Editor's Note (September 2023): This product review was originally written and published in 2019. To make sure we are still recommending the best products for your needs, we recently reviewed this story to make sure it is still accurate and that we stand by what we wrote. In addition to this original hands-on review, we also had the opportunity to test this product in The Lab. Thanks to its at-home and lab performance, it is still a top choice in The Best Party Games for Adults despite newer models and options being available on the market. You can also find it as a featured product in The Best Cooperative Games, The Best Board Games for College Kids, The Best Board Games, The Best Party Board Games, and The Best Two-Player Board Games. Game night is one of my family’s most treasured traditions, but with five kids and endless distractions, it’s not always easy to set aside the time. This makes it especially important to choose a board game that’s entertaining enough to keep everyone engaged. Enter Codenames, a spy-themed word game. Read on to see if the family-friendly activity was able to successfully infiltrate our game night rotation. My 9-year-old enjoyed this game quite a bit when we played on a team together or one-on-one. I’ve found that the play of this game gets sillier and, oddly, slightly faster-paced with larger groups, so adding a few younger siblings ends up making it more fun. Details: Codenames is a fun yet challenging word game that works well in groups of up to 8 or more players. On the face of it, it is a simple game yet it offers challenging gameplay and lots of entertainment.

Codenames was crowned the 2016 game of the year at the prestigious Spiel des Jahres awards in Germany. It is also rated the number 1 party game on Board Game Geek. Using the key card as a guide, the spymasters take turns giving associated one-word, one-number clues to help their teammates guess which codeword stands in for their team’s agent. (Of course, there are rules regarding what spymasters can and cannot say—and there can’t be any hints or reactions to conversation or guesses.) My kids and I found that setting up and playing this game is much easier than it sounds, and there are online videos that some may find more useful than written instructions.