Top Five Party Board Games

The history of board games could literally be traced back to the Stone Age, where people would use bones and stones as currency and markers to bet against each other's skills and knowledge. The concept of board games has developed through time as games of strategy - such as chess and its offshoot, checkers - and for recreation and betting - like backgammon and Chinese Checkers.

The modern era of party board games is usually accredited to the board game Monopoly, which was introduced in 1935.The variety of board games for parties available today is staggering, which proves that the concept of party games will undoubtedly never go away. Here are the five most popular party board games being played today.

One favorite for many years in party games has been Trivial Pursuit, most likely because there are so many versions which cover specific areas of knowledge to entertain any type of gathering. The idea, of course, is to draw question cards from a category and try to guess the answer, moving the game piece ahead and collecting wedges to win. The whole gamut of Trivial Pursuit board games can be found at boardgamecentral.com

Another popular choice in party games is based on the television show "Family Feud". This genre of board games for parties pits teams of players against each other, which is ideal in gatherings. The object is to guess answers based on what a survey of respondents would say, which adds to the challenge. Players can pass, play, and even steal points by outwitting the opponents. There is an online version available at iwin.com

Party games for the younger set have been influenced by animation characters to a great extent. One of the most popular characters of these party board games is Sponge Bob Square Pants, and there is a whole host of classic board games adapted to include Sponge Bob. The classic game Operation, where players try to remove "organs" from a body has been changed to have Sponge Bob be the patient. The variety of Sponge Bob party board games can be found at areyougame.com

Another popular animation character is Dora the Explorer, the Nickelodeon star. Dora and her pal Boots go on a Treasure Quest, one of the many Dora party games. This is a creative game for youngsters, because they can create different scenes during the treasure hunt with stick-on figures and play pieces. The Dora board games for parties can be found at shop.nickjr.com

Board games for parties can be hard to choose sometimes, but Apples to Apples is one that can be played by any age, adults included. There are two decks of cards, Things and Descriptions. A referee chooses a Description card, and the players try to get as close as they can with the Things cards in their hands. The player or team who has the closest Thing card wins the hand. This game is available at boardgamegeek.com