The Best Family Board Games that Test Your Memory
With our newest article about great choices for gameschooling, we’re going to focus on the memory. There are a countless number of family board games that feature memory as a key mechanic, and there’s no doubt that challenging your memory can be a very fun and rewarding mechanic. Kids often seem to enjoy games that test their memory, and that practice certainly has its benefits as well.
When I mention memory games, there’s a good chance your mind goes straight to your basic matching game - where you have to flip two matching tiles to make sets. And while we actually have quite a few of those games that our kids really enjoy, the games on this list weave the memory mechanic into the game much more creatively than that.
The funny thing about memory is that it’s very often the great equalizer in games - at least around my house. When our son was 4, memory games were fun, but they didn’t seem fair if it was a competitive game. But somewhere around the time that he turned 6, the tables quickly turned, and his memory now seems to be much sharper than my own - making memory games very interesting and legitimately competitive battles.
From a gameschooling point of view, it’s hard to argue against the academic benefits of a good memory. Not that I put much weight into traditional measures of academic success, but a good memory is probably the number one predictor of thriving in school. It’s undoubtedly useful, but you can also rest assured that the brain exercise taking place is also a lot of fun - which remains priority number one.
A lot of the games on this list also blend in fantastic storytelling, or, better yet, even encourage you to tell your own stories. Memory and storytelling really seem to go hand in hand. You know I can’t say no to a game that promotes creativity and imagination, and, when you toss in the gameschooling benefits too, it seems like a great value proposition.
You’ll find some of our favorite family games of all time on this list - games that have been on our shelves since our son was a baby - as well as new favorites of our kids that have been released just this year. Our kids are currently 4 and 7 - so that’s the general age range that we’re discussing. But we’ll still be playing most of these games for quite a while. And, quite appropriately, there’s no doubt that we’ll remember them all for a long time.
Disclosure: Some of the links in this article are affiliate links. Clicking on those links will lead you to view the games’ listings on Amazon.
10. Enchanted Forest
Published by Ravensburger and Designed by Michel Matschoss & Alex Randolph
Enchanted Forest is the biggest classic on this list, as it won the prestigious Game of the Year award back in 1982. We discovered it in our family about 35 years after that, and it’s clear why it’s so famous and beloved. The wonderful theme is classic fantasy - with objects taken out of fairy tales like those of the Brothers Grimm. And the first one to find three famous treasures for the king is the winner.
Notable for me is the fact that this is a pretty challenging memory game. This might have been the first time I noticed that our son’s memory is surpassing my own. There are so many trees on the game board hiding magical objects underneath, and it’s a great challenge to remember them all.
You can also find Enchanted Forest on our list of great board games to bring camping.
9. Dinosaur Escape
Published by Peaceable Kingdom and Designed by Shanon Lyon, Marisa Pena, & Colt Tipton-Johnson
Dinosaur Escape was one of the very first games we bought for our son when he was little, and it’s made by the beloved Peaceable Kingdom - the experts at cooperative games for little ones. The story is that there is a volcano about to explode and you all need to help the dinosaurs escape the island before it goes off.
The components in this game are a highlight for me and they help with the engagement a lot. Our kids really like the volcano puzzle that you gradually put together in the middle of the game board, and the dinosaur pieces are wonderful plastic toys that you can play with outside the game too. Memory comes into play because you have to flip over game pieces to find the matching piece for each dinosaur - but you have to move that dinosaur to the correct area before you flip it. It’s a fantastic memory game that we’ve been playing since our son was 3.
For a closer look at why we love this game and other cooperative games like it, make sure to check out our article about our favorite Peaceable Kingdom games.
8. Lumina
Published by HABA and Designed by Udo Peise & Marco Teubner
Lumina is a very well-designed competitive memory game from HABA that has the whole family on equal footing. You surround the board with cards that feature pictures of various locations, and, if you want to move your character to an adjacent space, you have to flip over the correct picture.
The reason you’re moving about the game board is to collect fireflies before your opponents. And the first one to catch so many fireflies (you can decide how long you want to make the game) is declared the winner. Nowadays even our 4-year-old daughter is better at remembering the cards than I am, so this is a great choice for family game night and for destroying dad.
7. Mia London and the Case of the 635 Scoundrels!
Published by Scorpion Masqué and Designed by Antoine Bauza & Corentin Lebrat
Mia London is a brand new game from Scorpion Masqué that was an instant hit with our son. Everyone is playing detective and trying to identify the culprit using their own personal detective manual which operates like a flip book that can build different pictures - and there are 635 different combinations to choose from.
The innovative use of the flip book makes this game stand out and is a big part of why our son likes playing so much. But it’s also a very fun and innovative challenge that takes place as well. The memory that you’re testing with this game is very short-term memory and fast visual processing. As someone flips through the cards, you have to very quickly notice which image only appears once instead of twice. For instance, if a certain hat only appears once and all the other hats appear twice, that’s the hat of the culprit. And, once again, our kids are going to dominate me with this game.
6. The Memory Palace
Published by Peaceable Kingdom and Designed by Don Ullman
The reason we love The Memory Palace so much is because it features storytelling as a very big part of the game. You build a palace full of various rooms, and, one by one, you take turns placing animals in the rooms and telling stories about what they are doing there. When you’re playing with little ones, the imagination and joy on display during this part is my favorite part.
