๐ŸŽฒCoolFamilyGames
๐ŸŒ

Games from around the world

Real traditional games, built from their own rules rather than reskinned checkers. 18 games from 16 countries and cultures, free to play against the computer or a live opponent.

Africaยท 3 games

Oware GhanaLiveThe Akan mancala, played across Ghana and carried to the Caribbean.Yote SenegalLiveA war game of Senegal and Mali, played in holes scooped from the sand.Morabaraba South AfricaLiveThe twelve men's morris of South Africa, Lesotho and Botswana, played with cows.

Asiaยท 8 games

Dou Shou Qi ChinaLiveThe Chinese jungle game, known in the West as Animal Chess.Chess IndiaLiveDescended from chaturanga in India, reshaped in Persia and then Europe.Snakes and Ladders IndiaMoksha Patam, an Indian game of virtues and vices, brought to Britain by the Victorians.Ludo IndiaThe Victorian edition of Pachisi, played across India for well over a thousand years.Gomoku JapanLiveFive in a row on a Go board, played in Japan for centuries as gomokunarabe.Bagh-Chal NepalLiveNepal's tigers-and-goats hunt game, where the two sides play by different rules.304 Card Game Sri LankaA trick-taking card game of Sri Lanka and South India, played in partnerships.O An Quan VietnamLiveDrawn in chalk on pavements all over Vietnam, with half circles for the mandarins.

Europeยท 4 games

Reversi EnglandLiveInvented in England in the 1880s, later standardised in Japan as Othello.Dots & Boxes FranceLivePublished by the mathematician ร‰douard Lucas in 1889 as la pipopipette.Chinese Checkers GermanyInvented in 1892 as Stern-Halma - the Chinese name was a 1920s marketing idea.Hnefatafl ScandinaviaLiveThe Viking king's table, played from Ireland to Ukraine before chess arrived.

Oceaniaยท 2 games

Mu Torere Aotearoa New ZealandLiveThe Mฤori star game, associated with the Ngฤti Porou of the east coast.Konane HawaiiLiveHawaiian checkers, played on stone boards with lava and coral pebbles.

Americasยท 1 game

Connect Four United StatesLiveReleased by Milton Bradley in 1974 and a family staple ever since.

Only games with a documented origin are listed here. Plenty of the others on this site are folk games with no single birthplace, or modern party formats with no country at all, so they are left off rather than given an invented flag.

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