry O. MAN I love this game! So simple, but like Candyland I just can’t get enough!
• Clue The ultimate game would be played while viewing the delicious cult classic film version. Anyone want to have a Clue party?
• Pictionary: This game is so money and it doesn’t even know it. Well, maybe it knows it, but it is da bomb.
• Trivial Pursuit. Yes, I get absolute pleasure out of having a ridiculous amount of trivial knowledge. I don’t even need to keep score with pies, I just like the satisfaction of being a know it all. At least I admit it.

Do we have to? 

• Checkers. Kind of dull for my taste
• Chutes and Ladders– ditto
• Boggle– I should love this, since its a word game, but its not actually that… challenging. So I would choose Scrabble or another word nerd game any day.
• Pretty Pretty Princess. If there were even one actual rule to this game, I might like it more. The jewels can be fun.
• Monopoly. I’ll play it, but I think we all agree this game needs a way to officially end in 20-30 minutes instead of taking all month long.
• Hungry Hungry Hippos. Sure, its benign and all. But its also pretty noisy.

Bringing out the bad sport in Meri:

• Racko. Awful. Numbers in general? not my favorite. Combined with trying to keep things in order? fail.
• Mousetrap. Did anyone actually ever play this godforsaken game or just lose their mind trying to set the stupid thing up?
• Cranium– I nearly blew out my cranium trying to read through the exhaustive directions for this one. Can’t we just keep it simple?
• Operation- That noise. That NOISE!!!
• Life. I’d rather not have to think like a grown up when I’m playing a game for crying out loud

So tell me- what’s your favorite board game? Which ones turn you into a bad sport?

Meri