After you’ve place all the animals, everyone has to work together to recreate all of the stories. Can you remember which room all of the animals are in as a team? The silly stories will certainly help you remember - and that’s a good lesson for memory tricks as well. As of the time of publication, this one seems to be hard to find, but I think it’s worth keeping an eye on eBay to track down.
5. Monster Chase
Published by Scorpion Masqué & IELLO and Designed by Antoine Bauza
Monster Chase has a great theme that truly engages the kids - scary monsters under the bed at nighttime. Time and time again I return to this as one of my favorite themes in the world of picture books, and now we have it in the form of a family board game as well. And one of the great things about this game is that it empowers kids to not be afraid of the monsters and to repeatedly shout “Get back in the closet, monster!”.
Both our 4-year-old and our 7-year-old absolutely love this game. From the memory challenge to the great monster art to the innovative closet that you stuff the monsters into - this one is a big winner for this. If mom or dad successfully find the right toy to chase away a monster, there’s no doubt that one of the kids will ask to stuff the monster in the closet for us. And I have to say that I’m very impressed with the difficultly settings in the game that allow you to find the appropriate challenge for your family.
4. My First Stone Age
Published by Z-Man Games and Designed by Marco Teubner
My First Stone Age is one of our most beloved games in our collection with a lot of nostalgia attached to it. This is another one of our son’s first board games, and it initially caught our eye because of the beautiful wooden components. I think it’s an incredibly visually pleasing game and I legitimately enjoy playing it just as much as the kids do.
Basically it’s a set collecting game, and you’re trying to collect the right amount of materials to build huts for your village. But in order to move around the game board you have to flip over tiles that tell you a certain number of spaces to move or a certain resource to move to and gather. They’ll also be moved around during the game so you have to pay very good attention. I love that the game features more strategy than other memory games, and I really love bringing this one out to the table.
You can also find My First Stone Age on our list of the best junior versions of board games.
3. Pick Me Up, Piggy!
Published by Peaceable Kingdom and Designed by Kim Vandenbroucke
Pick Me Up, Piggy! has long been one of our daughter’s favorite games. There are only a handful of games that she chooses to play quite often, and Pick Me Up, Piggy! is definitely one of them. When set up, it looks like an engaging and fun playset - with the little buildings and the fantastic wooden car that carries the animal friends.
There’s no doubt that driving the car around is one of our daughter’s favorite parts, but she also really loves telling the stories at the beginning of the game - and that’s my favorite part. Before starting the game, you have to randomly place one of the animals in one of the stores, and explain what they are doing there. Sometimes our daughter will talk for minutes making up her story! And, afterwards, you drive around town and try to find all 4 of your friends before you run out of gas.
Pick Me Up, Piggy! also made our lists of the best board games for 3-year-olds and for encouraging storytelling.
2. The Legend of the Wendigo
Published by Scorpion Masqué & IELLO and Designed by Christian Lemay
The Legend of the Wendigo absolutely captured the heart and imagination of our son, and also perhaps gave him a few nightmares. But he still has so much fun with it that I imagine he still considers the scary parts to be all good fun, much like how I used to devour Goosebumps books as kid. And I also readily admit that the story here is a very good one.
The story is that a monster called the Wendigo has disguised itself as a camper at a scout camp, and is stealing the children one by one. One player plays as the Wendigo, and steals one camper each night. And it’s up to everyone else playing to figure out which card is actually the Wendigo, before it’s too late. They’ll have to use their memory and pay very close attention to the board, because each night the Wendigo moves and takes the position of the kid who took away.
By decreasing the number of campers, or by giving hints each day, you can adjust the difficulty of the game quite easily. But it’s worth mentioning that our 7-year-old didn’t need any adjustments. In fact, it’s not uncommon for him to find the Wendigo on the first or second night, because his memory skills can be impressively on point.
For a closer look at why we love this game so much, make sure to check out our featured article.
1. Monsieur Carrousel
Published by LOKI and Designed by Sara Zarian
I’m obsessed with the aesthetics of this beautiful board game from LOKI. Before the game begins, you construct a gorgeous wooden carrousel, and we are all very big fans of the set up and the way the finished product looks. Don’t underestimate the effect that beautiful art and engaging components has on endearing a game to your kids.
But it’s not just a gimmick - Monsieur Carrousel backs up it’s beautiful appearance with great gameplay as well. As you place children on the carrousel, you have to work together to remember which animals they are riding on. As a team you are trying to fill the carrousel with kids before it starts raining - but forgetting which animal a kid is riding on is punishable by adding another raindrop to the board.
We love the fact that the game is cooperative, and also that you can significantly adjust the difficulty of the memory aspect of the game. That made it possible to play with our daughter when she was only 3, and also to test the memory of her mom and dad and brother as well.
If you want to read more, the beautiful Monsieur Carrousel also topped our list of the best board games for 3-year-olds.
For more gameschooling ideas, make sure to check out the following articles:
Board Games for Teaching Colors
Board Games for Teaching Shapes
Board Games for Teaching Logic
Do you have any favorite memory games in your family? Have you tried any of the family games on our list? Let us know in the comments!
