Carefully laid strategies and perfect dice rolls can be a big part of what makes board games fun. Not to mention the fact that they are usually a relaxing experience with friends sitting down at the table. But what about players looking for something with slightly more physical activity?
Dexterity board games have been a unique mainstay of board gaming since Tiddlywinks was released all the way back in 1888. They can be a great way to add a bit of physical skill to an otherwise thinky-styled hobby. Here are some of the best dexterity games for tabletop fans wanting to try out something in the genre.
ICECOOL + ICECOOL 2
Flicking penguins has never been so fun! ICECOOL and its sequel ICECOOL 2 are both incredibly similar with players flicking around penguins through a frozen school. Some players want to collect fish, while one hall monitor wants to catch the penguins in the action. The best part is that when the boards of both games are combined, players can manage massive 8 player games!
Flick Em’ Up!
Who has the sharpest flick in the west? Flick em’ Up is a western-style game that has players as either outlaws or a sheriff trying to protect the city. The game has built-in scenarios for players to enjoy but is also highly customizable for those with a bit of creativity. As it can play up to 10 players, it’s a great choice for those with larger groups at board game night.
Tumblin-Dice
Rolling dice is easy, but aiming them to land in specific spaces with high numbers is much harder! Tumblin-Dice has an incredibly unique board that has multiple tiers of height. Players have to roll their dice to specific areas to score the most points while hoping they roll high. It sounds simple but has much more strategy than appears on the surface.
Rhino Hero (Series)
There are several Rhino Hero games out there but most tabletop gamers agree that Rhino Hero: Super Battle is the best. The games in general have players stacking up various cards to create a house. The cards are in different shapes and sizes, some of them folded even. This can make for quite an unbalanced tower players don’t want to knock down!
FUSE
FUSE puts players in the high-stakes situation of defusing a bomb! Players have to try and get the correct dice combinations while working together to try and avoid the bomb blowing up. Players are either one heck of a good Bomb Defusal Team or left as smithereens depending on their teamwork and luck of the dice.
Escape: The Curse Of The Temple
Escape: The Curse Of The Temple isn’t like most dexterity games on this list, simply because every single player is taking their turn at the exact same time. Talk about chaotic! But seriously, if a temple was collapsing and you needed to get out of it, you’d be moving fast too right? Luckily, it only plays up to five players so the chaos is slightly contained.
Junk Art
Junk Art is incredibly unique as a stacking game, charging players with taking various oddly shaped blocks in their possession to make beautiful “junk art.” They’ll have to take on different challenges, trying to get the most points from “art judges” along the way. Of course, if blocks fall off the piece of art, it might just be considered junk instead of art.
PitchCar
PitchCar has an enormous amount of expansions, so players that like it will always have more to add. Players create a race track using wooden roads and have to try and send their special car down them. Players will need to flick as hard as they can at some points, and with careful precision to get around turns at others.
KLASK
Anyone who loves magnetics will absolutely adore KLASK. Players have to navigate their small disk across what looks like a mini sports field using a magnetic rod underneath the board. The catch? There are many magnetic obstacles in the way to avoid! If players can get their piece into the opponent’s goal, they can score the points they need to win the game.
Crokinole
Crokinole boards are notoriously expensive but no one that has bought one has ever regretted it. The game is extremely simple on the surface, flick pieces into the right zones to score the most points. But strategy in the game is surprisingly deep as well as the various ways the pieces can move if flicked just right. This is the kind of game players sit down to only to find themselves having player ten or more rounds by the end of the night.
