Often Overlooked Family Games

Family gaming has been a “thing” since I started writing about games around the time of the Wii. We all know about Minecraft, Roblox, Mario, Fortnite and FIFA. However, these are just the tip of the iceberg of games perfectly poised for you to enjoy with your family.

We’ve worked with video game website Kotaku and one of its writers, John Walker, who runs the Buried Treasure site, to unearth some games you may have overlooked for your family. Kotaku (a made-up word combining "ko" meaning small and "otaku" meaning geek) has covered specialist video news since 2005. Buried Treasure exists to highlight great, interesting, bizarre or downright silly games that you’d otherwise likely miss.

This list highlights games you may have not discovered or considered as good for your family:

• Weird: Games like Chuchel and Nuts offer a peculiar and intriguing way to discover an unusual world and story.
• Collaboration: Games like Minecraft Dungeons, Ibb and Obb, Wilmot’s Warehouse and It Takes Two offer different ways to work together to progress by playing and talking together.
• Mechanics: Games like Lonely Mountains Downhill and Boomerang X are experiences driven by learning intuitive controls. They are designed to let the player become one with the game, while also ensuring they are approachable for the newcomer.
• Emotional: Games like Alba: A Wildlife Adventure and Rainbow Billy offer new ways to share the emotional landscape of characters. These head into identity territory at the player’s pace, without being heavy-handed.
• False Start: Games like Vane or No Man’s Sky had a troubled initial release, but were either enhanced or fixed soon after. They are worth revisiting for the polished experience.
• Older Rated: Games like Overboard or Spelunky 2 are rated higher in some territories because of gambling content. These are great games to play together as a family that you may have ruled out because of the ratings.
• Impenetrable: Games like Sea of Thieves, Kingdom Two Crowns or Terraria can seem confusing and complex when you first start but persevere and you discover expansive experiences that your family will love playing together.

This list includes 17 games from the last 10 years, with 1,169 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to play unusual games with your family. We break them down into the following areas:

• Collaboration Gems
• Emotional Gems
• False Start Gems
• Impenetrable Gems
• Mechanical Gems
• Older Rated Gems
• Weird Gems